Shadow Scale (Seraphina, #2)

by Rachel Hartman

The twin gods, Necessity and Chance, walked among the stars. What needed to be, was; what might be, sometimes was.”

But it’s a reactive stance, answering aggression with aggression.”

We all leaned in. Surely this was why she’d come back. But she scratched her chin and said nothing. “Which is what, exactly?” I prompted, as designated dragon-prodder.

I love these small bursts of humor

“But do not make the mistake, Seraphina, of supposing that suffering ennobles anyone.

I’d never heard Goreddis claim that St. Abaster had smote her, but then, we weren’t as into smiting as our neighbors, it seemed.

I racked my brains for the Porphyrian verb Abdo had taught me, a polite inquiry that didn’t even exist in the Southlands. “How may I pronoun you?” I hazarded.

I couldn’t get near her perch, alas, and she did not deign to approach me. It occurred to me that my best chance to meet her might be to commit a crime. Of course, I never seriously entertained the notion; Kiggs and Glisselda would have been mortified.

We sat upon a cool stone bench, leaving a gap wide enough for fat Propriety to squeeze between us. Propriety. If Goreddis made allegorical statues, she’d be the first we’d carve.

Ikat shook her head. “The Porphyrians have laws against harming children.” “What harm?” cried Comonot. “My mother bit me every day for thirty years.”

Comonot’s eyes flicked from my face to the prince’s. “I will see you both in Goredd, then, when I clasp your hands across the smoking ashes of my enemies.” “Isn’t that what you’re hoping to avoid by sneaking up the Omiga?” Kiggs said. Comonot considered. “Yes, but I liked the sound of those words. Interesting.”

Comonot trying to be cool is the best running gag

There was more to her than I had guessed. For the first time it occurred to me that she was quite well suited to my uncle.

We produced the most unholy cacophony, like fighting tomcats or the blast furnaces of the Infernum. The music brought tears to my eyes, not because it was teeth-grindingly dissonant but because they were all so swept up by it.

He began coughing again and couldn’t seem to stop. Eskar rushed to the archivist, knocked him onto his side, and jumped on top of him. “She’s trying to clear his airways by forcing his diaphragm to contract,” said Comonot at my shoulder. “Don’t be frightened. It’s very effective.” I drew him away from the violence in the corner.

This was where I stopped and laughed so much my stomach hurt. Just imagine this scene! Eskar rushing to help an enemy and Seraphina being horrified by what looks like an attack but is actually like first aid for dragons.

General Zira was a canny old female, small but with great presence. Something in her gaze must have reminded the hatchlings of their own mothers; they flattened themselves submissively.

Her face had become a mask. “This is my war. All sides will destroy each other, and those who survive will be ours. We shall rule them with justice and mercy, and we shall finally be free. I have ordained it.”

And then I understood why she’d been the first to flee the breakfast table; why she cared more about whether I loved Lucian than whether Lucian loved me; why she’d always been so happy to hear from me, whatever else was happening. I understood something about myself as well, even if I didn’t have the will to examine it just then.

Does this mean that Seraphina is bi??!!!!

Persuading them wasn’t the point—although it was galling that there seemed to be so many good reasons to blame me for everything.

He had told me he’d never stopped growing. He’d meant it literally. What had I been addressing all these years? His finger?

We three knew what we were to each other; we would plan and negotiate and build our own way forward, and it was nobody’s business but ours.

Does this mean they ended up as a poly relationship?!