Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World Book 1)

by Rebecca Roanhorse

But I’m no hero. I’m more of a last resort, a scorched-earth policy. I’m the person you hire when the heroes have already come home in body bags.

There is a beauty here, a calmness that I savor. I will savor the bloodshed, too, no doubt, but this balance between earth and animal and self feels right. Feels true.

“Words matter,” he says. “The name you give things, it forms them when you speak. You must always be careful with your words.”