Staked (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #8)

by Kevin Hearne

I do not know if it will ever be enough to pay for what I did—guilt is a heavy burden. When a man leaps into the fire, how many steps must he take to walk out of it?

I wondered why people who believed in the next life were so anxious to start living it instead of enjoying the one they had.

“The true nature of our divination cloak is really a blessing bestowed upon you by the Zoryas. With their help, we are going to hide you from the second sight, the third eye, the fourth horseman, the fifth element, the sixth sense, the seventh son, and all other seers, deities, and methods of extrasensory perception.”

Remember Cymbeline? Plenty and peace breed cowards—” “And hardness ever of hardiness is mother. Of course I remember it.

But the idea is the same: Ye remember the fallen and share why they were important to ye and give what comfort ye can to the family, even if it’s fecking useless and your words can’t possibly mend the hole torn open in their world and the yawning abyss of the future without their loved one. People still need to know that ye would fix everything if ye could.

Few things shape our lives so strongly as guilt.

What I should be doing was the same thing everyone should be doing: enjoying the blessings I have while I have them, instead of worrying that one day they will be gone.