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the world full of too much pleasure and joy to waste that life by hiding safely away.
“When you’re protecting yourself, or someone else, from harm,” I said. “When someone wants to hurt you or someone who can’t defend themselves—and when the rightful authority can’t or won’t protect you.” “But you have to hurt people to win a fight. And that isn’t right.” “No,” I said. “It isn’t. But sometimes it is necessary.”
“Whenever you’ve got a choice, do good, kiddo. It isn’t always fun or easy, but in the long run it makes your life better.”
“Sometimes you have to give weight to a principle to keep it from being taken away in a storm.”
Harry told me once that you can always tell when you’re about to rationalize your way to a bad decision. It’s when you start using phrases such as It would be wrong, but . . . His advice was to leave the conjunction out of the sentence: It would be wrong. Period.
Harry had once told me that when you had one problem, you had a problem. But when you had several problems, you might also have several solutions.
Harry Dresden has had a horrible influence on far too many people, and has much to answer for. “Okay,” he said mildly. “Miss, would
you had one problem, you had a problem. But if you had multiple problems, you might also have an opportunity.
“Dammit, man. I’m a Faerie Princess, not a forensic analyst.”
That gave me just under sixteen hours to do what wizards do best. I left, and began meddling.
“You know who I am. You know what I can do. Let her go.” She rolled her eyes and spun a finger through fine, straight black hair. “Why should I?” “Because you know what happened the last time some vampires abducted a little girl and I decided to take her back.” Her smile faltered slightly. As it should have. When the bloodsucking Red Court had taken my daughter, I took her back—and murdered every single one of them in the process. The entire species. I’m not a halfway kind of person.
At the end of the day, the greatest power Harry has is in lifting up the people around him.
“When the Almighty speaks to men, He always does it in voices they can understand,”
Could God, with all the majesty of the universe at his disposal, with the uncounted myriad of life forms to look after throughout practically uncountable galaxies, really be all that interested in one little drug addict? One little medical examiner, playing at being a hero? Answer that question with a yes or a no, and tell me which is the more terrifying. I’m not sure I can.
“Butters,” he said. “Look. I know it’s hard. But there’s one way you deal with fear.” “How?” I asked him. “You stand up and you kick it in the fucking teeth,”
“You’ve forgotten the most important thing a Knight needs to remember, Butters.” “What’s that?” I breathed. “Knights of the Cross aren’t afraid of monsters,” he said. “Monsters are afraid of you. Act like it. Commit to it, hard. And have faith.”
“If someone needs your help, you help them,” Maggie said simply. “Even when it’s really hard.
“First lesson,” I said. I took a couple of steps back from the kid and peered around the thick greenery, relying more on my wizard’s senses than on sight or hearing. “Running away from your problems rarely gets them solved.”
That was the right thing. Even though it would be really scary.
But feeling true isn’t the same as being true. In fact, feelings don’t have very much to do with the truth at all.
MY NAME IS Mouse and I am a Good Dog. Everyone says so.
You humans have the potential to be the most wonderful beings there are—if you can get past all these enormous stupid spots you seem to have in your hearts. It’s not your fault. You just don’t know how to work your hearts right yet. That’s why there are dogs.
You are, too. That’s okay. Just get a dog. Dogs can teach you all kinds of things about your heart.
Nothing is truly safe in this world—and that being the case, why worry about threats that have not yet appeared? Far wiser to make what preparations one could, face trouble as it arose, and be happy in the meantime. That might be the saddest part of human heart-stupidity: how much happiness you simply leave aside so that you have enough time to worry.
Evil left unconfronted only grows stronger.
When it comes to fighting, I tend to cheat wherever possible.
“Survival isn’t enough,” I said. “I wish to live.
“The question is whether you believe me. The question is whether I am truly willing to sacrifice my life so that she may have hers.” I rose and shook out my mane, causing motes of bright energy to fall like tiny stars. “I love that child. And if you take one step closer, I will gladly die to rip out your guts with my teeth.”
