Dark Age (Red Rising Saga #5)

by Pierce Brown

All this time I held a mild disdain for him, because I thought my approval was all that mattered to the man. But he believes in the Rising. I see it now, just as I saw this moment coming. The moment I must choose to spend his life. But he has surprised me by choosing to spend it himself. I could not be prouder of the man. He has become what Lorn should have been.

I knew war was dreadful, but I did not expect to fear it. How can anyone not, when death is just a blind giant with scissors?

“Unless you got a cloak, he ain’t your pack. He’s been mine since I was sixteen. You’ve got a battle to finish, sir.” Harnassus walks up to him and sticks a finger in his face. “Get him inside somewhere and keep that man alive.” “Man?” Screwface laughs. “Hic est Lupus, motherfucker.”

Matter, how tiny my share Time, how brief my allotment Fate, how small my roll to play Self, all that can be mastered

“Hey, kid. Thanks for bringing back my cloak.”

The joy we had is no lesser for having ended in horror. It is not gone, as I thought it was. It is here. In these moments that are larger than the world itself. They were alive. They lived. They were loved.

“What does Mars mean to you, Nakamura?” I ask. The Terran hesitates. “Hope. And you, my liege?” “War.” I turn on a heel for the hangar.

“If we cannot engineer salvation for our men, then vengeance will suffice,” Victra says.