One Word Kill (Impossible Times, #1)

by Mark Lawrence

All of us have a shell, a skin between us and the world that we have to break each time we speak to it. Sometimes I wished mine were thinner.

Walking along in the cold night it occurred to me that, in the great multitude of humanity, creatures like Ian Rust were like the cancer cells among the crush of blood cells in my veins. Rare, but requiring only one to begin to pollute everything around them. Because ugliness multiplies, and hurt spills over into hurt, and sometimes good things are just the fuel for evil’s fire.