The Fires of Vengeance (The Burning, #2)

by Evan Winter

“What are you talking about?” “I can smile and talk as sweet as cane sugar. I can follow every rule you’ll ever make, and it will never be good enough for people like you, because people like you don’t see me as people,” Tau said, pulling a handspan of black dragon scale free from its scabbard. “Has this thing gone mad?” Otobong asked, backing away. “General, that is our champion to whom you speak,” the queen said.

“Rage is love . . . twisted in on itself,”

“Rage reaches into the world when we can no longer contain the hurt of being treated as if our life and loves do not matter. Rage, and its consequences, are what we get when the world refuses to change for anything less.”

“If your ideas hold merit, they’ll win out in spite of your person.” “Yes, that’s the lie everyone unaffected by hidden hardships believes.”

“A choice between woe and wrath?” “Yes, Champion.” “And do you know what I’ll choose, Grand General Buhari, when given such a choice?” “Wrath, Champion,” Hadith said quietly. “You’ll choose wrath.”

“How highly must one think of themselves to believe that they are the difference in a battle of thousands?” “You mistake me, Priestess,” Tau said. “I don’t believe that I’m the difference that matters, but I am the only difference I get to control. So I’ll fight, because it’s the only principled choice I can make, and doing anything less is the same as an acceptance of defeat and the admission that it’s deserved.”