Redemptor (Raybearer, #2)

by Jordan Ifueko

That made it all right—didn’t it? Sacrifice of the few for the many . . . I shivered, hating the cursed arithmetic of empresses.

My family missed the love-starved girl from Swana. The one who worshipped her friends, and whose anger could be cooled with a kiss. They missed the tree in its gilded pot. The girl so afraid of herself, and so grateful for a family, the world could burn to ash, and she would smile and call it paradise.

No human being should be reduced to a function. The day we do that—it’s the beginning of the end.”

You don’t get to choose why people love you. But what you do with the love you receive . . . that’s a choice you make every day.”