Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel, #3)

by T. Kingfisher

“Well, if you want my professional opinion, this great goddamn hole in his chest is probably what killed him.”

The one advantage police had over paladins was that guards had no problem believing that someone would randomly shove pointy logs into other people. Paladins generally took a little longer to get there. Piper suspected that their sense of innocence and moral outrage kept regrowing, possibly through divine means.

Generally it takes longer for me to make a fool of myself in front of good-looking men. I’m getting more efficient.

they act as if you are a fool or a god, and honestly, sometimes you feel like both.

when the doctor bit the index finger of his glove to pull it off, Galen had briefly lost the power of speech. The slide of leather over skin, barely audible, made him want to howl like a dog.

The thing that no one warned you about insanity was how incredibly tedious it was. You were always having to explain yourself and apologize, over and over, and you got so tired of being crazy.

Once a thing is made, it exists in the mind of the world. The next one is easier to make, and the next one after that.”

All I want in life is to have a sexy man make passionate love to me, eat a nice meal together, and then I’ll leave to go chop up corpses. Is that really so much to ask?

“It’s a noble sentiment, but you can’t ask people to pour themselves out for something that doesn’t care and can’t be fixed and at the end they’re empty and nothing changes.”

Maybe a hero is just what we call someone who doesn’t have the sense to stop before they destroy themselves.”

Part of him wanted to start all over again. Another, rather larger part, pointed out that he was middle-aged and that it had been a dismally long day, with only an hour of disturbed sleep earlier. The spirit was willing, but the spongiform erectile tissue was weak.

Oh gods and saints, thought Galen, I’ve got to let him go.

Eventually, he went to prayer and the bottle, the two great comforters of humanity since the discovery of gods and yeasts.

Galen started to say that he didn’t believe in redemption, and then Piper took his hand and he realized that he hoped quite desperately that redemption was possible. At least for some of us.

And suddenly Piper knew what it felt like when a god died.