In Mercy, Rain (Wayward Children, #7.5)

by Seanan McGuire

Weakness is always easier to perceive from the outside, and every good predator knows how to pick out the most vulnerable members of a herd.

Her kindness was as intrinsic to her as her loveliness, if not more so, for beauty can be spoilt, can change with the times, but kindness is eternal.

“The balance,” she said. “A vampire hunts us in the night, and our survival hinges on the patience and charity of a man everyone refers to as ‘mad.’ If there was ever balance in these Moors, it died long before either of us was born.”

The idea that some parents couldn’t love their own children was too foreign to her, too impossible and unwanted, and so she pushed it away, refusing to consider it further.

“Who told you that there’s only room for one person inside a story?” Alexis demanded. “That isn’t true. That’s never been true. You don’t have to take things away from others if you want to have them for yourself! You have a heart, don’t you?”

There was still rain. There was still laughter. Sometimes, that can be enough.