Kiersten White

She swung her fist at Nicolae__ head. He raised an arm to block the blow, and she delivered a killing stab with her wooden dagger.Nicolae laughed, staggering dramatically to the ground. __ead, again, at the hands of the ugliest girl in creation._ He stuck out his tongue, face contorted in a grimace.Lada kicked him in the stomach. __ am no girl. Who is next?__he other Janissaries, gathered in a loose circle around Lada and Nicolae, shuffled their feet and avoided eye contact. Nicolae pushed himself up on an elbow. __eally? Cowards!___ still have bruises from the last time.___ cannot sit without pain.___he fights dirty.__van did not even respond, having never forgiven Lada for besting him when they were introduced. He refused to fight her and rarely acknowledged her presence.Lada laughed, showing all her sharp teeth. __ecause when you are on the battlefield, honor will mean so much. You will die with a blade between your ribs, secure in the knowledge that you fought with manners._ She picked up her dull practice sword, abandoned on the edge of the circle, and swung it through the air, sweeping it across the line of the Janissaries_ collective throats.

Plus as she put it, Prince Eric was far too hairy and peach colored for her taste. I always thought he was pretty hott, but then again, I am a mammal.

They are soldiers. They depend upon routine, and anything out of the ordinary will give them pause. And they are men. They hate to be insulted, but they love to hear others mocked. And they are fools, because they cannot imagine that a woman alone in the woods would be a threat.

We change the future with every choice we make,

I chose him. If I chose him, he had to be the right choice. I wouldn__ love him if it weren__ right.

Because I am in love with you. Because I cannot be around you for fear you will finally see what is written across my heart. Because the pain of you is one I cannot bear

I lie constantly. All the time. I__ nothing but one big mass of lies.

It__ a lie, but it__ the lie he needs. I__ going to hell.

Then the other door opened. I wen't rigid. If I had thought Reth's was beautiful, it was nothing to this soul. It filled the night with light, dancing and rippling like the reflection on a pond. I hadn't seen many souls, but I knew this one was special. I wanted it. I needed it.

Why does IPCA use them if they__e evil?_ he asked, confused.__hey aren__ evil. They aren__ even really immoral, per se. They__e amoral. They don__ operate on the same level that we do. For a faerie, the only thing that matters is what they want. That__ their good. Anything else is superfluous. So like how they kidnap people, not a big deal__hey want the person, they take him. Or killing someone. If you live forever, how much does one mortal life matter in the scheme of things? When you exist outside time, cutting off the forty years a person has left is a non-issue. They don__ even notice.

What__ the point in hating something if you aren__ proactive?

None of them are real to me._ He paused again, placing a hand flat against the door. __ou are the only real thing in my life.__adu gasped with the sheer physical pain the words sent through him. But the sound of his agony was covered by that of the door opening. Mehmed reached in and pulled Lada out to him, and then his mouth was on hers and his hands were in her hair and he was holding her so tightly, so tightly, and they stumbled back into Lada__ room and closed the door.Radu tripped forward, feet dragging, until he stood outside the room. He wanted to be inside it. He wanted to be the only real thing to Mehmed, just as Mehmed was the only real thing to him.He wanted__o, please, no.Yes.He wanted Mehmed to look at him the way he had looked at Lada.He wanted Mehmed to kiss him the way he had kissed Lada.He wanted to be Lada.No, he did not. He wanted to be himself, and he wanted Mehmed to love him for being himself. His question, the question of Mehmed, was finally answered, piercing him and leaving him shaking, silent, on the floor.He did not want this answer.