Liana Brooks"If I can't fix it with a hammer, I can fix it with fire."
"Fire fixes people?"
"Warm bodies, warm food, warm beds? Those fix almost everything."
"It's your life. You don't have to live it the way other people told you to, but you do need to live it."
"We're at Elf-Home Bed And Breakfast built by a man whose name means Oath Of The Elf-Home? In midwinter? In an ancient forest?" I could spot a plot line from five hundred pages away and if this wasn't the opening to a new series, I didn't know what was. "Let's try to avoid any blood oaths or mead while we're here. My life is adventurous enough without inviting the elder gods in for dinner."
"I wouldn't hurt him, but if he died suddenly I'd only go to his funeral to make sure he stayed in the grave."
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You could abandon me, leaving me alone like everyone else I ever trusted.”
“What’s the best that could happen?”
“Why?”
“If you’re going to consider the worst case scenario you also have to consider the best case. They’re equally likely to happen.”
"You need to stop yelling at me like this."
She glared at him furiously. "Why? Is it upsetting you?"
"Not at all." A slow, seductive smile spread across his face.
“What are you hunting? Co-eds?”
“No, you wicked woman. A ring.”
“Is it precious to you?”
“Very.”
“Does it turn you invisible?”
“No.”
“Does it give you power over nine mortal men?”
“No.” He laughed again.
“Sounds boring. Why are you looking for it?”
That's the thing people never tell you about neglect, it's abuse.
A steady diet of being told you're unwanted, unneeded, unlovable... eventually it seeps into your skin. It becomes a part of you the same way your hair and eye color are.
She stretched her fingers along the gritty sheets, algae woven fabric grown dry and brittle as it aged. Familiar smells of sweat, engine lubricant, and burning wires wrapped around her, the spikey hug of home.