Цитаты из книги Light Bringer

“Since I woke up on Europa after being cut to ribbons by those Raa cousins, I’ve thought about what I’d say when I saw you again. I was angry at first. Angry that you wanted this war. That you didn’t obey me, didn’t heed the lessons I’d tried to teach you. I saw that as a betrayal. But now I know I was angry because I was always asking you to be someone you weren’t. Someone you could never be.”

I look down. “Julian.”

He sighs, frustrated at himself.

I shrug. It’s hard to keep my guard up around Cassius. “Truthfully, I haven’t spent much time here. The Archimedes. Well, that was home.”

“Not a prison like you said?”

“No. Not all the time,” I confess. “I often miss it.”

“It could be home again,” he says. “After this.”

I smile. “You haven’t changed. Ever the romantic, at the expense of any kind of realism. It’s your charm.”

It is hard to put down the blade when you are afraid.

“Dominus Stinkhorn. It was the ugliest mushroom I could think of. Honestly, Darrow, atomics, warlord heads. I thought our honeymoon would be more romantic.” “Honeymoon.” “Yes. Apparently we’re a couple till Virginia fights me for you.”

“He’s in the lounge hunched over his datapad.” “Reading love letters from Aurae?” he asks with only a hint of annoyance and sips his coffee. “Been meaning to say…sorry about all that.” “It’s fine,” he says. I know it’s not fine, because I swivel the chair and put my feet up on the wall and he doesn’t say a thing. “I know that it wasn’t meant to be. With Aurae. She’s a dream, that one. But it’s all right.” I swivel back. “Yeah?” “Yeah. I project.”

“Cassius,” I say. He sighs. “Are the services of a hero required?” “Go up these stairs, around to the left. There’s a garden. I saw some tide pools there.” He stands and checks his razor. “Admire your reflection for ten minutes, and come back.”

Volga jumps out the back of the ship and makes a beeline toward me. Her head is down under the wash of the ship’s engines. She glances at Cassius. She does a double take. He’s staring dramatically out to sea now, either thinking about Lysander or posing for a coin. She’s so captivated by him her foot clips an uneven stone. He doesn’t look over at me, but draws a finger along his jaw. Idiot. Volga blushes as she comes to a stop.

“Oh. Darrow. I remembered. No more Truffle Pig. She hates it. Says it’s demeaning to her other contributions and athletic stature.” “Uh-huh. Well. She doesn’t get to choose her own callsign.” “Of course not. I was thinking Strawberry Lass. No? Crow Whisperer? Red Rabbit?” “We’ll figure it out later.” I have a thought. “What do they call baby eagles?” He acts like he’s just seen a puppy. “Eaglet. Oh gods. She’ll die.”

“What? Did somebody compliment me?” he asks. “It’s the jawline. Isn’t it selfless, really. I take the pressure off everyone else. They don’t have to worry about being the most handsome in the room. They can just be. Ah. Heavy is the chin that sets the bar.” He tilts his head. “Do you hear that?”

“Gods. Not even with a gun to his head. Whatever does Aurae see in him?” “Truth,” I say. “I’ve never met a man who means what he says more than that one. So when he says Lysander was a man of honor, that he cared about the Rim, that he saved Diomedes’s life and sacrificed his own, do you think that’s a reflection of Octavia or you?”

It’s bedlam — my old friend.

When I die, whenever that day comes, I will hear the wind that howls like a wolf and know I am home.

Not one speaks for me. They look down at their plates or into their wine. Fear holds them in its grip. Sevro sneers. “Cowards! Does not one of you have any balls?” “Should we run?” Cassius asks. “That’s always an option. I can snag Lyria and—”

All that prayer calmed the mind, but if I’ve learned anything by now, it’s that only a fool relies on prayer alone.

Cassius looks at me in fear. “Your friends are close?” I ask Sigurd. “Very.” “Cassius, go,” I say. “Go.” He strides to me, kisses the top of my head, and his armor turns dark as the night.

“I have a warrant badge,” I say as the lift begins to rise. “I would have used it to get past that tinpot. Truth is you just can’t stay away from me, Bellona.”