The Bitter Kingdom

“I think sometimes when we find love we pretend it away, or ignore it, or tell ourselves we’re imagining it. Because it’s the most painful kind of hope there is. It can be ripped away so easily.

“But I’m powerless,” I whisper.
“Yes, powerless,” he echoes. “Which is why I have no desire to do this.” He kisses my forehead, letting his lips linger. “Which is why I can easily say no to this.” He presses his lips to mine, teases them open, and kisses me long and deep. “And why I am not utterly compelled to do this.” He yanks my body against his, and his

is.” He yanks my body against his, and his hand slips under the hem of my shirt. “Do you see, Elisa?” he says, his voice dark. “How little power you have over me

“I’ve been looking after them,” Ximena says. “I’m a nurse, after all.”
“A nurse who could kill an intruder with her bare hands,” Nicandro adds with a glint in his eye

Franco frowns. “I saw the way she looked at you. You are life and breath to her.”
He’s wrong about that. Elisa loves fiercely, it’s true. But she loves with her heart and mind. If she comes for me, it will be part of a larger plan to rescue all of Joya

“It is human nature to concoct explanations to fill the great void of the unknown.”

A word is the only thing in the world made more powerful by absence than existence.”