Shield of Winter

How do you control your telekinesis while intimate with your mate?" "I broke a damn lot of furniture at the start, including two beds." A curious glance. "What are you doing?" "Traveling around the world.

To Vasic, Aden had helped him stay sane. To Aden, Vasic had helped him stay upright when he would've fallen. One lost boy helping another.

We all have to live with our past, but it doesn’t have to define us.

You’re my hope, Ivy, my beacon home on the darkest night.

In front of her, Samuel Rain's spectacles shimmered, and she belatedly realized they weren't old-fashioned at all, but tools to allow him to see to a microcellular level. "Imbeciles." The engineer shut the interface panel, nodded at Vasic to close the protective carapace. "Stealing my work and thinking they know what to do with it. Like monkeys deciding to program a computronic system." "Can you fix it?" Vasic asked. "No, I'm brain damaged." With that, he put away the tool, snapped the toolbox shut, and hefted it. "Come back tomorrow." Ivy stared after the engineer, hope a tight, hard knot in her chest. "He's either mad or brilliant." "There's often only a razor-thin line between the two." "And" - Rain called over his shoulder - "bring the dog!

You can’t protect my sanity by destroying yours.

He has a heart so huge, it’s kept pumping, kept going long past endurance—even though life has bruised it to a pulp.

Her small pet spotted him first, barking out a sharp warning from where he stood on guard in the back doorway. Ivy appeared a second later, a broom in hand and her curls held back by a purple and white scarf. “I knew it was you,” she said with a slight smile. “You’ve now been downgraded from ‘deadly threat’ to ‘irritation that won’t go away’ in Rabbit’s bark vocabulary.

It was too late the first day we met. You're inside me, and I 'm inside you. It's done.

Heroes are often the quietest people in a room, the ones least willing to lay claim to the title. These men and women simply go about doing what needs to be done without any expectation of gratitude or fame. It is in their nature to protect and to shield and to fight against darkness, whatever form it may take.

There’s a kind of secrecy in the world at this time of night, as if I’m allowed to see mysteries hidden in daylight.

Humans and changelings had hobbies, he thought in one corner of his mind. This would be his.

Surely," he said, "you don't doubt Samuel Rain's genius. Are you a monkey?

Aden had only ever had one true friend, someone he knew would fight for him and with him regardless of whether he held any power or not. The others in the squad he trusted, but Vasic occupied an entirely different place in his life, until it was as if their blood was the same.

I have to fill the bathtub with water.

If I lose him, I’ll break.” His mind touched hers. You can’t break, Ivy. You’re the only home my Arrows know—no matter what, that home must survive.

All you did was haul me into the light. I could’ve walked away at any point. I chose to stay. I will always choose to stay.

Judd gave the others hope,” Aden said quietly. “You make them believe in that hope.

Aden turned his body toward her . . . and then he did an unexpected thing for an Arrow. He reached out to cup her jaw, hold her face for a long, taut second, their eyes locked. I think, he said at last, you are a worthy match for my friend, Ivy Jane. You see the greatness of him—and you see his vulnerability. Neither scares you. A decisive nod as he broke contact. Anything you need from me, you can have. You need only ask.

*You helped him stay stable.* *No, Ivy. I made sure he didn't go over the final edge, but that isn't enough.*

He’s built to protect, to shield, and they made him a killer.

I know.” He leaned forward, pressed his forehead against hers. “Just . . . give me a little time. I’ve never had someone who was mine before.

The man I was, the man I am, the man I will be, the man I want to be, they all belong to you. Always.

Centered by his touch, his faith in her, she petted his chest through the fine merino wool of his charcoal sweater […] Not that he’d ever bother to take the time to buy things like this for himself. But he loved it when she did – and the small, domestic act gave her intense pleasure. As feeding her chocolate habit gave him. It wasn’t only emotion, raw and real, that Silence had stolen from her race, she thought, but the myriad quiet intimacies that colored the intricate tapestry of life. “Okay,” she said, after another nuzzling kiss from her panther. “I’m ready.

she was a rare, beautiful gift. And such a gift, came the ice-cold reminder from the core of his nature, would only end up crushed and bloody and defiled should he attempt to handle it.

Do you truly feel nothing?” she whispered. “Are you without fractures?” “It’s better this way.” His eyes kissed her with frost. “The day I feel is the day I die.

Are you going to be serious?" She scowled. "No. I'd rather cause an earthquake.

I don’t want to be in a world where he doesn’t get to survive. How is that in any way fair?

Rabbit had taken to following Vasic around, leaning up against his leg any time he stopped. Vasic didn’t rebuke their pet, always finding time to stop and touch Rabbit before going about his work again. But Rabbit wouldn’t be soothed, as Ivy couldn’t be soothed.