The Mask of Mirrors

Men had often looked at her the way Vargo was looking at her now, but always for her beauty – never her ingenuity. And Ren, who was used to treating that kind of admiration as nothing more than a useful lever, felt her breath catch.

Trust is the thread that binds us... and the rope that hangs us.

The woman had all the subtlety of the spring floods: One saw them coming and could only brace against their force.

Find them in your pockets, Find them in your coat; If you aren’t careful, You’ll find them in your throat...

But with him, law and order were the Mask, and corruption was the Face beneath.

The bitten lip gave way to a faint smile. “That I wanted more.

Dreams are as ephemeral as love.::

He imagined the frisson of excitement that washed over him was like the tremors a spider felt when something brushed the outer strands of his web.

Tess yanked the door open to find the boy who usually kept watch on tatting days panting on the stoop, wide-eyed and blanch-pale.

After fifteen years of handling the Traementis house charters, Donaia Traementis knew that a deal which looked too good to be true probably was. The proposal currently on her desk stretched the boundaries of belief.