Abaddon’s Gate

No rest for the wicked, no peace for the good

She gave him a smile and pulled her hand away. Good-hearted unrepentant killers were not something she’d had to fit into her worldview before this, and she wasn’t sure how it would work. But now she’d have to try.

“You didn’t make any decisions for me,” she said. “If I’m paying for my sins, at least give me that they’re mine.”

Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it.”

It was a lesson he’d never forgotten. That humans only have so much emotional energy. No matter how intense the situation, or how powerful the feelings, it was impossible to maintain a heightened emotional state forever. Eventually you’d just get tired and want it to end.

Anna felt a blush come up, even though she suspected that everything Cortez said was manipulative. He was so good, he could get the response he wanted even when you knew exactly what he was up to. Anna couldn’t help but admire it a little.

Anna admired the absolute sincerity Cortez managed to pack into a sentence that was almost entirely composed of flattery.

Everything seemed to recede from Holden, the noises in the room coming from far away. He recognized it as a panic reaction, but he gave in to it, accepted the short moment of peace it brought.

And no offense, but it does smell like a squirrel crawled up your ass and died there

Tell me everything it explains,” he said when he could remember how to speak. Being forced to move moist flaps of meat in order to form the words felt sensual and obscene.