Fire witches are two parts sweet and one part sour, the perfect Daiquiri – classic, delicious, and deceptively potent.

I really want to call you to me in a thunderbolt so I can smack you. We’re not even married yet and I want to strangle you with my bare hands. That doesn’t bode well for your life expectancy, Assefa, or my chance of staying out of prison on a homicide charge.

If I’m moving too fast or coming on too hard...

You’re an incredible woman, Lela. I would battle a thousand Terrademons to reach your heart. But I cannot challenge or defeat an enemy that’s already dead. I cannot fight for a heart that doesn’t want to be won.

I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you, sweetheart. All supple and voluptuous, a mountain of curves I can’t wait to climb.

You can take away my anger, my fear, my fury, even my pain, but I could never live with myself if I’m not the one to bring that demon to justice. You’re all the family I have left, Serwa, and I pledged myself to you when I was a man-child of twenty-one years. Now, as a man of centuries, that responsibility hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s only gotten stronger.

Even when you love with all you are, life will demand parts of your heart and soul. Sometimes, life takes more than you think you have to give. The question then becomes, Great Cat of the Nation of Swiftborne, when life rips out your heart and drops it at your feet, what will you do?

I’ve never killed anyone but I would rather choke on the blood of my fallen enemies than permit harm to come to you again.

A Tootsie Roll? You do know that candy is neither chocolate nor a taffy. I do like that it also comes in a lollipop you put in your mouth and suck until you find the chewy center.

Easy, Sage, you have no idea. I just agreed to betray my marriage vows, my husband, and my beating heart.