The answer is no, I would rather marry the Demon King himself than marry you. I suggest you look elsewhere for a bride. And heaven help the one you choose.

Did the destruction of one dream leave a vacuum that required filling with another? Is a broken heart more vulnerable?

Tears stung her eyes. She sank her knees next to the sleeping bench and gently raked strands of golden hair from him forehead. "Don't you die. don't you dare. I forbid it." As if Han Alister had ever listened to anything she said.

He expects nothing, she thought, because he's never had anything. And nothing was expected of him. He was free in a way she never would be.

Jason felt humiliated and frustrated. Rejected by a rock.

Han spotted a child‟s homespun dolly in the ditch, pressed into the mud. He reined in, meaning to climb down and fetch it so he could clean it up for his little sister. Then he remembered that Mari was dead and had no need of dollies anymore. Grief was like that. It gradually faded into a dull ache, until some simple sight or sound or scent hit him like a hammer blow.

Falling in love was like falling off a cliff. It felt pretty much like flying until you hit the ground.