“Did you think this would stop me from doing what needs to be done, sweetheart?” he asks, breaking off the kiss, though some faint, long-dormant part of him still finds it agony to do so.
He has never reveled in being cruel, but it does amuse him just the smallest touch to watch Alina’s face, watching the shift in her expression from raw desire to muddled confusion, right through to hurt.
“You could offer me everything you have to give, and still I would expand the Fold,” he says, as gently as he knows how, and hardens his heart against hers breaking; let her have a taste of it, he thinks, of the pain and the loneliness, and does not add that it couldn’t be allowed to matter, whatever her feelings, whatever his own - not weighed against the good for all Grisha.
Words Sound False When Your Coat’s Too Thin (S&B, Darklina)
He has never reveled in being cruel, but it does amuse him just the smallest touch to watch Alina’s face, watching the shift in her expression from raw desire to muddled confusion, right through to hurt.
“You could offer me everything you have to give, and still I would expand the Fold,” he says, as gently as he knows how, and hardens his heart against hers breaking; let her have a taste of it, he thinks, of the pain and the loneliness, and does not add that it couldn’t be allowed to matter, whatever her feelings, whatever his own - not weighed against the good for all Grisha.