Free Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

less stupid than the last.” Maybe they were burgeoning even now in fat little cocoons. Or maybe not. It was hard to imagine feeling that magical tingling sensation in the pit of her belly anytime soon. Best not to worry about it, she thought. She didn’t need it. Well. She didn’t want to need it. Yearning for love made her feel like a cat that was always twining around ankles, meowing Pet me, pet me, look at me, love me .
    Better to be the cat gazing coolly down from a high wall, its expression inscrutable. The cat that shunned petting, that needed no one. Why couldn’t she be that cat?
    Be that cat!!! she wrote, drawing it into the corner of her page, cool and aloof.
    Karou wished she could be the kind of girl who was complete unto herself, comfortable in solitude, serene. But she wasn’t. She was lonely, and she feared the missingness within her as if it might expand and… cancel her. She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust.
    The door opened. She looked in the mirror and suppressed a curse. Slipping in behind some tourists, that winged shadow was back again. Karou rose and made for the bathroom, where she took the note that Kishmish had come to deliver.
    Again it bore a single word. But this time the word was Please.

P LEASE

    Please? Brimstone never said please. Hurrying across town, Karou found herself more troubled than if the note had said something menacing, like: Now, or else .
    Letting her in, Issa was uncharacteristically silent.
    “What is it, Issa? Am I in trouble?”
    “Hush. Just come in and try not to berate him today.”
    “Berate him ?” Karou blinked. She’d have thought if anyone was in danger of being berated, it was herself.
    “You’re very hard on him sometimes, as if it’s not hard enough already.”
    “As if what’s not hard enough?”
    “His life. His work. His life is work. It’s joyless, it’s relentless, and sometimes you make it harder than it already is.”
    “Me?” Karou was stunned. “Did I just come in on the middle of a conversation, Issa? I have no idea what you’re talking about—”
    “Hush, I said. I’m just asking that you try to be kind, like when you were little. You were such a joy to us all, Karou. I know it’s not easy for you, living this life, but try to remember, always try to remember, you’re not the only one with troubles.”
    And with that the inner door unsealed and Karou stepped across the threshold. She was confused, ready to defend herself, but when she saw Brimstone, she forgot all that.
    He was leaning heavily on his desk, his great head resting in one hand, while the other cupped the wishbone he wore around his neck. Kishmish hopped in agitation from one of his master’s horns to the other, uttering crickety chirrups of concern, and Karou faltered to a halt. “Are… are you okay?” It felt odd asking, and she realized that of all the questions she had barraged him with in her life, she had never asked him that. She’d never had reason to—he’d scarcely ever shown a hint of emotion, let alone weakness or weariness.
    He raised his head, released the wishbone, and said simply, “You came.” He sounded surprised and, Karou thought guiltily, relieved.
    Striving for lightness, she said, “Well, please is the magic word, you know.”
    “I thought perhaps we had lost you.”
    “ Lost me? You mean you thought I’d died ?”
    “No, Karou. I thought that you had taken your freedom.”
    “My…” She trailed off. Taken her freedom? “What does that even mean?”
    “I’ve always imagined that one day the path of your life would unroll at your feet and carry you