They wanted a Grisha queen. Mal wanted a commoner queen. And what did I want? Peace for Ravka. A chance to sleep easy in my bed without fear. An end to the guilt and dread that I woke to every morning. There were old wants too, to be loved for who I ...
None of them were easy or soft or simple. They were like me, nursing hurts and hidden wounds, all broken in different ways. We didn't quite fit together. We had edges so jagged we cut each other sometimes . . . I felt a rush of gratitude so sweet it ...
They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things-if love can ever be called that.
The names they gave were false ones, though the vows they made were true.
And feast on the dead, I thought with a shudder. As if he could read my thoughts, he pressed a hand to my shoulder. His fingers were long and white, splaying over my arm like a waxen spider. If the gesture was meant to comfort me, it failed.
Mal was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, “I’m not sure who my first kill was. We were hunting the stag when we ran into a Fjerdan patrol on the northern border. I don’t think the fight lasted more than a few minutes, but I killed three me...
Good luck, Oretsev. Find the firebird, and when this is over, I'll see you well rewarded. A farmhouse in Udova. A dacha near the city. Whatever you want." "I don't need any of that. Just..." He dropped Nikolai's hand and looked away. "Deserve her.
I was just a girl again, but this girl didn’t owe her strength to fate or chance or a grand destiny. I’d been born with my power; the rest I’d earned.
There is something more powerful than any army. Something strong enough to topple kings, and even Darklings. Do you know what that thing is?” I shook my head, inching away from him. “Faith,” he breathed, his black eyes wild. “Faith.
You're very welcome," she said, giving my hair a hard tug. "You should be used to being gawked at by now." "And yet I'm not." "Well, if it gets too bad, give me a signal, and I'll get up on the banquet table, toss my skirt over my head, and do a litt...
Why can a Grisha possess but one amplifier? I will answer this question instead: What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.
What is she to you anyway?" "Here's my answer captain. She's the thing that made this all okay-the threadbare coats and the old boots and the guns that jams when you most need them to fire, the loneliness of knowing that you don't matter, that you wi...
I thought the love I'd had for him belonged to the past, to the foolish, lonely girl I never wanted to be again. I'd tried to bury that girl and the love she'd felt, just as I'd tried to bury my power. But I wouldn't make that mistake again.
I don't care if you danced naked on the roof of the Little Palace with him. I love you, Alina, even the part of you that loved him.
The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him forever.
They are orphans again, with no true home but each other and whatever life they can make together on the other side of the sea.
Mal," I whispered into the night. "What?" "Thanks for finding me." I wasn't sure if I was dreaming, but somewhere in the dark, I thought I heard him whisper, "Always.
I’d learned to avoid mirrors. They never seemed to show me what I wanted to see.
At that moment, the creature's back breached the waves, its body cutting through the water in a sinuous arch, rainbows sparking off the iridescent scales on its back. Rusalye.
The ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?
I like to have powerful enemies. Makes me feel important.
