Because I am a doll, and a servant. Because I am a pretty thing and a soldier all the same.

The ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?

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...

Mal snickered. “What’s so funny?””I just pictured the Darkling being cornered by a sweaty duchess trying to have her way with him.

I think we often hold heroines to an absurd standard. Be brave! Be wise! Always know what’s in your heart and speak the truth of it! No and no and no. We fight to be...

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.

I may not have been completely honest about that.””You? Less than truthful? I’m shocked, Nikolai. Shocked and horrified.

David looked at me, then, the regret plain on his face. No matter what I said, we both knew the hard truth. We do our best. We try. And usually, it makes no difference at...

The names they gave were false ones, though the vows they made were true.

If it works, it will be plenty dramatic. And I suppose that if it doesn’t work, it will be even more dramatic, what with the blast.””David, I think you just made a joke.”He frowned, utterly...

I’d learned to avoid mirrors. They never seemed to show me what I wanted to see.

Ivan gabbled something in Shu that I didn’t understand. The giant just laughed.”You speak Shu like a tourist,” he said.

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...

Like calls to like

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.

Don’t argue. Never deign to deny. Meet insults with laughter.

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...

I like to have powerful enemies. Makes me feel important.

The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him forever.

All they see when they look at you is the Sun Summoner. They see a threat, another powerful Grisha like the Darkling. I want them to see a daughter or a sister or a friend....

We put on our best clothes and die like heroes.

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.

Faith.

Of course I’m jealous. I thought I was going to get to punch him. That isn’t the point.

I have loved you all my life, Mal,” I whispered through my tears. “There is no end to our story.

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...

I rolled my eyes. “For defending my honor, you dullard.”He yanked me beneath a shadowed awning. I had a moment’s panic when I thought he’d spotted trouble, but then his arms were around me and...

They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things-if love can ever be called that.

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.

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,...

That first winter, when it was time for her friends to leave, the girl ventured out into the show to say goodbye, and the stunning raven-haired Squaller handed her another gift. “A blue kefta,” said...

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...