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- “Peasant,” Alexei said, and dismissed her with a wave.
- This was the hardest part of being around him—other than the way he made my heart do clumsy acrobatics.
- “Good luck,” I said automatically and then wanted to kick myself. Good luck? Have a lovely time, Mal. Hope you find a pretty Grisha, fall deeply in love, and make lots of gorgeous, disgustingly talented babies together. I sat frozen on the steps, watching them disappear down the path, still feeling the warm pressure of Mal’s hand in mine. Oh well, I thought as I got to my feet. Maybe he’ ll fall into a ditch on his way there.
- “What are you smiling at?” I whirled, peering into the gloom. The Darkling’s voice seemed to float out of the shadows. He walked down to the stream, crouching on the bank to splash water on his face and through his dark hair. “Well?” he asked, looking up at me. “Myself,” I admitted. “Are you that funny?” “I’m hilarious.
- I was so furious I wanted to smack him on the back of his head. And if I hadn’t seen him cut a man in half, I might have done just that.
- “I have no idea. I’ve always been beautiful.”
- The other Grisha might look down on Genya, but she had her own kind of power and influence.
- He frowned slightly. “I’m not a monster, Alina. Despite what you may have heard.”
- I wasn’t a mapmaker anymore, and if I couldn’t manage to become a Grisha, where would that leave me?
- Relevant to my life rn. student vs. quiting.
- You’re the first glimmer of hope I’ve had in a long time.
- “Why do you waste all of your strength fighting your true nature?”
- I fit into my new life about as well as I’d fit into my old one.
- Like calls to like,
- “Why can a Grisha possess but one amplifier? I will answer this question instead: What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.”
- Dear Mal, I’d written. I haven’t heard from you, so I assume you’ve met and married a volcra and that you’re living comfortably on the Shadow Fold, where you have neither light nor paper with which to write. Or, possibly, your new bride ate both your hands.
- And there’s nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.”
- The grounding principle of the Small Science was “like calls to like,” but then it got complicated. Odinakovost was the “thisness” of a thing that made it the same as everything else. Etovost was the “thatness” of a thing that made it different from everything else. Odinakovost connected Grisha to the world, but it was etovost that gave them an affinity for something like air, or blood, or in my case, light.
- Marie and Ivo were speculating that the Fjerdans had infected you with some disease.” “I thought Grisha didn’t get sick.” “Exactly!” she said. “That’s why it was so very sinister. But apparently the Darkling cured you by feeding you his own blood and an extract of diamonds.” “That’s disgusting,” I said, laughing. “Oh that’s nothing. Zoya actually tried to put it around that you were possessed.” I laughed even harder.
- Do you ask your heart to beat or your lungs to breathe? Your power serves you because that is its purpose, because it cannot help but serve you.”
- “Maybe I should lie down on a table in the workroom and wait to see if he welds something to me.” “I think that’s the way most great love stories begin.”
- “Should I? If I can’t help you destroy the Fold, then what exactly am I good for? Midnight picnics? Keeping your feet warm in the winter?” His mouth quirked up in a half smile. “Midnight picnics?”
- “Maybe Baghra’s right, as much as I hate to admit it.” I cocked my head to one side. “You never seem fazed by anything. Why do you let her bother you so much?” “I don’t know.” “Well, I think she’s good for you.” He started in surprise. “Why?” “Because she’s the only one around here who isn’t scared of you or constantly trying to impress you.” “Are you trying to impress me?” “Of course,” I laughed. “Do you always say exactly what you’re thinking?” “Not even half the time.” Then he laughed too, and I remembered how much I liked the sound. “Then I guess I should count myself lucky,” he said.
- “Why would you care what I think?” He looked genuinely baffled. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I do.” And then he kissed me.
- I focused and summoned a warm wash of sunlight, making it dance in slivers across the painted ceiling, letting the sure rush of power soothe my nerves. Then the memory of the Darkling’s kiss blew through me and rattled my concentration, scattering my thoughts and making my heart swoop and dive like a bird borne aloft by uncertain currents. The light shattered, leaving me in darkness.
- “Dreaming of dancing with your dark prince?”
- some days it took everything in me not to stand up in the middle of breakfast and shout, “The Darkling kissed me!”
- Just … be careful.” I stared at her, baffled. “Of what?” “Of powerful men.”
- “The problem with wanting,” he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, “is that it makes us weak.”
- “I try to make a habit of getting things hopelessly wrong.”
- He’s all over you.”
- It was as if Mal could see right through me, as if he could pluck every fevered thought I’d ever had of the Darkling right out of my head. But on the heels of that shame came anger. So what if he did know? What right did he have to judge me? How many girls had Mal held in the dark?
- The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.
- “You think I don’t love my son,” she said. “But I do. It is because I love him that I will not let him put himself beyond redemption.”
- “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 missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I’d catch myself walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I’d seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I’d realize that you weren’t there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I’ve risked my life for you. I’ve walked half the length of Ravka for you, and I’d do it again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day. So don’t tell me we don’t belong together,”
- “I’m sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now.”
- “Make me your villain.”
- “You will wear that collar for the rest of your very, very long life, Alina. Fight me as long as you’re able. You will find I have far more practice with eternity.”
- “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.”
- that the orphan no one wanted would change the world and be adored for it.
- This is the truth of him, I thought as I squinted in the dazzling light. Like calls to like. This was his soul made flesh, the truth of him laid bare in the blazing sun, shorn of mystery and shadow. This was the truth behind the handsome face and the miraculous powers, the truth that was the dead and empty space between the stars, a wasteland peopled by frightened monsters.
- I pulled on the rough wool dress and the yellow coat. “Did you deliberately buy the ugliest clothes you could find?”
nov 23 2014 ∞
nov 23 2014 +
nov 23 2014 +