• “Just tell her she’s got skin like moonlight,” his friend Pieter had said. “Girls love that.”
• Kaz shook his head, dark hair glinting in the lamplight. He was a collection of hard lines and tailored edges – sharp jaw, lean build, wool coat snug across his shoulders. “Yes and no,” he said in his rocksalt rasp.
  • humm did you just describe tommy shelby?
• said Kaz. His voice had the rough, abraded texture of stone against stone. Inej always wondered if he’d sounded that way as a little boy. If he’d ever been a little boy.
  • oh shit. of course i'm picturing cillian murphy's voice
• She knew how she sounded – stern, fussy, like an old crone making dire pronouncements from her porch. She didn’t like it, but she also knew she was right. Besides, old women must know something, or they wouldn’t live to gather wrinkles and yell from their front steps.
• “Let’s say my currency carries more sway.” “Money is money.” “I trade in information, Geels, the things men do when they think no one is looking. Shame holds more value than coin ever can.”
• “I like it when men beg,” she said. “But this isn’t the time for it.”
• “When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.”
• He’d heard other members of the gang say she moved like a cat, but he suspected cats would sit attentively at her feet to learn her methods.
• “Men mock the gods until they need them, Kaz.”
• Our hopes rest with you, Mister Brekker. If you fail, all the world will suffer for it.” “Oh, it’s worse than that, Van Eck. If I fail, I don’t get paid.”
  • look at this trash
• he’d warned her that he wouldn’t be able to watch out for her, that she’d have to fend for herself, and she had. It would have been easy enough to turn away when they called her names or sidled up to ask for a cuddle, but do that and soon it was a hand up your blouse or a try at you against a wall. So she’d let no insult or innuendo slide. She’d always struck first and struck hard. Sometimes she even cut them up a bit. It was fatiguing, but nothing was sacred to the Kerch except trade, so she’d gone out of her way to make the risk much higher than the reward when it came to disrespecting her.
  • i think i've found my new role model
• he said as he ran the wet cloth under his arms and the hard planes of his chest, water trickling down his torso.
• For Saints’ sake, Inej thought as her cheeks heated. She’d lost most of her modesty during her time with the Menagerie, but really, there were limits. What would Kaz say if she suddenly stripped down and started washing herself in front of him? He’d probably tell me not to drip on the desk, she thought with a scowl.
• “You may still die in the Dregs.” Inej’s dark eyes had glinted. “I may. But I’ll die on my feet with a knife in my hand.”
• And, of course, Inej didn’t look remotely surprised. She gathered Kaz’s secrets and kept them as well. Jesper tried to ignore the pang of jealousy he felt at that.
• “You wouldn’t know a good time if it sidled up to you and stuck a lollipop in your mouth.”
• Kaz leaned back. “What’s the easiest way to steal a man’s wallet?” “Knife to the throat?” asked Inej. “Gun to the back?” said Jesper. “Poison in his cup?” suggested Nina. “You’re all horrible,” said Matthias.
  • GEEZ GUYS
• “You can’t spend his money if you’re dead.” “I’ll acquire expensive habits in the afterlife.”
• Shall I tell you the secret of true love? her father once asked her. A friend of mine liked to tell me that women love flowers. He had many flirtations, but he never found a wife. Do you know why? Because women may love flowers, but only one woman loves the scent of gardenias in late summer that remind her of her grandmother’s porch. Only one woman loves apple blossoms in a blue cup. Only one woman loves wild geraniums.
• Many boys will bring you flowers. But some day you’ll meet a boy who will learn your favourite flower, your favourite song, your favourite sweet. And even if he is too poor to give you any of them, it won’t matter because he will have taken the time to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns your heart.
• Her father had been wrong. There had been no boys to bring her flowers, only men with stacks of kruge and purses full of coin. Would she ever see her father again? Hear her mother singing, listen to her uncle’s silly stories? I’m not sure I have a heart to give any more, Papa.
  • oh sweetie :(
• “Keep talking, Wraith. Don’t slip away from me.” “But it’s what I do best.”
• “And get me clean clothes and fresh water.” “Since when am I your valet?” “Man with a knife, remember?” he said over his shoulder. “Man with a gun!” Jesper called after him. Kaz replied with a time-saving gesture that relied heavily on his middle finger and disappeared belowdecks.
• “The Wraith is a sixteen-year-old girl currently lying unconscious on a table. She may not even survive the night.” “She will,” said Kaz, and something savage flashed in his eyes. Matthias suspected that Brekker would drag the girl back from hell himself if he had to.
• “Would it kill him to smile every once in a while?” Jesper asked. “Very possibly.”
• I think I just never quite felt like I fit in with the Dregs.” “Well, you don’t.” “Thanks.” “We’re a crew with limited interests, and you don’t gamble, swear, or drink to excess. But here’s the secret to popularity: risk death to save your compatriots from being blown to bits in an ambush. Great way to make friends.” “As long as I don’t have to start going to parties.”
• There were rumours Wylan had been caught in a sweaty romp with one of his tutors.”
  • WHAT ohohohoh
• Jesper looked at the grey swells of the sea, marching to the horizon in endless formation. He’d never liked the ocean, the sense of the unknown beneath his feet, that something hungry and full of teeth might be waiting to drag him under.
• It took two days after she emerged from the surgeon’s cabin for Kaz to make himself approach Inej. She was sitting by herself, legs crossed, back to the hull of the ship, sipping a cup of tea. Kaz limped over to her. “I want to show you something.” “I’m well, thank you for asking,” she said, looking up at him. “How are you?” He felt his lips twist. “Splendid.”
  • unbelievable. it took him 2 DAYS to go talk to her after she nearly died????
• Because I’ve been looking for an excuse to talk to you for two days.
  • Omg really
• “What do you want, then?” The old answers came easily to mind. Money. Vengeance. Jordie’s voice in my head silenced forever. But a different reply roared to life inside him, loud, insistent, and unwelcome. You, Inej. You.
• “To die buried under the weight of my own gold.” Inej sighed. “Then I’ll pray you get all you ask for.”
• “I’ve never heard you admit you’re not good at something.” “Well, it happens so rarely.” He was horrified to find his lips curling in a smile
• “Stop that,” he grumbled. “What? Keep your head tilted back.” “What are you doing?” “Darkening your brows and lashes. You know, the way girls do before a party.” He must have grimaced because she burst out laughing. “The look on your face!”
  • hhahaha
• Djel, I can’t wait to have a bed to myself again.”“Right,” said Nina. “I can feel just how much you hate sleeping next to me. I feel it every morning.” Matthias flushed bright scarlet.
  • NINA OMG I KNEW SHE HAD TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT SOME TIME
• But a proper thief – like myself
  • you're not cocky or anything
• Kaz was usually unshakeable during a job, but now he was on edge, and Jesper didn’t know why. Part of him wanted to ask, though he knew that was the stupid part, the hopeful farmboy who picked the worst possible person to care about, who searched for signs in things that he knew deep down meant nothing – when Kaz chose him for a job, when Kaz played along with one of his jokes. He could have kicked himself. He’d finally seen the infamous Kaz Brekker without a stitch of clothing, and he’d been too worried about ending up on a pike to pay proper attention.
• He’d finally seen the infamous Kaz Brekker without a stitch of clothing, and he’d been too worried about ending up on a pike to pay proper attention.
  • omg
• “Of course. But you’re obviously dangerous,” he said. “I’d prefer you never became dangerous to me.”
• “If only you could talk to girls in equations.” There was a long silence, and then, eyes trained on the notch they’d created in the link, Wylan said, “Just girls?” Jesper restrained a grin. “No. Not just girls.” It really was a shame they were all probably going to die tonight.
  • OH MY GOOOOD JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY!!!!!!
• Kaz remembered her perched on the sill of his attic window, sometime during that first year after he’d brought her into the Dregs. She’d been feeding the crows that congregated on the roof. “You shouldn’t make friends with crows,” he’d told her. “Why not?” she asked.

He’d looked up from his desk to answer, but whatever he’d been about to say had vanished on his tongue. The sun was out for once, and Inej had turned her face to it. Her eyes were shut, her oil-black lashes fanned over her cheeks. The harbour wind had lifted her dark hair, and for a moment Kaz was a boy again, sure that there was magic in this world. “Why not?” she’d repeated, eyes still closed. He said the first thing that popped into his head. “They don’t have any manners.” “Neither do you, Kaz.” She’d laughed, and if he could have bottled the sound and got drunk on it every night, he would have. It terrified him.

• boy you're so far gone
• The ache in his lungs was unbearable. He needed to tell her … what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn’t pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her.
  • HA.HA.HA. It's truly amazing that Kaz Brekker actually does have feelings inside that hard head of his.
• When Nina looked at Kaz, she couldn’t quite believe her eyes. “Saints, Kaz, you actually look happy.” “Don’t be ridiculous,” he snapped. But there was no mistaking it. Kaz Brekker was grinning like an idiot.
• “For my country,” she said. “For my people. For every child you put to the pyre. Reap what you’ve sown, Jarl Brum.”
• “They fear you as I once feared you,” he said. “As you once feared me. We are all someone’s monster, Nina.”
• I can hear the change in Kaz’s breathing when he looks at you.” “You … you can?” “It catches every time, like he’s never seen you before.”
• Now she said, “Was there no one but your brother, Kaz? Where are your mother and father?” “Barrel boys don’t have parents. We’re born in the harbour and crawl out of the canals.”
  • Omg kaz cut the crap!! just stop with the made up sentences and be honest with her!! good i'm so frustrated with this guy
• He took a breath. “I want you to stay. I want you to … I want you.” “You want me.” She turned the words over. Gently, she squeezed his hand. “And how will you have me, Kaz?” He looked at her then, eyes fierce, mouth set. It was the face he wore when he was fighting. “How will you have me?” she repeated. “Fully clothed, gloves on, your head turned away so our lips can never touch?” He released her hand, his shoulders bunching, his gaze angry and ashamed as he turned his face to the sea. Maybe it was because his back was to her that she could finally speak the words. “I will have you without armour, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.”
  • YOU TELL HIM, INEJ!!!!
• I’m going to get my money, Kaz vowed. And I’m going to get my girl.
• “Van Eck is going to put you in the ground.” “Others have tried. Somehow I keep coming back from the dead.”