AlexNms

“David furrowed his brow. "I ... I don't understand half of what goes on around me. I don't get jokes or sunsets or poetry, but I know metal." His fingers flexed unconsciously as if he were physically grasping for words. "Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what's inside you? That's steel. It's brave and unbreakable. And it doesn't need fixing." He drew in a deep breath then awkwardly stepped forward. He took her face in his hands and kissed her.
Genya went regid. I thought she'd push him away. But then she threw her arms around him and kissed him back. Emphatically.
Mal cleared his throat, and Tamar gave a low whistle. I had to bite my lip to stifle a nervous laugh.
They broke apart. David was blushing furiously. Genya's grin was so dazzling it made my heart twist in my chest.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“The trap is loneliness, and none of us escapes it. Not even me.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

“This pain inside me was like broken glass clutched in a fist. I knew it was drawing blood. Bleeding me out, all day, every day. But still, I couldn’t just open my fingers and let it go. Because this wasn’t that kind of love.”
― Adrienne Young, Spells for Forgetting

“We were not made to please princes.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic