Madalyn

“Your heart is in your eyes, Your Highness,” murmured Tamar, wiping the sweat from her brow.
Tolya poked his twin in the arm with a sparring sword. “Tamar knows because that’s the way she looks at her wife.”
“I am free to look at my wife any which way I please.”
“But Zoya is not Nikolai’s wife.”
“I’m standing right here,” said Nikolai. “And there is nothing in my eyes except the never-ending dust you two kick up.”
He was glad to see his general. There was nothing out of the ordinary about that. Her presence brought a perfectly understandable relief, a feeling of calm that came with knowing that whatever the problem was, they would best it, that if one of them faltered, the other would be there to drag them along. That comfort was not something he could afford to get used to or rely
on, but he would enjoy it while he might. If only she weren’t wearing that damned blue ribbon again.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“I turned on Nikolai and kicked him hard in the shin. He yelped, but that wasn’t nearly satisfying enough. I kicked him again.
“Feel better?” he asked.
“Next time you try something like that, I won’t kick you,” I said angrily. “I’ll cut you in half.”
He brushed a speck of lint from his trousers. “Not sure that would be wise. I’m afraid the people rather frown on regicide.”
“You’re not king yet, Sobachka,” I said sharply. “So don’t tempt me.”
“I don’t see why you’re upset. The crowd loved it.”
“I didn’t love it.”
He raised a brow. “You didn’t hate it.”
I kicked him again. This time his hand snaked out like a flash and captured my ankle. If it had been winter, I would have been wearing boots, but I was in summer slippers and his fingers closed over my bare leg. My cheeks blazed red.
“Promise not to kick me again, and I’ll promise not to kiss you again,” he said.
“I only kicked you because you kissed me!” I tried to pull my leg back, but he kept a hard grip.
“Promise,” he said.
“All right,” I bit out. “I promise.”
“Then we have a deal.”
He dropped my foot, and I drew it back beneath my kefta, hoping he couldn’t see my idiotic blush.
“Great,” I said. “Now get out.”
“It’s my coach.”
“The deal was only for kicking. It did not prohibit slapping, punching, biting, or cutting you in half.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“The world might crumble, but Nikolai Lantsov would be holding up the ceiling with one hand and plucking a speck of dirt from his lapel with the other when it all went to ruin”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“Do you read novels?"
"I read when I have time."
"So, no."
"I read when I can't sleep."
"So, regularly then.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves