Maggie

“I retrieve Kai’s sword from where I abandoned it on the dock. The metal is scorching hot. I hold it out to him in the way he offered it to me, by the blade, apologetic. He accepts it but doesn’t let go, using it as a rope to pull me closer. “I am proud to call you my match.” Then he kisses me, in front of everyone, rules and decorum be damned. Whatever punishment awaits, we’ll suffer it together. It’ll be worth it.”
― Rachel Schneider, Metal Slinger

“A centuries-old song from back when Isora and me weren't friends yet, even though it was our destiny, because if there was one thing I knew it was that me and Isora were made the way things that are born to live and die together are made...”
― Andrea Abreu López, Dogs of Summer: A Novel

“Look who it is,” he croons, though it takes effort to get past the gravel in his voice. “The little thief herself.”
― Rachel Schneider, Metal Slinger

“There, surrounding me, were volumes and volumes of words that black-hearted men had scratched down, silencing woman after woman. I thought of the city, filled with smoke and screaming; I thought of my grandmother, adding pine branches to the pyre so the smoke might kill the women before the flames; I thought of the laws and the hunts that this man – fingers linked across his belly, his portrait shining behind him – would bring back if he could.”
― Bridget Collins, The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights