Lyra

“So Leda's daughters,
two lethal brides,
will twice and thrice wed.

One will launch Greece in a thousand ships,
her beauty the ruin of her land,
and the men sent to rescue her
will come back ashes and bones.

The other, the queen hell-bent on revenge,
will rise in the house of Mycenae,
loyal to those who revere her,
savage to those who oppose her.”
― Constanza Casati

“Conscious of her steady gaze, Theron stared in turn at the fire. For seventeen, almost eighteen years, Lilyana had been, as she was now, a quiet sounding board for his fears. She's stood serene against this temper and from the maelstrom pulled, nearly every time, the true reason for his anger. Even when he hadn't been sure of it himself. He'd been a better king with her beside him. Probably a better person. Had he ever told her that? He glanced up from the flames, caught her eye, and realized she knew. For a moment, there was only the two of them, then the moment passed and he sighed.”
― Tanya Huff

“Amusement flashed in his eyes.
I had fed off that look once, when I had been starving and thought such crumbs a feast.”
― Madeline Miller

“He sat, smoothing the wide legs of his trousers and hiding a smile. Glancing up through his lashes, he studied first Pjerin then Olina. The duc, in his late twenties, was a powerfully built man whose height made him appear deceptively slender. His aunt, eleven years older, was a slender woman who radiated power. He wore his thick black hair tied back at the nape of his neck with a bit of leather. She wore hers in one heavy braid wrapped around her head like an ebony crown. He smouldered. She flamed. They were both tall, and dark, and beautiful, and Albek loved to watch them fight.”
― Tanya Huff, Sing the Four Quarters