Song

“I’d rather spend the rest of my life without ever seeing you again,” he says, “than watch them destroy you because of me.” His hand slips to the back of my neck, skimming over my Mark, and stops in my hair. He leans down and kisses my forehead. I long to reach up, close my fingers over his arm, keep him here. He pulls away but not by much. His mouth lingers on my forehead and then, as if with an effort, he straightens.
“Want him,” he says, his face hidden in shadow, “not me. He’d love you more than I could.”
Then he leaves me alone.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“You,” he says, before the door closes all the way. “I often dream of you.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“Where do men find it in themselves to do such monstrous things?”
― Sarah J. Maas, The Assassin and the Desert

“No fair maiden should die alone,”
― Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass