cw ˙ᵕ˙

“I hate you," she spat.
Alaric sneered at her. "See? Already you are acclimatizing so well to married life.”
― Thea Guanzon, The Hurricane Wars

“Or, at the very least, turn me little again.' He wiped his eyes with a sleeve, and stared at the plate of mung bean cakes. 'Little enough that all I wanted to reach for was the banquet table. When all I knew to desire was a sweet cake. And even if everyone punished me, or yelled at me, or hated me, at least back then I didn’t know why. If you can’t turn me into a fish, at least turn me little.”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“May the gods help me. Alaric resisted the urge to put his head in his hands in a fit of despair. I’m attracted to my wife.”
― Thea Guanzon, The Hurricane Wars