SOPHIA

“Come home and shout at me. Come home and
fight with me. Come home and break my
heart, if you must.
Just come home.
Cardan”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Jesper sniffed. “I thought it had a certain rustic elegance.”
“No,” said Wylan. “He hasn’t been trained. He’s stubborn that way.”
“Independent,” corrected Jesper.
“Pigheaded.”
“But stylish.”
Kaz rapped his cane on the floor. “And now you know why I don’t visit more often.”
Jesper folded his arms. “No one asked you to visit more often. And I don’t remember issuing an invitation for lunch.”
“I have a job that requires both of your skill sets.”
“Kaz,” Wylan said, carefully collecting some of the half-full glasses around the room. “We’d prefer not to do anything illegal.”
“That’s not strictly true,” said Jesper. “Wylan would prefer it, and I want to keep Wylan happy.” He paused, unable to hide his interest. “Is it illegal?”
“Highly,” said Kaz.
“But the pay is excellent,” offered Nikolai.
“We don’t need money,” said Wylan.
“Isn’t it glorious?” Jesper sighed happily.
Kaz smoothed a gloved hand over his lapel, looking at no one. “It’s for Inej.”
Wylan set down the dirty glasses. “Why didn’t you say so? What do you need?”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“Why does it matter?” asked Nikolai.
“Because unlike Kaz, I have a conscience.”
“I have a conscience,” said Kaz. “It just knows when to keep its mouth shut.”
Jesper snorted. “If you have a conscience, it’s gagged and tied to a chair somewhere.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“He was here because he desperately needed the money. And if there was another reason, a tall, lanky reason with a too-strong taste for games of chance, he wasn’t going to think about that right now.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom