Aurégane

“You didn’t turn away. Even when you didn’t like what you saw in me. You kept looking.” Darlington’s gaze shifted and flickered like firelight. Gold and then amber. Bright and then shadowed. “Maybe I know a fellow monster when I see one.” It felt like a cold hand shoving her away. Like a warning. She wasn’t stupid enough to ignore it. “Maybe,” Alex whispered. She made herself turn, leave the ballroom, walk down that dark hall. She forced herself not to run. Maybe they were just two killers, cursed to endure each other’s company, two doomed spirits trying to find their way home. Maybe they were monsters who liked the feeling of another monster looking back at them. But enough people had abandoned them both. She wasn’t going to be the next.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Hell Bent

“You'd think I'd be used to this by now."
"Sorasa?"
"Death," Dom clipped. "Though I supposed they are interchangeable.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“Everything was going the way it always did, from bad to worse.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Hell Bent

“Real power. Erida felt it flowing through her veins now, as if drawn from the throne beneath her and the crown on her brow. It was more seductive than anything and anyone the Queen had ever know. She wanted more of it, but beyond that, she wanted to keep it.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker