begum

“The darkness seeps in a little more every day. What have I done? How can I be like this?”
― Marie Lu, The Young Elites

“It is pointless to believe what you see,
if you only see what you believe.
—“The Admiral,” from The Requiem of Gods Vol. XI, translated by Chevalle”
― Marie Lu, The Young Elites

“I am still alone, broken and small, the butterfly fighting for life in the grass.”
― Marie Lu, The Young Elites

“He needed to tell her...what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn't pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her. That without meaning to, he'd begun to lean on her, to look for her, to need her near. He needed to thank her for his new hat.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows