azalea ♡

“There was something about the stories bound between those covers, and the myriad species of Folk weaving in and out of them, each one a mystery begging to be solved. I suppose most children fall in love with faeries at some point, but my fascination was never about magic or the granting of wishes. The Folk were of another world, with its own rules and customs---and to a child who always felt ill-suited to her own world, the lure was irresistible.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

“Our illusions weave roses around us, and when we try to escape, we are met with thorns.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

“We must discuss, then, the relationship between women and water. When men fall into the sea, they drown. When women meet the water, they transform. It becomes vital to ask: is this a metamorphosis, or a homecoming?”
― Ava Reid, A Study in Drowning

“And it felt good to be uncontained, the way a bird must feel when it realizes that the thing constraining it was nothing more than an eggshell - delicate and fragile, and just waiting to be cracked open.”
― Kelly Barnhill, When Women Were Dragons