azalea ♡

“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

“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

“But if fairies and monsters were real, so were the women who defeated them.”
― Ava Reid, A Study in Drowning

“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