Joy Zhang

“Was it all in my head? A Lunar trick?”
Her stomach twisted. “No.” She shook her head, fervently. How to explain that she hadn’t had the gift before? That she couldn’t have used it against him? “I would never lie—”
The words faded. She had lied. Everything he knew about her had been a lie.
“I’m so sorry,” she finished, the words falling lamely in the open air.
Kai peeled his eyes away, finding some place of resignation off in the glistening garden. “You’re even more painful to look at than she is.”
― Marissa Meyer, Cinder

“Dead lions,” Molly said.
“What about them?”
“It’s a kids’ party game. You have to pretend to be dead. Lie still. Do nothing.”
“What happens when the game’s over?” Lamb asked.
“Oh,” she said. “I expect all hell breaks loose.”
― Mick Herron, Dead Lions

“In fairy tales, when you were offered a choice of doors, there was generally a tiger behind one of them. That was why it was best to kick them down.”
― Mick Herron, Real Tigers

“No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for 'good luck.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows