Katelyn Verrill

“The blood dropped onto the latch and the book unlocked and the pages started flipping, Jasper explained. It was as if the book wanted to show her something.

Did you note the pages? Olive asked.

Weirdly, with blood pouring out of my eyes, I didn't think to, I said.”
― Jenn McKinlay, Witches of Dubious Origin

“There weren't enough rosary beads in the world, nor numbers to count backward, when you left my room at night. It may be dangerous to be unfathered, exposed on the animal plain, but life unmothered is simply unlivable. I mean, why go on? I held a little funeral every time you left the room. I tried to smother myself with my pillow. I replayed home movies of our lost lives in my head. Then, eventually, I'd start to worry a scab or to scratch my dry legs or count my teeth with my tongue, taking some clinical half interest in my body, waiting for the night to pass. I withstood this agony for at least ten minutes before slipping out of bed to put my eye to the crack in the door. Because the wonderful thing about my bedroom was that it looked out on you.”
― Amity Gaige, Heartwood

“I'm not a soldier or a diplomat, I confess, picking at a splinter fraying from the edge of the worn wood tabletop. I'm not brave the way my brother is, or clever like my sister. But if the Great Wood is taken, I think Venndarien Tarsin will come for Philippa. I swore on my own blood that I'd end him if he touches her and I plan to keep my word. I won't lie to you, though--the idea of killing anyone, even him, makes me sick and afraid.
For a long while, Hector does nothing, but I wait. Finally, he reaches across the table and pushes a belt and dagger toward me.
If it's your heart that fails you, we'll teach your hands what to do. Then they will act before your heart can stop them.”
― Laura E. Weymouth

“Terrible things happen in all worlds, little one. But every tree and every leaf in the Great Wood would have to burn before we allowed such things to break us.”
― Laura E. Weymouth, The Light Between Worlds