Elena Hect

“The adjutant, Twenty Cicada, made an entirely remarkable noise, like he’d drowned a laugh and swallowed its corpse.”
― Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace

“Sometimes I think that’s what love is, really—giving each other matching scars.”
― Ava Reid, Fable for the End of the World

“The reason magical girls exist is because they needed their power the most. In other words, before a magical girl awakens her powers, she’s the weakest person in the world.”
― Park Seolyeon, A Magical Girl Retires

“My hunger roused me. In the depths of the sea, I drew upon my greed, my insatiable ambition. I cried out to my shadow self, my truest self, and reached for her through her iron imprisonment. I understood now why I was called a perversion. It was unnatural for a woman to have this kind of ambition, and yet I existed. My existence was my birthright, and it would be my justification.”
― K.X. Song, The Night Ends with Fire