Aileen

“Why won’t you leave me alone?” I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to work at my desk.

Long minutes passed. I didn’t think he would answer. I even had time to hope he might have gone, until I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“Then I’d be alone, too," he said, and he stayed the whole night through, till the lamps burned down to nothing.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“Wasn't he the one who sliced off his ear and mailed it to his girlfriend?"

"Van Gogh," said Varen, in a monotone that suggested he might be in pain.

"Van Gogh," Gwen said, leaning away, waving the apple. "Edgar Allan Poe. Close enough!”
― Kelly Creagh, Nevermore

“Watch yourself, Nikolai,” Mal said softly. “Princes bleed just like other men.”
Nikolai plucked an invisible piece of dust from his sleeve. “Yes,” he said. “They just do it in better clothes.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“You know the problem with heroes and saints, Nikolai?” I asked as I closed the book’s cover and headed for the door. “They always end up dead.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm