Nicole

“Low. It was a low blow. I had everything - everything I’d wished for, dreamed of, begged the stars to grant me. He had nothing. Had been given everything and squandered it. He didn’t deserve my pity, my sympathy. No, Tamlin deserved what he’d brought upon himself, this husk of life. He deserved every empty room, every snarl of thorns, every meal he had to hunt for himself.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Frost and Starlight

“I need to move around a bit. To shuffle my surroundings. To wake up in cities I don't know my way around and have conversations in languages I cannot entirely comprehend. There is always this tremendous longing in my heart to be lost, the be someplace else, to be far far away from all of this.”
― Beau Taplin

“I get this feeling,' I said, pacing a step, the ancient wood floorboards creaking beneath my boots, my power a writhing, living thing prowling through my veins, 'that it's all some sort of joke. Some sort of cosmic trick, and that no one- no one- can be this happy and not pay for it.'

'You've already paid for it, Rhys. Both of you. And then some.'

I waved a hand. 'I just...' I trailed off, unable to finish the words.

Cassian stared at me for a long moment.

Then he crossed the distance between us, gathering me in an embrace so tight I could barely breathe. 'You made it. We made it. You both endured enough that no one would blame you if you danced off into the sunset like Miryam and Drakon and never bothered with anything else again. But you are bothering- you're both still working to make this peace last. Peace, Rhys. We have peace, and the true kind. Enjoy it- enjoy each other. You paid the debt before it was ever a debt.'

My throat tightened, and I gripped him hard around his wings, the scales of his leathers digging into my fingers. 'What about you?' I asked, pulling away after a moment. 'Are you... happy?'

Shadows darkened his hazel eyes. 'I'm getting there.'

A halfhearted answer.

I'd have to work on that, too. Perhaps there were threads to be pulled, woven together.

Cassian jerked his chin toward the door. 'Get going, you bastard. I'll see you in three days.'

I nodded, opening the door at last. But paused on the threshold. 'Thanks, brother.'

Cassian's crooked grin was bright, even if those shadows still guttered in his eyes. 'It's an honour, my lord.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Frost and Starlight

“The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps.”
― Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train