Anessa

“Like nightmares, dreams were insidious things, and didn't like being locked away.”
― Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

“Don't look at me like that," said Ruza.

"Like what?"

"Like I'm a beautiful book you're about to open and plunder with your greedy mad eyes."

Lazlo laughed. "Greedy mad eyes? Plunder? Are you afraid of me, Ruza?"

Ruza looked suddenly steely. "Do you know, Strange, that to ask a Tizerkane if he fears you is to challenge him to single comabt?"

"Well then," said Lazlo, who knew better than to believe anything Ruza said. "I'm glad I only said it to you and not one of the fearsome warriors like Azareen or Tzara."

"Unkind," said Ruza, wounded. His face crumpled. He pretended to weep. "I am fearsome," he insisted "I am."

"There, there," consoled Lazlo. "You're a very fierce warrior. Don't cry. You're terrifying."

"Really?" asked Ruza in a pitiful little hopeful voice. "You're not just saying that?"

"You two idiots," said Azareen, and Lazlo felt a curious twinge of pride, to be called an idiot by her, with what might have been the tiniest edge of fondness.”
― Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

“He had loved the library, and had felt, as a boy, as though it had a kind of sentience, and perhaps loved him back. But even if it was just walls and a roof with papers inside, it had bewitched him, and drawn him in, and given him everything he needed to become himself.”
― Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

“Are you going to be sick?”
I raise my head. The duke is gone, but Helena is on the window seat, twisting her necklace around her fingers. I don’t answer, because I don’t believe a prisoner owes his captors any sort of report on his health. That, and if I’m going to be sick, I’d prefer to do it all over her, and I’d prefer it to be a stealth attack.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue