Melissa

“I've read fairy tales, of course, and listened to plaintive love songs, but I never understood why anyone would wake up after a hundred years and marry the prince who broke into their bedroom for a kiss. Or dance with a stranger once and decide to spend the rest of their lives together. I always felt a baffled kind of melancholy when others raptured over love at first sight, like maybe something was wrong with me, maybe I didn't know how to love someone at all.
I didn't know it wasn't just me.”
― Margaret Owen, Little Thieves

“Witchcore,” Hilda said, nodding wisely. “Not quite as popular as cottagecore or fairycore, but it’s up there.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“He would not beg Zoya to stay. It was not in his nature to plead with anyone, and that was not the pact they shared. They did not look to each other for comfort. They kept each other marching. They kept each other strong. So he would not find another excuse to get her talking again. He would not tell her he was afraid to be left alone with the thing he might become, and he would not ask her to leave the lamp burning, a child's bit of magic to ward off the dark.
But he was relieved when she did it anyway.”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars

“I don't like that word," Nina said, advancing. "Call me Grisha. Call me zowa. Call me death, if you like.”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars