Soba

“She’d learned to use that darkness, learned how to fold herself into shadow until she was a slither of the night itself, learned how to grow claws and steal prince’s hearts. She’d learned to bide her time and wait for the best moment to strike.
Really, Black Jaga could hardly claim to be shocked by Zosia’s actions. She was the one who had shaped Zosia into what she was, the one who had raised her. Wasn’t she the monster the old witch had wished for? The monster she’d crafted in her own image.
You made me, Grandmother. Am I not everything you wanted me to be?
The witch had only herself to blame.”
― Alicia Jasinska, The Midnight Girls

“You don’t notice the bars of the cage,” Beata said, “unless you start to throw yourself against them. Surviving is a choice too.”
― Alicia Jasinska, The Midnight Girls

“War tends to make us all students of diplomacy, does it not? There is a story that Napoléon once told the widow of the Marquis de Condorcet that he detested women who meddled in politics. Do you know her reply?’

Sebastian shook his head.

‘She said, “You are right, of course, General. But in a country where one cuts off women’s heads, it is natural that they should wish to know the reason why.”
― C.S. Harris, Where Shadows Dance

“The dead don’t walk. Except, sometimes, when they do.”
― T. Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead