Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3)

by Kristin Cashore

“Perhaps your Grace is fearlessness,” she said. “I’m afraid of plenty of things,” he said. “I just do them anyway.

I do not consent to die, thought Bitterblue, desperate for air,

Bitterblue made a mental note to ask Madlen whether the medications she was taking for pain were dulling her intellect or whether she actually was stupid.

“There are no limits to the ways people you think you know can astonish you. I can’t explain the practice to you, Lady Queen. I wonder if it’s meant to be punishment for something one can’t forgive oneself for. Or an external expression, Lady Queen, of an internal pain? Or perhaps it’s a way to realize that you actually do want to stay alive.”