The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, #1)

by Rachel Gillig

“Which is more intricate?” he mused. “The designs of men, trying to reach gods, or that of gods, trying to reach men?” My hammer collided with a chunk of granite. “What is either to the intricacies of women, who reach both?”

You want to throw me down. And I, prideful, disdainful, godless, want to drag you into the dirt with me.

and I pulled my blankets over my ears and faced the wall, thinking on dying and killing and living, and how I was unsuited for all three.

“If you value your friend when he fights your battles for you—when he is rogue and ruthless—you must value him when he is gentle, too. Otherwise you do not value him at all.”

“The whole world is a wood, Bartholomew, and everyone in it is fashioned of birch bark. Frail as paper.”

“Only, you did not ask to become a Diviner, yet you swore all your worth to Aisling. It would be a sad story, were you to do that again.”

“I am years beyond my wisdom.”

“The tor was the only home I ever knew. But I have stepped down from its height and seen the world with my own eyes. You can’t take something like that back. Even if I returned to the cathedral, nothing can be as it was.” His fangs pressed over his teeth as he smiled. “You can never really go home.”

“You sound troubled.” “Aren’t you?” “Often, but also rarely.”