The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (Grishaverse, #0.5 & 2.5 & 2.6)

by Leigh Bardugo

“Do not behave as a tyrant and then tell me to scold a tyrant to behave. Show mercy and mercy you may be shown.”

“I will love an honest monster before I swear loyalty to a treacherous king.”

This is the problem with making a thing forbidden. It does nothing but build an ache in the heart.

You are worth more than that, she wanted to say. You should not have to earn him.

But hope rises like water trapped by a dam, higher and higher, in increments that mean nothing until you face the flood.