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

by Leigh Bardugo

You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled—not with all the good food or sunshine in the world.

That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.”

This goes to show you that sometimes the unseen is not to be feared and that those meant

to love us most are not always the ones who do.”

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

They pray that their children will be brave and clever and strong, that they will tell the true stories instead of the easy ones. They pray for sons with red eyes and daughters with horns.

remember that to use a thing is not to own it. And should you ever take a bride, listen closely to her questions. In them you may hear her true name like the thunder of a lost river, like the sighing of the sea.

Wanting is why people get up in the morning. It gives them something to dream of at night. The more I wanted, the more I became

like them, the more real I became.”

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

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