Middlegame (Alchemical Journeys, #1)

by Seanan McGuire

The unspoken pieces of language are sometimes the most painful.

One less mouth to feed in the new world can only be a good thing.

“This is so weird,” says Dodger. “Isn’t it great?”

(There is value in the loyalty of subordinates. There is mercy in their betrayals.)

This voice was the first voice the world contained. This was the voice that pulled him from his mother’s womb and said, “Oh, I think you’ll do,” like he was a tool,

She is crumpled and cast-aside, exhausted from her own efforts to become something more than a consequence.

Here is a secret about powerful men, one they would prefer go unspoken: their arrogance is one of the greatest forces in the universe. Even the most paranoid among them see what they want to see, believe what they want to believe, and this creates cracks through which the clever may insinuate themselves, changing the story around them.

Some risks are too dangerous to take when there’s any way for them to be avoided.