King of Scars (King of Scars, #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

“The public may forget how handsome I am.” “I doubt it. Your face is on the money.”

I love their relationship

But two years working with you has worn away my pride.

“If they do, you can have them beheaded.”

“The men or my wife?”

“Both. Just make sure to get her dowry first.”

“Ruthless.” “Practical.

“Why do you never kiss me sweetly in the morning, Zoya?” “I do nothing sweetly, Your Highness.”

I cannot forge a marriage founded on lies.” “Aren’t most?” “Ever the romantic.” “Ever practical.”

“Then come here, Zoya, and kiss me sweetly as a new bride would.”

Tonight let’s pretend we’re an old married couple.”

If any other man had said such a thing, she would have punched him in the jaw. Or possibly taken him to bed for a few hours.

A man without honor, said Matthias’ voice in her head. He should be ashamed. Nina snorted. If men were ashamed when they should be, they’d have no time for anything else.

If we’d never gone to the Ice Court, would Matthias still be alive? Would my heart still be whole?

You showed mercy, Nina. Never regret that.

But mercy was a luxury Matthias could afford. He was dead, after all.

It seems rude to mention tha...

“I look uncooked,”

“You look Fjerdan.”

Don’t start trouble. She hadn’t, but she intended to finish it.

“Call me Grisha. Call me zowa. Call me death, if you like.”

He’d come to recognize the bizarre phenomenon of Zoya’s beauty, the way men loved to create stories around it. They said she was cruel because she’d been harmed in the past. They claimed she was cold because she just hadn’t met the right fellow to warm her. Anything to soften her edges and sweeten her disposition—and what was the fun in that? Zoya’s company was like strong drink. Bracing—and best to abstain if you couldn’t handle the kick.

Nikolai set to opening the Schuyler combination locks he’d learned about from a certain master thief in Ketterdam.

KAZ?????

Lesser animals whined and struggled when they’d been caught in a snare. The fox found a way out.

Here, on this mountaintop, Nina was surrounded by graves.

“You’re late,”

“I’m the king,”

“That means you’r...

“Never had a gift for pining,” Nikolai said. “Though I do like to show off my profile by staring mournfully out of windows.”

Icon

“Pray go on,”

“I’d like to see if an excess of irony can actually kill a man.”

Nikolai might joke all he liked, but every concession they made to the Apparat felt like a misstep. The old king, the Darkling, Alina Starkov—they’d all bargained with the priest, and all of them had paid in blood.

The water hears and understands. The ice does not forgive.

He would do what he had always done: He would charge forward and pray that hope might be waiting like the roots of the thorn wood—just out of sight.

Fear is a phoenix.

You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.

“We should send him to Ketterdam to preach to Kaz Brekker and the rest of those reprobates,” suggested Zoya. Nikolai winced. “He’d certainly get his martyrdom.”

“I suppose the secret is that I cannot stand being alone.”

“But there are some places no one can go with us.”

“That squash is as wide as I am tall,”

“And twice as handsome.” “Half as handsome,”

“Ah,”

“but the squash doesn...

Hope was the wind that came from nowhere to fill your sails and carry you home.

“A king never kneels, brother.”

“My ruthless Zoya, I’ll load the gun myself.”

There’s poison in this place.

But just how deep does it go?

“Unnatural, they called me. A woman’s body is meant to be soft, but mine was hard. A lady is meant to take small, graceful steps, but I strode. I was a laughingstock.”

“My father blamed himself for corrupting me. I couldn’t sing or paint, but I could clean a deer and string a bow. I could build a shelter. All I wanted was to escape to the woods. Sleep beneath the stars.”

“Zoya, did you just call me handsome?”