Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

The boy was short and stocky, shy but always smiling. The girl was different, and she knew it.

“You know I’d be lost without you.” “You’ve never been lost in your life,” I scoffed. I was the mapmaker, but Mal could find true north blindfolded and standing on his head. He bumped his shoulder against mine. “You know what I mean.” “Sure,” I said. But I didn’t. Not really.

“Just you and me,” Mal said. “Really?” “It’s always just you and me, Alina.”

“Well?” he asked, looking up at me. “Myself,” I admitted. “Are you that funny?” “I’m hilarious.”

“The problem with wanting,” he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, “is that it makes us weak.”

He clutched my hands more tightly, holding them close to his heart. “I don’t care if you danced naked on the roof of the Little Palace with him. I love you, Alina, even the part of you that loved him.”

They are orphans again, with no true home but each other and whatever life they can make together on the other side of the sea.