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

by Leigh Bardugo

“I’m sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now.”

I remember driving around Los Angeles, running errands, trying to figure out what I really wanted Mal to say in this moment. Unlike the Darkling, he's a teenage boy and he really has no game. But we all want to be seen truly—the whole mess of our talents and our faults—and loved because of that mess, not despite it. And at this point, both Mal and Alina have been through so much. They're different people than they were at the start of the book. The time they spend hunting the stag is an opportunity for them to get to know each other anew, to look at each other through new eyes. There's also something being telegraphed here because it's no coincidence that this is the moment the stag chooses to appear to Alina.