The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2)

by S.A. Chakraborty

“It’s hard to watch the way this city ruins the ones we love.”

“All the blandly diplomatic things you could blather about, and you go straight to her.” Ali flushed. “I only meant—”

And suddenly all he wanted to do was step forward and drop down by her side. To ask her what she was reading and resume their bizarrely companionable friendship of hunting through the catacombs of the Royal Library and arguing about Arabic grammar. Nahri had been a light for him during a very dark time, and Ali hadn’t realized until he was standing here quite how much he’d missed her.

“You don’t stop fighting a war just because you’re losing battles, Alizayd. You change tactics.

“People do not thrive under tyrants, Alizayd; they do not come up with innovations when they’re busy trying to stay alive, or offer creative ideas when error is punished by the hooves of a karkadann.”

He will reign as Ghassan does: so afraid of his people that he crushes them.”

room. I should have been more aggressive in my dowry demands, she suddenly thought. Because she had not been paid enough to marry into this family.

“I’ve had enough of men hurting me because they were upset.” Her voice was hard, so much so that Muntadhir looked startled. But Nahri didn’t care. She rose to her feet, placing her chador over her head. “I won’t have it from the man I call my husband. Not anymore.”

He cares so much he’s willing to risk himself and everyone around him, unwilling to accept a shade of gray or a lesser evil in service to a greater good.”

one day you’ll go from witnessing the worst of tragedies to smiling and playing with your child in the space of an hour, and you’ll wonder if that’s for the best.”

“The work is what matters. You fix what you can and keep yourself whole enough to move on to the next patient.”

You had me carry out one of the worst crimes in our history, and when it blew up in your faces, you blamed me!”