Ruin and Rising (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #3)

by Leigh Bardugo

A nice girl. A normal girl. That was what Mal needed. If he hadn’t taken up with someone new already, eventually he would. And someday I’d be a good enough person to wish him well. Just not today.

There is no greater power than faith, and there will be no greater army than one driven by it.”

“We would be equals until the day I dared to disagree with you, until the moment I questioned your judgment or didn’t do as I was bid. Then you would deal with me the way you dealt with Genya and your mother, the way you tried to deal with Mal.”

Thatta girl

“You might make me a better man.” “And you might make me a monster.”

“I’m talking to you right now.” “See? Is this so terrible?” “It wouldn’t be,” he said, gazing at me steadily, “if all I wanted to do was talk.”

OH?

Whether we found Nikolai or not,

DONT SAY THAT WHERE IS MY MANS?????

Nikolai slashed through the bonds on our wrists and yanked me to my feet.

YES THATS MY MANS!!!! HALLELUJAH

“First vomit, then tears,” Nikolai said, coming up beside me. “Don’t tell me I’ve lost my touch.”

Oh trust me not on me... I dont know what Alina is thinking!

I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret.”

SAME LMFAO

Malyen Oretsev,

HIS FULL NAME IS MALYEN? Since when? Lol

For a while, she was silent, her expression distant, her blind gaze locked on something I couldn’t see.

Dont worry she cant see it either...

“I don’t reserve my friendship for perfect people.

“Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what’s inside you? That’s steel. It’s brave and unbreakable. And it doesn’t need fixing.”

He took her face in his hands and kissed her.

AHHHH THATS SO CUTE!!! But also really REALLY not the time

For all my talk of vows and honor, what I really want is to put you up against that wall and kiss you until you forget you ever knew another man’s name. So tell me to go, Alina. Because I can’t give you a title or an army or any of the things you need.”

I wanted to hear him whisper my name in the dark, I wanted to ask him to stay. “Goodnight, Mal.”

OH THANK GOODNESS! I was so scared she was gonna kiss him fr lol

“Suffering is cheap as clay and twice as common. What matters is what each man makes of it.

“Why don’t you do it now and save him the trouble?” I muttered. “I think about it daily,” she snapped back. “Especially when you run your mouth.”

with a nod to the lopped-off mountain. “Anytime you want me to take off my hat, please just ask.”

LMAO

Light glinted off an emerald ring. The lush green stone at its center was bigger than my thumbnail and surrounded by stars of tiny diamonds.

SHE BETTER SAY YES OR I WILL FOR HER

“Understatement is overrated,” I said on a shaky breath. “I love it when you quote me.”

SMIRKY SMIRK I LOVE THEM!! <3

“Toss him over,” Zoya said. “Break his heart cruelly. I will gladly give our poor prince comfort, and I would make a magnificent queen.”

FINALLY SOMEONE ADMITS IT W ZOYA

“You actually might, Zoya. If you could stop being horrible for a minute.” “With that kind of incentive, I can manage a minute. Possibly two.”

Why do I kinda love her? She’s so me lol

Zoya sniffed, settling a seed pearl kokochnik atop her hair. “I still say it should be me.”

REALLY LAYING IT ON THICK THERE MA’AM

“I want you to know my name,” he said. “The name I was given, not the title I took for myself. Will you have it, Alina?”

OMG FOR REAL??? NEVER THOUGHT ID SEE THE DAY

After a long moment, he said, “Aleksander.”

FINALLY! IT ONLY TOOK THREE BOOKS!!!

“The apt pupil.

WILL YOU STOP SAYING THAT??? DEAR LORD!! “APT PUPIL” IS THE NEW “THE DARKLING”

“I am Morozova’s daughter, and the Darkling is the last of Morozova’s line.”

OH SHIT. DIDNT EXPECT THAT

Grief had its own life, took its own sustenance.

Morozova had managed to save himself, might he have rescued his child from the grasp of the river and used his skill to revive her once more?

Mal’s mom?

“What is infinite?” she recited. I knew that text well. “The universe and the greed of men,” I quoted back to her.

I stopped short. If I was related to Morozova, that meant I was related to the Darkling. And that meant I’d almost … the thought made my skin crawl. No matter how many years and generations might have passed, I still felt like I needed a scalding bath.

NO GOD NO PLEASE NO WHY????? WHYYYYYYYYY?!

All at once, the pain in my chest was so bad it nearly bent me double. Because this was what Mal had been coming to show me. Because that look—that open, eager, happy look—had been for me.

OUCH FUCKKKKKKKKK

Whether I was a Saint or a queen or the most powerful Grisha who ever lived, I would always turn to him.

TURN TO NIKOLAI INSTEAD I BEG

“I could promise to make you forget him,” Nikolai offered. “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

GO AHEAD AND STAB ME WHY DONT YOU??

Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay.

The stars looked like they were close together, when really they were millions of miles apart. In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach.

I’ll see you well rewarded. A farmhouse in Udova. A dacha near the city. Whatever you want.” “I don’t need any of that. Just…” He dropped Nikolai’s hand and looked away. “Deserve her.”

<3

His eyes widened.

Tell me why my eyes widened at the same time lol

He released another raw scream, and two black shards burst from his back. They unfurled. Like wings.

WHAAAAAAAT???

Nikolai had made a fool of the Darkling, and now the Darkling had taken my polished, brilliant, noble prince and made him into a monster.

“There is nothing wrong with my teeth.” “Not at all,” said Genya soothingly. “You’re the prettiest walrus I know. I’m just amazed you haven’t sawed through your lower lip.”

OK DAMN

This was what Ravka did. It made orphans. It made misery. No land, no life, just a uniform and a gun.

“Turned out I needed a good cry.” I braced myself for an insult, but all she said was, “Next time invite me. I could use one too.”

Keeping them close was a luxury I would pay for. Now I had more to lose.

“Mal,” I sighed. “If I murder her in the Sikurzoi, will you hold me accountable?” “Yes,” he said. Then added, “That means, ‘Let’s make it look like an accident.’”

“He watches her the way Harshaw watches fire. Like he’ll never have enough of her. Like he’s trying to capture what he can before she’s gone.”

“Maybe the ash is volcanic,”

Maybe it’s firebird ash

But what the Darkling did to Genya? To Baghra? What he tried to do to you with that collar? That’s weakness. That’s a man afraid.”

“It’s Mal,” I said finally. “What’s Mal?” asked Harshaw. “Mal is the third amplifier.”

WAIT WHAT????? HUH