An Unkindness of Magicians (The Unseen World #1)

by Kat Howard

Handwritten letters in bordeaux ink, sealed with wax. Though no matter which medium carried it, in each instance, the words were the same: Fortune’s Wheel has begun its Turning. When it ceases rotation, all will be made new.

A group of girls passed by her on the sidewalk, leaning into one another, as close as secrets. Laughing, smiling. Hands in each other’s pockets, arms slung around shoulders, heads tipped back, faces relaxed.

No girls walk with their hands in someone else's pocket. Also if they are doing that-how are their arms around their shoulders, what kind of freakishly long arms do these people have.

“Will you play our nightmares over the walls like movies?” “It’s not a bad idea. If I do, I promise to buy you popcorn first.” “And sit with me and hold my hand during the scary bits?” He stepped close enough that she could feel the warmth of his skin. “They’ll all be scary bits. That’s the point of nightmares.”

“Coffee,” Laurent said. He suspected that this was more of a whiskey conversation, but it was 9:23 and there were lines.

But some very few of us come out of it quite well. For a certain definition of quite well, anyway.

“Sydney?” Ian stepped back. “You’re a Prospero?” “No,” she said. “I’m a Shadow. But I’m a Shadow who knows who gave her away.”

“Take your hands off of me or I will remove them from your wrists.”

“This was never a home. And I made myself what I am.”

Then, quieter. “Magic was who I was. I felt it in my blood and my bones, Ian. It was me, and now it’s gone, and I don’t know who the fuck I am anymore.”

So happy I won't have to deal with emo Sydney much longer