The Six of Crows Duology (The Six of Crows, #1-2)

by Leigh Bardugo

“How about cake?” “What about it?” “I’m very keen on cake. I’m wondering if we can find some common ground.”

I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept from this oath.

He needed to tell her … what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn’t pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her.

“I will have you without armour, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.”

“I would come for you,” he said, and when he saw the wary look she shot him, he said it again. “I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.”

“All right,” said Nina, licking strawberry juice from her fingers in a way that thoroughly defeated Matthias’ ability to form a rational thought.

“Jes, I’ve thought about this—” “Thought of me? Late at night? What was I wearing?”

It was a smile he thought he might die to earn again.

“Death is a gift you haven’t yet earned.”