Elyn

“When you stand out there," John continues in a hoarse voice, "keep your chin up, all right? Don't let them get to you."
"I won't."
"Make them work for it. Punch someone if you have to." John gives me a sad, crooked smile. "You're a scary kid. So scare them. Okay? All the way until the end."
For the first time in a long time, I feel like a little brother. I have to swallow hard to keep my eyes dry. "Okay," I whisper.”
― Marie Lu, Legend

“Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
-But who is that on the other side of you?”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“Plans. They're fickle things.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society

“Who can tell me what S-I-N-G stands for?” asked one of the instructors.
“Sing?” offered a girl, chewing gum. A few people snickered. Kate hoped she was joking but feared she wasn’t.
“Um, yes,” drawled the teacher, “but I meant, what do the letters stand for?”
Stomach. Instep. Nose. Groin.
A brawny boy raised his hand. “Stomach, instep, nose, groin?”
“Very good!”
Kate wanted to point out that Corsai didn’t have stomachs, insteps, noses, or groins, and if you got close enough to hit a Malchai, it would probably rip your throat out.”
― Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song