Samantha Shannon

Maybe not the blacklisted music and forbidden novels, but I could have found a tree to read by, or made coffee before daybreak, under other circumstances.

“Do you think me a tyrant?”

“I think you a self-righteous fool whose head is harder than a rock. And I would not change you for the world.”

“Tell me, Eadaz uq-Nāra,” she said softly, “am I a greater fool to want you still?”

Ead crossed the space between them. “No more a fool than I,” she said, “to love you as I do.

Just because something has always been done does not mean that it ought to be done.”

Whose word did he fondly follow

That he dared this perilous voyage,

These raging seas?

“That one day, you will forgive yourself. You are in the spring of your life, child, and have much to learn about this world. Do not deny yourself the privilege of living.”

To be a Miduchi is not to be pure, Tané. It is to be the living sea. That is why I chose you. You have a dragon’s heart

I would live alone for fifty years to have one day with you.”

“All the world is a cage in a young girl’s eyes.”

“Are you afraid?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Fear will make you fight.