"We put on our best clothes and die like heroes."

"You're very welcome," she said, giving my hair a hard tug. "You should be used to being gawked at by now.""And yet I'm not.""Well, if it gets too bad, give me a signal, and I'll get up on the banquet table, toss my skirt over my head, and do a little dance. That way no one will be looking at you."

"I have loved you all my life, Mal," I whispered through my tears. "There is no end to our story."

"Kaz reached into his coat pocket. "Here," he said and handed Jesper a slender book with an elaborate cover."Are we going to read to each other?""Just flip it open to the back."Jesper opened the book and peered at the last page, puzzled. "So?""Hold it up so we don't have to look at your ugly face.""My face has character. Besides - oh!""An excellent read, isn't it?""Who knew I had a taste for literature?"

"She righted herself, her balance returning. Had she really thought the world didn't change? She was a fool. The world was made of miracles, unexpected earthquakes, storms that came from nowhere and might reshape a continent. The boy beside her. The future before her. Anything was possible."

"Jesper: "If Pekka Rollins kills us all, I'm going to get Wylan's ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost.Kaz: "I'll just hire Matthias' ghost to kick your ghost's ass.Matthias: "My ghost won't associate with your ghost."

"And feast on the dead, I thought with a shudder. As if he could read my thoughts, he pressed a hand to my shoulder. His fingers were long and white, splaying over my arm like a waxen spider. If the gesture was meant to comfort me, it failed."

"You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled - not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did."

"He has served countless kings, faked countless deaths, bided his time, waiting for you."

"The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true."

"Why can a Grisha possess but one amplifier? I will answer this question instead: What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men."

"And what god do you serve, then?"Whichever will grant me good fortune. "I don't think gods work that way. "I don't think I care."

"I'd learned to avoid mirrors. They never seemed to show me what I wanted to see."

"This goes to show you that sometimes the unseen is not to be feared and that those meant to love us most are not always ones who do."

"The ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?"

"The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him forever."

"I rolled my eyes. "For defending my honor, you dullard."He yanked me beneath a shadowed awning. I had a moment's panic when I thought he'd spotted trouble, but then his arms were around me and his lips were pressed to mine.When he finally drew back, my cheeks were warm and my legs had gone wobbly."Just to be clear," he said, "I'm not really interested in defending your honor.""Understood," I managed, hoping I didn't sound too ridiculously breathless."

"He swept the red cloak around Inej's shoulders in a rain of petals and blossoms as she continued to strap on her knives. She looked almost as startled as the flower seller."What?" he asked as he tossed her a Mister Crimson mask that matched his own."Those were my mother's favorite flower.""Good to know Van Eck didn't cure you of sentiment.""Nice to be back, Kaz.""Good to have you back, Wraith."

"I miss a good cup of tea, dancing, boys- definitely not rain.""We dance," Diana protested.Maeve had just laughed. "You dance differently when you know you won't live forever."

"What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary."

"The easiest way to steal a man's wallet is to tell him you're going to steal his watch."

"There is something more powerful than any army. Something strong enough to topple kings, and even Darklings. Do you know what that thing is?I shook my head, inching away from him."Faith, he breathed, his black eyes wild. "Faith."

"I was done with hesitation. It wasn't just that we'd run out of options, or that so much was riding on the firebird's power. I'd simply grown ruthless enough or selfish enough to take another creature's life. But I missed the girl who had shown the stag mercy, who had been strong enough to turn away from the lure of power, who had believed in something more. Another casualty of this war."

"She lived in happy solitude, and grew old, and never worried when her beauty faded, for in her reflection she always saw a free woman."

"They wanted a Grisha queen. Mal wanted a commoner queen. And what did I want? Peace for Ravka. A chance to sleep easy in my bed without fear. An end to the guilt and dread that I woke to every morning. There were old wants too, to be loved for who I was, not what I could do, to lie in a meadow with a boy's arms around me and watch the wind move the clouds."

"Her heart felt too full, a dry creek bed ill-prepared for such rain."

"When we get our money, you can burn kruge to keep you warm.""I'm going to pay someone to burn my kruge for me.""Why don't you pay someone else to pay someone to burn your kruge for you? That's what the big players do."

"Do you think I could have come to you again and again, if you had been less alone?You called me and I answered."

"Where are you going?" she called after me, her voice mocking. "What's waiting for you out there?" "Nothing!" I shouted at her. "No one!"

"She'd hurt him, but she'd attempted everything in her power to make things right. She'd shown him in a thousand ways that she was honorable and strong and generous and very human, maybe even more vividly human than anyone he'd ever known."

"Wylan summoned every bit of bravado he'd learned from Nina, the will he'd learned from Matthias, the focus he'd studied in Kaz, the courage he'd learned from Inej, and the wild, reckless hope he'd learned from Jesper, the belief that no matter the odds, somehow they would win."

"They are orphans again, with no true home but each other and whatever life they can make together on the other side of the sea."

"I was just a girl again, but this girl didn't owe her strength to fate or chance or a grand destiny. I'd been born with my power; the rest I'd earned."

"Nina would never let Kaz abandon her. She'd fight with everything she had to free Inej even if she was still in the grips of Parem. Matthias would stand by her with that great heart full of honor."

"I don't think-""Clearly. Why start now?"

"It's always been this way. There were rumors about me even before I was born. It's why my mother never calls me Sobachka. She says it makes me sound like a mongrel."My heart gave a little pang at that. I'd been called plenty of names growing up."I like mongrels," I said. "They have cute floppy ears.""My ears are very dignified."

"I thought the love I'd had for him belonged to the past, to the foolish, lonely girl I never wanted to be again. I'd tried to bury that girl and the love she'd felt, just as I'd tried to bury my power. But I wouldn't make that mistake again."

"I think the hard work of writing is just how long a book is terrible before it's good."

"Human courage was different from Amazon bravery. She saw that now. For all the suspicion and derision she'd heard from her mother and her sisters about the mortal world, Diana couldn't help but admire the people with whom she traveled. Their lives were violent, precarious, fragile, but they fought for them anyway, and held to the hope that their brief stay on this earth might count for something. That faith was worth preserving."

"Have any of you wondered what I did with all the cash Pekka Rollins gave us?""Guns?" asked Jesper."Ships?" queried Inej."Bombs?" suggested Wylan. "Political bribes?" offered Nina. They all looked at Matthias. "This is where you tell us how awful we are," she whispered."

"Of course I'm jealous. I thought I was going to get to punch him. That isn't the point."

"Van Eck raised a brow. "How old are you, girl? Sixteen? Seventeen? Nations rise and fall. Markets are made and unmade. When power shifts, someone always suffers."

"I will tell you a story, one I used to tell to a little boy with dark hair. A silent boy who rarely laughs, who listened more closely than I realized. A boy who had a name and not a title."

"She'd shown him in a thousand ways that she was honorable and strong and generous and very human, maybe even more vividly human than anyone he'd ever known. And if she was, then Grisha weren't inherently evil. They were like anyone else-full of the potential to do great good, and also great harm. To ignore that would make Matthias the monster."

"Kaz had always kept himself at a remove from everyone. They'd wanted camaraderie, friendship, but he had never agreed to play their game, only his own."

"Hope was tricky like water. Somehow it always found a way in."

"Jesper knocked his head against the hull and cast his eyes heavenward. "Fine. But if Pekka Rollins kills us all, I'm going to get Wylan's ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost.Brekker's lips quirked. "I'll just hire Matthias' ghost to kick your ghost's ass."My ghost won't associate with your ghost, Matthias said primly, and then wondered if the sea air was rotting his brain."

"Survival wasn't nearly as hard as he'd thought once he left decency behind."

"I just know there's no way to live without pain - no matter how long or short your life is. People let you down. You get hurt and do damage in return."

"I tilted my head back, breathing deeply. It was a clear, moonless night, and after those long months underground, the sight of all that sky was dizzying. And so many stars-a glittering, tangled mass that seemed close enough to touch. I let their light fall over me like a balm, grateful for the air in my lungs, the night all around me."