"Despise your heart. I wanted to. I didn't want to grieve anymore, to feel loss or guilt, or worry. I wanted to be hard, calculating. I wanted to be fearless."

"If it works, it will be plenty dramatic. And I suppose that if it doesn't work, it will be even more dramatic, what with the blast.""David, I think you just made a joke."He frowned, utterly perplexed. "Did I?"

"You cannot make this kind of decision," he said. "Go off with someone you barely know. You're seventeen.""And you're the guy who got drunk on eggnog last Christmas and danced to 'Turn The Beat Around' in Aunt Rachel's wig, so stop acting like you're in charge.""We agreed not to mention that ever again," Jason whispered furiously."

"Because I am a doll, and a servant. Because I am a pretty thing and a soldier all the same."

"Sisters in battle, I am shield and blade to you. As I breathe, your enemies will know no sanctuary. While I live, your cause is mine."

"David looked at me, then, the regret plain on his face. No matter what I said, we both knew the hard truth. We do our best. We try. And usually, it makes no difference at all."

"I've always known that whatever marriage I made would be political. It would be about power, not love. But we might get lucky. In time, we might have both.''Or the third amplifier will turn me into a power-mad dictator and you'll have to kill me.''Yes, that would make for an awkward honeymoon."

"Waiting was the part of the criminal life so many people got wrong. They wanted to act instead of hold fast and gather information. They wanted to know instantly without having to learn. Sometimes the trick to getting the best of a situation was just to wait. If you didn't like the weather, you didn't rush into the storm - you waited until it changed. You found a way to keep from getting wet."

"Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return."

"What is she to you anyway?""Here's my answer captain. She's the thing that made this all okay-the threadbare coats and the old boots and the guns that jams when you most need them to fire, the loneliness of knowing that you don't matter, that you will never matter, the fact that you're just another body, another uniform to be sent into the fold or the frost, another good boy who knows his place, who does his job, who doesn't ask questions, who will lie down and die and be forgotten. What is she? She's everything, you dumb son of a bitch."

"He looked down at his boots. "That berth belongs to you too. It will always be there when-if you want to come back."Inej could not speak. Her heart felt too full, a dry creek bed ill-prepared for such rain. "I don't know what to say."

"I prefer to think of the good times. Like when you held my hair as I was vomiting into a bucket."

"You have your own problems right now, Zenik, said a voice in her head. Stop worrying about saving the world and save your own ass. Sometimes her inner voice could be very wise."

"Mal was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "I'm not sure who my first kill was. We were hunting the stag when we ran into a Fjerdan patrol on the northern border. I don't think the fight lasted more than a few minutes, but I killed three men. They were doing a job, same as I was, trying to get through one day to the next, then they were bleeding in the snow. No way to tell who was the first to fall, and I'm not sure it matters. You keep them at a distance. The faces start to blur."Really?"No."

"You're weak because you're afraid of people seeing your weakness. You're letting shame decide who you are."

"A wise warrior learns from her mistakes."

"Inej placed her hands on Nina's shoulders. "We'll see each other again."Of course we will. You've saved my life. I've saved yours."I think you're ahead on that count."No, I don't mean in the big ways. Nina's eyes took them all in. "I mean the little rescues. Laughing at my jokes. Forgiving me when I was foolish. Never trying to make me feel small. It doesn't matter if it's next month, or next year, or ten years from now, those will be the things I remember when I see you again.Kaz offered his gloved hand to Nina. "Until then, Zenik."Count on it, Brekker. They shook."

"I may not have been completely honest about that.""You? Less than truthful? I'm shocked, Nikolai. Shocked and horrified."

"She tilted her head back, breathing deeply. It was a stone gray day, the sea a bleak slate broken up by whitecaps, the sky pleated with thick ripples of cloud. A hard wind filled the sails, carrying the little boat over the waves. 'It feels good to be this kind of cold,' she murmured. 'This kind?''Wind in your hair, sea spray on your skin. The cold of the living."

"Greed is your god, Kaz."He almost laughed at that. "No, Inej. Greed bows to me. It is my servant and my lever."

"The names they gave were false ones, though the vows they made were true."

"She rested her head on his shoulder. "You're better than waffles, Matthias Helvar." A small smile curled the Fjerdan's lips. "Let's not say things we don't mean, my love."

"Nina, you taught me to be something better. They could be taught, too."

"I'll get them out and come back. I promise.""On your word as a cutthroat and a pirate?"He touched my cheek once, briefly. "Privateer."Another explosion rocked the grounds."Let's go!" shouted Mal.As we sprinted into the tunnel, I glanced back and saw Nikolai silhouetted against the purple twilight. I wondered if I'd ever see him again."

"The person she liked best didn't like her enough to want more of her, and she didn't want to pretend that wasn't awful."

"I promise, Matthias. I'll take you home.""Nina," he said, pressing her hand to his heart. "I am already home."

"If you don't care about money, Nina dear, call it by its other names.""Kruge? Scrub? Kaz's one true love?""Freedom, security, retribution."

"But when someone does wrong, when we make mistakes, we don't say we're sorry. We promise to make amends."I will."Mati en sheva yelu. This action will have no echo. It means we won't repeat the same mistakes, that we won't continue to do harm."

"Do you answer a question directly?""Hard to say. Ah, there, I've done it again."

"I opened my mouth, but the same words came to me again and again.I will not scream. I will not scream. I will not scream."

"There is no pain like the pain of transformation."

"Sometimes scientific discoveries are like that. Once people know something is possible, the pace of new findings increases. (Wylan)"

"Nina was about to snap that she didn't appreciate the sarcasm when she saw the expression on his face. He looked like someone had just given him a tuba full of puppies."

"When had she stopped being a child? The first time a guy had whistled at her out of a car window when she was walking to school? The moment she started wondering how she looked when she ran, what jiggled or bounced, instead of the pace she was setting? The first time she'd kept from raising her hand because she didn't want to seem too smart or too eager?"

"I need someone who can be invisible, who can become a ghost. Do you think you can do that?"I'm already a ghost, she thought. I died in the hold of a slaver ship."i think so."

"I think... sometimes when we find love we pretend it away, or ignore it, or tell ourselves we are imagining it. Because it's the most painful kind of hope there is. It can be ripped away so easily. By indifference. By death."

"I don't care if you danced naked on the roof of the Little Palace with him. I love you, Alina, even the part of you that loved him."

"And the look they exchanged could have melted miles of northern ice."

"I think we often hold heroines to an absurd standard. Be brave! Be wise! Always know what's in your heart and speak the truth of it! No and no and no. We fight to be brave. We learn to be wise. We struggle to know ourselves and voice what we want."

"Mal snickered. "What's so funny?""I just pictured the Darkling being cornered by a sweaty duchess trying to have her way with him."

"It's good to feel foolish sometimes, Fjerdan."You only say that because you have no shame."

"He doesn't need a donkey, says Ana Kuya. "He has a wife."

"You don't ask for forgiveness, Kaz. You earn it."

"Good luck, Oretsev. Find the firebird, and when this is over, I'll see you well rewarded. A farmhouse in Udova. A dacha near the city. Whatever you want.""I don't need any of that. Just..." He dropped Nikolai's hand and looked away. "Deserve her."

"At that moment, the creature's back breached the waves, its body cutting through the water in a sinuous arch, rainbows sparking off the iridescent scales on its back. Rusalye."

"Sometimes when we find love we pretend it away, or ignore it, or tell ourselves we're imagining it. Because it's the most painful kind of hope there is. By indifference . By death."

"They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things-if love can ever be called that."

"He'd broken his leg dropping down from the rooftop. The bone didn't set right, and he'd limped ever after. So he'd found himself a Fabrikator and had his cane made. It became a declaration. There was no part of him that was no broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken."

"We can't help the way we're born. We can't help what we are, only what life we choose to make for ourselves."

"Sometimes, the only way to get justice is to take it for yourself."