Sol de verano

All of us have secrets in our lives. We’re keepers or kept-from, players or played.

There are three kinds of secrets. One is the sort everyone knows about, the sort you need at least two people for. One to keep it. One to never know.

“You do not tell me what I should or shouldn’t do, Sobachka. I will be a king, and you will always be Nikolai Nothing.” But while Vasily had been sparring with instructors who never pushed him too hard and who always made sure to let the future king win, Nikolai had been spending his days roughhousing with peasants who didn’t know whose nose they were bloodying. Nikolai snatched Vasily’s finger and twisted. His brother yelped and fell to the floor. He seemed impossibly small. “A king never kneels, brother.”

“Drüsje,” Birgir hissed. Witch. “I don’t like that word,” Nina said, advancing. “Call me Grisha. Call me zowa. Call me death, if you like.”

“Remember that you are a wolf. And you cannot be caged.”

“We’re all broken,” Mor said. “In our own ways—in places no one might see.”

“But this is war. We don’t have the luxury of good ideas — only picking between the bad ones.”

Cassian grunted in pain, but lifted his bloodied hands—to cup her face. “I have no regrets in my life, but this.” His voice shook with every word. “That we did not have time. That I did not have time with you, Nesta.”

If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.

“I like for things to happen, for stories to unfold. And if I can't find a good enough story, I make one. “

The last thing he saw was her face. In the end, there was only love. So much more than he deserved.

Do better than this, Shazi. My queen is without limitations. Boundless in all that she does. Show them.

But I’m not here to fight. I’m here to win.

“On pain of death . . . you are as important to him as his own life.”

“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.”

“Trust but verify.” “Or don’t trust at all,” muttered Matthias.

Knowing when to pick your battles could be equally as important as where you fought them.