Leigh Bardugo Quotes

Rollins held up his watch chain. A turnip was hanging from the fob where his diamond-studded time piece should have been. "That little bastard
" Then a thought came to him. He reached for his wallet. It was gone. So was his tie pin, the Kaelish coin pendant he wore for luck, and the gold buckles on his shoes. Rollins wondered if he should check the fillings in his teeth.
"He picked your pockets?" Doughty asked incredulously.
No one got one over on Pekka Rollins. No one dared. But Brekker had, and Rollins wondered if that was just the beginning. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Thoughts of moonlight and silken hair evaporated in a black bolt of fury. Kaz saw Inej tug on the sleeve of her left forearm, where the Menagerie tattoo had once been. He had the barest inkling of what she'd endured there, but he knew what it was to feel helpless, and Van Eck had managed to make her feel that way again. Kaz was going to have to find a new language of suffering to teach that smug merch son of a bitch. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Her blades were reliable. And they made her feel like she'd been born with proper claws. ~ Leigh Bardugo

There's always more."
"More money, more mayhem, more scores to settle. Was there never another dream? ~ Leigh Bardugo

I thought you wanted to go."
"I wanted you to ask me to stay. ~ Leigh Bardugo

She'd never broken a bone, had surgery. But the worst damage didn't leave a mark. When Hellie died, it was as if someone had cut into Alex's chest, cracked her open like balsa wood. What if it really had been like that and she'd had to walk down the street bleeding, trying to hold her ribs together, her heart and her lungs and every part of her open to the world? Instead, the thing that had broken her had left no mark, no scar for her to point to and say, This is where I ended. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Well, Brekker, it's obvious you only deal in half-truths and outright lies, so you're clearly the man for the job. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Matthias was dreaming again. Dreaming of her. The storm raged around him, drowning out Nina's voice. And yet his heart was easy. Somehow he knew that she would be safe, she would find shelter from the cold. He was on the ice once more, and somewhere he could hear the wolves howling. But this time, he knew they were welcoming him home. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I understand you're the reason we made it out of the harbor alive."
"I suspect there were a lot of reasons," said Inej.
"I'm a reason," Jesper offered helpfully.
"All the same," said Matthias, ignoring him. "Thank you."
They moved on, and Jesper saw a pleased grin playing over Inej's lips.
"Surprised?" he asked.
"A bit," she admitted. "I spend so much time with Kaz. I guess - "
"It's a novelty to feel appreciated. ~ Leigh Bardugo

He looked down at the keys and played a gentle chord. Jesper wondered at how he could have mistaken Kuwei for Wylan. Their hands were completely different, the shape of the fingers, the knuckles.
"Jes," Wylan said, "did you mean what you told my father? Will you stay with me? Will you help?"
Jesper leaned back on the pianoforte, resting on his elbows. "Let's see. Live in a luxurious merch mansion, get waited on by servants, spend a little extra time with a budding demolitions expert who plays a mean flute? I guess I can manage it." Jesper's eyes traveled from the top of Wylan's red-gold curls to the tips of his toes and back again. "But I do charge a pretty steep fee."
Wylan flushed a magnificent shade of pink. "Well, hopefully the medik will be here to fix my ribs soon," he said as he headed back into the parlor.
"Yeah?"
"Yes," said Wylan, glancing briefly over his shoulder, his cheeks now red as cherries. "I'd like to make a down payment."
Jesper released a bark of laughter. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this good. And no one was even shooting at him. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I'm going to get my money, Kaz vowed. And I'm going to get my girl. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Thanks," said Jesper, and looped his arm around the guard's neck, applying pressure until his body went limp. Jesper slipped the leather strips from around his wrists, secured the guard's hands behind his back, and stuffed the kerchief from his neck into the guard's mouth. Then he rolled the body behind the altar. "Sleep well," Jesper said. He felt bad for the guy. Not bad enough to wake him up and untie him, but still. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I've been shot!" He had not been shot. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Her father would have said the shadows were about their own business tonight. Something bad was going to happen here. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Jesper always felt better when people were shooting at him. It wasn't that he liked the idea of dying (in fact, that potential outcome was a definite drawback), but if he was worrying about staying alive, he couldn't be thinking about anything else. ~ Leigh Bardugo

War is the price of change.'
'And it's ordinary people who pay it, peasants like me. Never men like you. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Watch yourself, Nikolai," Mal said softly. "Princes bleed just like other men."
Nikolai plucked an invisible piece of dust from his sleeve. "Yes," he said. "They just do it in better clothes. ~ Leigh Bardugo

In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Suli were travelers. For them, 'home' really just meant family. ~ Leigh Bardugo

What is power without someone to wield it over? ~ Leigh Bardugo

And I'm sorry to inform you, but you're not proper either. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Though he'd trusted her with his life countless times, it felt much more frightening to trust her with his shame ~ Leigh Bardugo

Help me," said Jesper. "We need to barricade the entrance."
The man behind the desk wore gray scholar's robes. His nostrils were flared so wide in effrontery that Jesper feared being sucked up one of them.
"Young man - " Jesper pointed his gun at the scholar's chest. "Move."
"Jesper!" his father said.
"Don't worry, Da. People point guns at each other all the time in Ketterdam. It's basically a handshake."
"Is that true?" his father asked as the scholar grudgingly moved aside and they shoved the heavy desk in front of the door.
"Absolutely," said Wylan.
"Certainly not ," said the scholar. ~ Leigh Bardugo

If this stains my teeth orange - " said Zoya.
"It will," interrupted Genya, "but I promise to put your teeth back whiter than they were before. I may even fix those weird incisors of yours."
"There is nothing wrong with my teeth."
"Not at all," said Genya soothingly. "You're the prettiest walrus I know. I'm just amazed you haven't sawed through your lower lip."
"Keep your hands off me, Tailor," Zoya grumbled, "or I'll poke your other eye out. ~ Leigh Bardugo

When Inej was on the high wire, it became her world. She could feel its tilt and pull. It was a planet and she was its moon. There was a simplicity to it that she never felt on the swings, where she was carried away by momentum. She loved the stillness she could find on the wire, and it was something no one else understood. She had fallen only once, and she ~ Leigh Bardugo

I poisoned my skin," Genya said harshly, "my lips. So that every time he touched me-" She shuddered slightly and glanced at David. "Every time he kissed me, he took sickness into his body." She clenched her fists. "He brought this on himself."
"But the poison would have affected you too," Nikolai said.
"I had to purge it from my skin, then heal the burns the lye would leave. Every single time." Her fists clenched. "It was well worth it."
Nikolai rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Did he force you?"
Genya nodded once. A muscle in Nikolai's jaw ticked. ~ Leigh Bardugo

What makes you think we can do this? There will be other teams out there, trained soldiers and spies, people with years of experience."
"This isn't a job for trained soldiers and spies. It's a job for thugs and thieves. Van Eck knows it, and that's why he brought us in. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I'd catch myself just walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I'd seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I'd realize that you weren't there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I've risked my life for you. I've walked half the length of Ravka for you, and I'd do it again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day. So don't tell me why we don't belong together, he said fiercely. ~ Leigh Bardugo

She had her aim now, her heart had direction, and though it hurt to know the path led away from him, she could endure it. ~ Leigh Bardugo

The world is changing," said Nikolai, the steel edge emerging in his voice. "We change with it, or there will be nothing to remember us but dust. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Matthias examined the posters. "One hundred thousand kruge!" He shot a disbelieving glower at Kaz. "You're hardly worth taht."
The hint of a smile tugged at Kaz's lips. "As the market wills it."
"Tell me about it," said Jesper. "They're only offering thirty thousand for me."
"Your lives are at stake," said Wylan. "How can you act like this is a competition?"
"We're stuck in a tomb, merchling. You take the action where you find it. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Inej nodded. "I gave your letter to the guard at the door, and it did the trick. They brought me directly to two members of the Triumvirate."
"Who did you meet with?" said Kaz.
"Genya Safin and Zoya Nazyalensky."
Wylan sat forward. "The Tailor? She's at the embassy?"
Kaz raised a brow. "What an interesting fact to forget to mention, Nina."
"It wasn't relevant at the time."
"Of course it's relevant!" Wylan said angrily.
Jesper was a little surprised. Wylan hadn't seemed to mind wearing Kuwei's features at first. He'd almost seemed to welcome the distance it gave him from his father. But that had been before they'd gone to Saint Hilde. And before Jesper had kissed Kuwei. ~ Leigh Bardugo

There was something soothing about the crackle of paper, the smell of ink, and the soft scratching of nibs and brushes. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Tell me some lies. ~ Leigh Bardugo

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. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Peace was like any high. It couldn't last. It was an illusion, something that could be interrupted in a moment and lost forever. ~ Leigh Bardugo

He gave his father a gentle shove. "Up the stairs."
"Jesper?" said a voice from beneath the nearest table. A pretty blonde girl looked up from where she was crouched on the floor.
"Madeleine?" Jesper said. "Madeleine Michaud?"
"You said we'd have breakfast!"
"I had to go to Fjerda."
"Fjerda?"
Jesper headed up the stairs after Wylan, then poked his head back into the reading room. "If I live, I'll buy you waffles."
"You don't have enough money to buy her waffles," Wylan grumbled.
"Be quiet. We're in a library. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Tell me about Dunyasha," he said.
"She was carrying quality blades." Inej took the shears from the table of the vanity and began cutting fresh strips of cloth from one of the towels. "I think she may be my shadow."
"Pretty solid shadow if she can throw knives."
"The Suli believe that when we do wrong, we give life to our shadows. Every sin makes the shadow stronger, until eventually the shadow is stronger than you."
"If that were true, my shadow would have put Ketterdam in permanent night."
"Maybe," Inej said, turning her dark gaze to his. "Or maybe you're someone else's shadow. ~ Leigh Bardugo

If you write, you're a writer. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I wish your donkey well, but you should always feel free to correct me when I make mistakes.'
'Yes, Your Highness,' Isaak said uncomfortably.
'Don't worry,' said Nikolai as they turned their backs on the gardens and headed toward the Grand Palace. 'It doesn't happen often. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Besides, she was the Wraith – the only law that applied to her was gravity, and some days she defied that, too. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Once it builds up in the victim's system, a threshold is reached, the organs begin to fail, and the degeneration is irreversible. It's not a killer. It's a thief. It steals years. And he will never get them back.
I felt a little chill at the satisfaction in her voice. ~ Leigh Bardugo

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. ~ Leigh Bardugo

So what did Jes say?' I asked again, when my brain felt a bit less scrambled.
'He said I should take good care of you.'
'That's all?'
Mal cleared his throat. 'And ... he said he would pray to the God of Work to heal your affliction.'
'My what?'
'I many have told him that you have a goiter.'
I stumbled. 'I beg your pardon?'
'Well, I had to explain why you were always clinging to that scarf.'
I dropped my hand. I'd been doing it again without even realizing.
'So you told him I had a goiter?' I whispered incredulously.
'I had to say something. And it makes you quite a tragic figure. Pretty girl, giant growth, you know.'
I punched him hard in the arm.
'Ow! Hey, in some countries, goiters are considered very fashionable.'
'Do they like eunuchs, too? Because I can arrange that.'
'So bloodthirsty!'
'My goiter makes me cranky. ~ Leigh Bardugo

There were patterns in the way people moved, the way they clustered around power. They thought they were drifting, milling aimlessly, but really they were being drawn towards people of status. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Perhaps Djel extinguished one light and lit another. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Wylan hadn't realized it then, but Kaz had known his true identity all along. Dirtyhands kept tabs on anyone who took up re
sidence in the Barrel, and he'd placed Wylan under Dregs protection, certain that one day a rich mercher's son would come in handy.
He had no illusions about why Kaz had looked out for him, but he also knew he never would have survived this long without his help. And Kaz didn't care if he could read. Kaz and the others teased him, but they'd given him a chance to prove himself. They valued the things he could do instead of punishing him for the things he couldn't. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Slowly, Genya stood, and silence fell around her. "How old are you, Yuri ?"

"Eighteen, moi soverenyi"

"When i was a year older than you, the Darkling set his mosnters on me, creatures born of the power you venerate so much. They had a taste for human flesh. He had to force them to stop."

"Then he was not so cruel-"

Genya held up a hand, and Nikolai was glad to see Yuri shut is mouth. "The Darkling didn't want me to die. He wante me to live - like this."

"More fool of him,"sais Nikolai quietly, "to let such soldier survive. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Zoya placed her hands on her hips. "Is anyone going to thank me - or Genya, for that matter - for this little miracle?"
"Thank you for nearly killing and then reviving the most valuable hostage in the world so you could use him for your own gain," Kaz said. "Now you need to go. The streets are almost empty, and you need to get to the manufacturing district."
Zoya's beautiful blue eyes slitted. "Show your face in Ravka, Brekker. We'll teach you some manners."
"I'll keep that in mind. When they burn me on the Reaper's Barge, I definitely want to be remembered as polite. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Jesper and Kaz swung around, crashed into the mechanism of the clock, righted themselves. It wasn't a fight, it was a brawl - graceless, a tangle of elbows and fists.
"Ghezen and his works, someone stop them!" Wylan said desperately.
"Jesper hasn't shot him," Nina said.
"Kaz isn't using his cane," said Inej.
"You think they can't kill each other with their bare hands?"
They were both bleeding - Jesper from a cut on his lip and Kaz from somewhere near his brow. Jesper's shirt was halfway over his head and Kaz's sleeve was tearing at the seam. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Jesper couldn't quite believe he was having a conversation with the Sturmhond. The privateer was a legend. He'd broken countless blockades on behalf of the Ravkans and there were rumors that… "Do you really have a flying ship? blurted Jesper.
"No."
"Oh."
"I have several."
"Take me with you. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I bunched the squirrel-fur hat up under my head and left the pack for Mal to use as a pillow. Then I pulled my coat close around me and huddled beneath the new furs. I was nodding off when I heard Mal return and settle himself beside me, his back pressed comfortably against mine. As I drifted into sleep, I felt like I could still taste the sugar from that sweet roll on my tongue, feel the pleasure of laughter gusting through me. We'd been robbed. We'd almost been killed. We were being hunted by the most powerful man in Ravka. But we were friends again, and sleep came more easily than it had in a long time. At some point during the night, I woke to Mal's snoring. I jabbed him in the back with my elbow. He rolled onto his side, muttered something in his sleep, and threw his arm over me. A minute later he started snoring again, but this time I didn't wake him. ~ Leigh Bardugo

It's simply a question of finding the right incentive. Pauper or prince, every man can be bought ~ Leigh Bardugo

Kaz can pick the lock, " said Wylan.
"No, " said Kaz, "I can't. "
"I don't think I ever heard those words leave your lips, " said Nina. "Say it again, nice and slow. ~ Leigh Bardugo

She always picks the most boring things on the rack, always in basic black. If it's shaped like a sack, even better."

"Maybe it feels easier that way, just being invisible instead of always worrying what people think of you."

Nim's voice was surprisingly emphatic. "But that's a choice too, right? Because people are always going to look. They're always going to judge, so you can say nothing or you can at least answer back. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Jesper Llewellyn Fahey, that is enough!" Colm roared. (...)
Inej cocked her head to one side. "Jesper Llewellyn Fahey?"
"Shut up," said Jesper. "It's a family name."
Inej made a solemn bow. "Whatever you say, Llewellyn. ~ Leigh Bardugo

But what about the rest of us? 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. That was how you survived when you weren't chosen, ~ Leigh Bardugo

Turner twisted in his seat to give her a long stare. "You don't always have to come out swinging. What are you so angry at?"

Alex felt an irritating jolt of embarrassment. "Everything." she muttered, gazing at the fogged-up windshield. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Now she remembered. He owed her an apology. "Say you're sorry."
"For what?"
"Just say it."
She didn't hear his reply. The world had grown very dark indeed. ~ Leigh Bardugo

One could plot violent espionage and still hope for dessert. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Was it wrong to notice how good someone's butt looked when a second earlier you'd thought he was dead? ~ Leigh Bardugo

I sought Morozova amplifiers for you Alina, so that we can rule as equals ~ Leigh Bardugo

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. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Jesper was used to people shooting at him. He would have been a little insulted if they'd stopped shooting at him. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Street law dictated that for a parley of this kind each lieutenant be seconded by two of his foot soldiers and that they all be unarmed. Parley. The word felt like a deception - strangely prim, an antique. No matter what street law decreed, this night smelled like violence. ~ Leigh Bardugo

There should be more magic. Not the creased-greasepaint performances of clowns and hack illusionists. Not card tricks. The magic he'd been promised would be found at the backs of wardrobes, under bridges, through mirrors. It was dangerous and alluring and it did not seek to entertain. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Jesper shrugged again. He adjusted the buttons on his shirt, touched his thumbs to his revolvers. When he felt like this, mad and scattered, it was as if his hands had a life of their own. His whole body itched. He needed to get out of this room.
Wylan laid his hand on Jesper's shoulder. "Stop."
Jesper didn't know if he wanted to jerk away or pull him closer.
"Just stop," Wylan said. "Breathe." Wylan's gaze was steady.
Jesper couldn't look away from that clear-water blue. He forced himself to still, inhaled, exhaled.
"Again," Wylan said, and when Jesper opened his mouth to take another breath, Wylan leaned forward and kissed him. Jesper's mind emptied. He wasn't thinking of what had happened before or what might happen next. There was only the reality of Wylan's mouth, the press of his lips, then the fine bones of his neck, the silky feel of his curls as Jesper cupped his nape and drew him nearer.
This was the kiss he'd been waiting for. It was a gunshot. It was prairie fire. It was the spin of Makker's Wheel. Jesper felt the pounding of his heart - or was it Wylan's? - like a stampede in his chest, and the only thought in his head was a happy, startled, Oh.
Slowly, inevitably, they broke apart. "Wylan," Jesper said, looking into the wide blue sky of his eyes, "I really hope we don't die. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Just waiting, hoping that you'd miss me enough to tell them all to go to hell. ~ Leigh Bardugo

We all did our part to bring about the end of the world. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Pick up the pace," Kaz said, eyeing his watch.
"If I spill a single drop of this, it will burn straight through the floor onto my father's dinner guests."
"Take your time. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Inej knew the moment Kaz entered the Slat. His presence reverberated through the cramped rooms and crooked hallways as every thug, thief, dealer, con man, and steerer came a little more awake. Per Haskell's favored lieutenant was home. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Or you could be my bodyguard," said Theo. "I've been told I'm not a very intimidating specimen."
"You held you own with a sword for a solid ten seconds," said Diana with a smile.
"Fifteen, at least!" he said. "I was counting. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Haskell whisked the pistol from his pocket and flipped open the barrel. It was empty. "You little--" Then Haskell barked a laugh and plucked the bullets from Kaz's hand, shaking his head. "You've got the devil's own blood in you, boy. Go get my money. ~ Leigh Bardugo

There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken. No one knew who he was. No one knew where he came from. He'd become Kaz Brekker, cripple and confidence man, bastard of the Barrel.
The gloves were his one concession to weakness. Since that night among the bodies and the swim from the Reaper's Barge, he had not been able to bear the feeling of skin against skin. It was excruciating to him, revolting. It was the only piece of his past that he could not forge into something dangerous. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I have been made to protect you. Even in death, I will find a way. ~ Leigh Bardugo

There are no good men in Ketterdam, Kaz said. And then he'd simply let go. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Weakness is a guise. Wear it when they need to know you're human, but never when you feel it. ~ Leigh Bardugo

A lie isn't a lie until someone believes it. It doesn't matter how charming you are if there's no one to charm. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Have power on this dark land to lighten it, and power on this dead world to make it live. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I took my time walking down to the lake, hoping that somehow the ache in my heart would ease. My joy at the success on the roof had drained away, leaving me hollow, like a well someone could shout down and hear nothing back but echoes. ~ Leigh Bardugo

David knew we were meeting in the Kettle," said Genya," and he guessed about the master flue."
David frowned. "I don't guess. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Who tells those stories? Tales of vengeful goddesses who wager in human lives for vanity's sake? Of course men believed a wonam's power must lie in the fineness of her features, the shapeliness of her limbs. You know better, Daughter of Earth. Helen's blood carried in it war, and in her seventeenth year, those powers reached their peak. So it was with every Warbringer. So it will be will Alia. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I can bear ugliness," he said. "I find the one thing I cannot live with is death. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Never has a gift for pining," Nikolai said. "Though I do like to show off my profile by staring mournfully out of windows. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I … There is no one I want more; there is nothing I want more than to be overwhelmed by you."
"But you don't want to kiss me?"
He inhaled slowly, trying to bring order to his thoughts. This was all wrong. "In Fjerda - " he began. "We're not in Fjerda." He needed to make her understand. "In Fjerda," he persisted, "I would have asked your parents for permission to walk out with you."
"I haven't seen my parents since I was a child."
"We would have been chaperoned. I would have dined with your family at least three times before we were ever left alone together."
"We're alone together now, Matthias."
"I would have brought you gifts."
Nina tipped her head to one side. "Go on."
"Winter roses if I could afford them, a silver comb for your hair."
"I don't need those things."
"Apple cakes with sweet cream."
"I thought drüskelle didn't eat sweets."
"They'd all be for you," he said.
"You have my attention."
"Our first kiss would be in a sunlit wood or under a starry sky after a village dance, not in a tomb or some dank basement with guards at the door. ~ Leigh Bardugo

What am I supposed to do with Cornelis Smeet after midnight?" Nina asked. "Try to talk him into spending the night with you."
"What?" Matthias had sputtered, red flooding his face all the way up to his ears.
"He won't say yes."
Nina sniffed. "Like hell he won't."
"Nina - " Matthias growled.
"Smeet never cheats at cards or on his wife," Kaz said. ~ Leigh Bardugo

On the way out, a man loading up a wagon exchanged a wave with them. "You boys looking for work?" he asked skeptically. "Neither of you looks up to a full day in the field."
"You'd be surprised," said Jesper. "We signed on to do some work out near Saint Hilde."
Wylan waited, nervous, but the man just nodded. "You doing repairs at the hospital?"
"Yup," Jesper said easily.
"Your friend there don't talk much."
"Shu," said Jesper with a shrug.
The older man gave some kind of grunt in agreement and said, "Hop on in. I'm going out to the quarry. I can take you to the gates. What are the flowers for?"
"He has a sweetheart out near Saint Hilde."
"Some sweetheart."
"I'll say. He has terrible taste in women."
Wylan considered shoving Jesper off the wagon. ~ Leigh Bardugo

What does that mean?" Matthias asked. "Goedmedbridge?"
"Good maiden bridge."
"Why is it called that?"
Nina leaned against the doorway and said, "Well, the story is that when a woman found out her husband had fallen in love with a girl from West Stave and planned to leave her, she came to the bridge and, rather than live without him, hurled herself into the canal."
"Over a man with so little honor?"
"You'd never be tempted? All the fruits and flesh of West Stave before you?"
"Would you throw yourself off a bridge for a man who was?"
"I wouldn't throw myself off a bridge for the king of Ravka. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Progress is a river. It cannot be called back once it leaps its banks. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Her time is better spent with me. The thorn wood is a path you walk alone, boy king."
"But it's a very arduous path," Nikolai said. "Who will carry my snacks? ~ Leigh Bardugo

The heart is an arrow. ~ Leigh Bardugo

There is no pain like the pain of transformation. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Huh," Zoya said to Adrik. "I'm impressed." At the elation that burst over his face, she groaned. "Never mind. I'm downgrading that to grudging approval. ~ Leigh Bardugo

You're the fool," Jesper snarled. "He's smarter than most of us put together, and he deserves a better father than you. ~ Leigh Bardugo

You are a stolen painting, Kuwei. Too recognizable to sell on the open market, too valuable to leave lying around. You are worthless to me. ~ Leigh Bardugo

He would not beg Zoya to stay. It was not in his nature to plead with anyone, and that was not the pact they shared. They did not look to each other for comfort. They kept each other marching. They kept each other strong. So he would not find another excuse to get her talking again. He would not tell her he was afraid to be left alone with the thing he might become, and he would not ask her to leave the lamp burning, a child's bit of magic to ward off the dark.
But he was relieved when she did it anyway. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Kaz rolled his eyes. The easiest way to steal a man's wallet is to tell him you're going to steal his watch. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Wylan - and the obliging Kuwei - will get the weevil working," Kaz continued. "Once we have Inej, we can move on Van Eck's silos."

Nina rolled her eyes. "Good thing this is all about getting our money and not about saving Inej. Definitely not about that."

"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."

"You can't put a price on those things."

"No? I bet Jesper can. It's the price of the lien on his father's farm." The sharpshooter looked at the toes of his boots. "What about you, Wylan? Can you put a price on the chance to walk away from Ketterdam and live your own life? And Nina, I suspect you and your Fjerdan may want something more to subsist on than patriotism and longing glances. Inej might have a number in mind too. It's the price of a future, and it's Van Eck's turn to pay."

Matthias was not fooled. Kaz always spoke logic, but that didn't mean he always told truth. "The Wraith's life is worth more than that," said Matthias. "To all of us."

"We get Inej. We get our money. It's as simple as that."

"Simple as that," said Nina. "Did you know I'm next in line for the Fjerdan throne? They call me Princess Ilse of Engelsberg."

"There is no princess of Engelsberg," said Matthias. "It's a fishing town."

Nina shrugged. "If we're going to lie to ourselves, we might as ~ Leigh Bardugo

It's certainly nice to have my options open." He looked back out at the city. "Can this possibly work, Mister Brekker? Or am I risking the fate of Ravka and the world's Grisha on the honor and abilities of a fast-talking urchin?"
"More than a bit of both," said Kaz. "You're risking a country. We're risking our lives. Seems a fair trade."
The king of Ravka offered his hand. "The deal is the deal?"
"The deal is the deal."
They shook.
"If only treaties could be signed so quickly," he said, his easy privateer's mien sliding back in place like a mask purchased on West Stave. "I'm going to have a drink and a bath. One can take only so much mud and squalor. As the rebel said to the prince, it's bad for the constitution."
He flicked an invisible speck of dust from his lapel and sauntered out of the solarium. ~ Leigh Bardugo

And I'll keep marching because the firebird is all I can give you. No money. No army. No mountaintop stronghold." He shouldered his pack. "This is all I have to offer. The same old trick." He stepped out into the rain. I didn't know if I wanted to run after him to apologize or knock him into the mud. ~ Leigh Bardugo