“But that’s human thinking. He can stop whatever spells I attempt. He’ll show no mercy. And ultimately, if I tried to prevent this, by all our rules and customs, I’d be the one in the wrong.”

When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to not only escape her marriage, but also the gallows.

“Every truth has its time.”

“She wondered if he had any idea what, exactly, he was asking of her, and decided he couldn’t. He never got his own hands bloody. At least Acaelus had the decency to be the one to pull the trigger, every so often.”

“I don’t know why it was so but Peter just didn’t feel right when everyone was content.”

“She dropped her gaze, shame and disgust flaring hot in her cheeks. Because she knew exactly what she was asking of him, and it still didn’t stop her.”

“Vanessa.” He didn’t ask if it was me; he just sort of said my name as if demanding it to be.”

“I knew you were the real threat. Mortals always are, aren’t they? If you read the stories.”

“Ashem was too naïve for this world if she thought people were only cruel when there was a point to it.”

“It can be hard for people to remember that you don’t remember.”

“When you spend so long trapped in darkness, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.”

“I don’t mind being pitied. As long as it gets me what I want, people can think whatever they want about me.”

“I didn’t ask you to leave. I said you shouldn’t be here.”

“DO NOT FEED THE GODS.”

“Women were permitted to roam the streets during the curfew hours; only men were forbidden, for men were considered a danger to the capital at night.”

“There may be someone on the other side of these spells that's in true peril. And while I'm in no position to be some knight in shining armor, I am the only one who's here, so I can at least try to be brave.”

“I can't fight stories," she whispered, and a few tears, dark as ink, ran down her face and tangled in her hair.

"Stories are of great use,” I said. “Indeed, they are the foundation of dryadology. We would be lost without them, as astronomers cut off from the sky.”

“You are going to be one of the greatest tennis players in the world someday, cariño. That is as true as your brown hair. You don’t need to show them. You just need to be.”

“Because when the legends get written, I didn’t want to be remembered for standing on the sidelines. I want my future offspring to know that I was there, and that I fought against her at the end, even if I couldn’t do anything useful.”