“Is this really your idea of flirting?” he whispers.

“Mildly insulting you and watching you try to hide your annoyance? Actually, yeah.”

“Alchemists need to break themselves into pieces. They want to rebuild the world around them so desperately that they would give their blood, body, or soul. But people in power cannot fathom breaking a world that already bows to them.”

“An Anthology of Folk Horror”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”