Go on,” he said, growing impatient. “I’m not going to turn you into a salamander.” “You can do that?” she whispered. “Truly?” “Of course.” A wicked gleam entered his eyes. “But I only turn girls into salamanders on Tuesdays. Luckily for you, it’s a Wednesday, which is the day I drink a goblet of orphan’s blood for supper.

They looked like a pair of cupids who had decided they liked shooting people with real arrows better. They were horrible. I loved them so much.

Now she felt as though she were a ghost haunting her own body, gazing at her life through a dirty glass.

Katrien didn’t waste any time. While Elisabeth looked around, she went straight to the desk and started rifling through the drawers. “For science,” she explained, which was frequently what she said right before something exploded.

The ability to feel is a strength, not a weakness.

When one calls upon a demon, one must be prepared for death to follow.

Rook’s heart beat against my fingertips through his soft feathers, and my eyes sank closed as I murmured drowsy endearments to the spoiled prince nestled against my stomach, warm within a nest of blankets.

When the world failed me, I could always lose myself in my work.

Was that a thing people did-just gave up? When there was so much in the world to love, to fight for?

What is this, master – the third time I’ve broken you out of a jail cell?” Nathaniel coughed. “Minor misunderstandings, on both previous occasions,” he assured Elisabeth.