Where are you going?" she called after me, her voice mocking. "What's waiting for you out there?" "Nothing!" I shouted at her. "No one!

The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.

Women don't want to be seduced. They want to be seen and listened to. You can't do either of those things if you're thinking up strategies on how to win her over.

Good luck, Oretsev. Find the firebird, and when this is over, I'll see you well rewarded. A farmhouse in Udova. A dacha near the city. Whatever you want.""I don't need any of that. Just..." He dropped Nikolai's hand and looked away. "Deserve her.

Kaz knew it, and for some reason he loved to rile her. He wished he could read her expression now. There was always something so satisfying about the little furrow between her black brows.

(Tell me you know that). He needed her to say it. [...] He needed to know that she believed he could do this, [...] He needed to know she believed in him.

I'm sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now.

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.

To say he trusted Inej would be stretching the point, but he could admit to himself that he'd come to rely on her [...] but Inej was one of the best investments Kaz had ever made [...] the best in the barrel.