Jesper put his arm around her. “He loved you so much, Nina. Loving you made him better.”“Did it make a difference in the end?”“Of course it did,” said Inej. “Matthias and I didn’t pray to the same god, but we knew there was something beyond this life. He went easier to the next world knowing he’d done good in this one.

They wanted a Grisha queen. Mal wanted a commoner queen. And what did I want? Peace for Ravka. A chance to sleep easy in my bed without fear. An end to the guilt and dread that I woke to every morning. There were old wants too, to be loved for who I was, not what I could do, to lie in a meadow with a boy’s arms around me and watch the wind move the clouds.

I don't care if you danced naked on the roof of the Little Palace with him. I love you, Alina, even the part of you that loved him.

I thought the love I'd had for him belonged to the past, to the foolish, lonely girl I never wanted to be again. I'd tried to bury that girl and the love she'd felt, just as I'd tried to bury my power. But I wouldn't make that mistake again.

They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things—if love can ever be called that.

The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him forever.

I have loved you all my life, Mal,” I whispered through my tears. “There is no end to our story.

They are orphans again, with no true home but each other and whatever life they can make together on the other side of the sea.

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.