Crown of Feathers

But that was the nature of life and loss: There was never enough time.

Where there is will, there is possibility.

History was a living, breathing, changing thing - even when it was your own.

There was a difference between friendship and family, between the people you chose to surround yourself with and the people you were stick with, good or bad.

We were night and day, moon and sun- darkness and light. We were nothing without each other.

How Easily a person could convince themselves they were doing the right thing, no matter the damage they did to the person they supposedly cared about, if it was out of love.

Some families you were born into. Others you mad along the way.

I control you, he said to his fear, you do not control me.

Like an anchor, love will hold fast in a storm, but it can also pull you under.

Sometimes the title of queen is given; sometimes it must be taken.

That's the thing with secrets," she said. "They never really die. Just when one bursts into flames, another rises up to take its place.

When pitch-darkness falls and lanterns fail, fear is a luxury. When war invades and there's no escape, fear is a luxury. When death gladly claims what life forsakes, fear is a luxury.

But is love ever truly a choice?

Maybe fear of fire wasn't the problem, maybe fear of his father was.

War has a way of making regular people into heroes.

It is a fact of life that one must kill or be killed. Rule or be ruled. Win or lose.

Not all battles are fought with ax and arrow.

Veronyka didn't feel like a boy on the inside—she wasn't like some of the children she'd known growing up who might be born as boys or girls but didn't feel like they fit that category, and so they dressed in a way that felt right to them. That was their truth, no matter what the world saw.

Fear, he'd learned, didn't leave room for logic.

In Pyra, death was celebrated as much as life. Only through endings could there be beginnings. That was the lesson of the phoenix, and it was the lesson of my life as well.

Magic had always been a part of the empire—for some people it was like breathing. How was it okay to make existing illegal?

Love can sometimes twist the mind and make facts out of fictions.

Life was easier when you didn't care - or so he'd thought. He'd spent so much time afraid of hurting, of losing everything again, that he'd forgotten life wasn't worth living - worth saving - if you had nothing to live for.

I had known from the outset that we were doomed, that loving her would be the greatest mistake of my life. And I loved her still.

Nothing of value in life came easy; always there was a price.

Love and politics are like oil and water - they don't mix.

To admit that sometimes being kind is better than being cruel?

Love no one, let no one love you. Less pain that way. Sev could die tomorrow, and not a soul would miss him. Sometimes it was hard to remember why he'd thought that was a good thing.

sometimes to achieve what you know is right, you must do what others say is wrong.

Like an anchor, love will hold fast in a storm. But it can also pull you under.