Best Quotes from Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo with Page Numbers

"Nothing could get you warm in this Saintsforsaken city."

"You get used to it."

"As a treasured Grisha indenture, Retvenko had been kept in comfort, his belly full."

"A man could work for a living."

"What was done could not be undone."

"He would get his pardon and prove himself once more."

"I am not errand boy," he muttered.

"Just two more trips," he said to no one.

"This country."

"Let’s see how she fared against the fury of a storm."

What am I doing here?

Think of it as a dinner party.

Just take the players’ orders and keep one ear on Smeet’s conversation.

It felt like missing a step and suddenly finding yourself falling. It felt like panic.

A proper thief is like a proper poison, merchling. He leaves no trace.

The important thing is to keep Smeet at the tables until midnight.

Because if you do, I’ll slit your mother’s throat and then your father’s.

The really bad monsters never look like monsters.

We were all just children once.

Next time walk normally. Try to look like you belong.

"If you don’t care about money, Nina dear, call it by its other names. Freedom, security, retribution."

"We get Inej. We get our money. It’s as simple as that."

"What matters is that this little vial is going to eat Van Eck’s bank accounts and his reputation."

"My sole concern is keeping you away from Jan Van Eck, and if you want me to start exploring more definite options, a bullet is a lot cheaper than putting you on a ship to the Southern Colonies."

"Sometimes scientific discoveries are like that. Once people know something is possible, the pace of new findings increases."

"Wait a minute... Because I have a list."

"This is good for us. The Shu and the Fjerdans don’t know where to start looking for Kuwei."

"It’s the price of a future, and it’s Van Eck’s turn to pay."

"You didn’t put it on the chain?" asked Matthias. Knowing such tricks were well within Kaz’s abilities."

"I was going to make them guess."

She was Inej Ghafa, and she would not quiver like a rabbit in a snare.

We meet fear, he’d said. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us.

When fear arrives, something is about to happen.

Better terrible truths than kind lies.

I may not have Kaz’s devious mind, but I am a dangerous girl.

Your Shu scientist is probably long gone already.

If you still believe in fairness, then you’ve led a very lucky life.

I’m going to cut you open. I’m going to excavate that pathetic excuse of a heart from your chest.

You are forsaken. As you have turned your back on me, so will they turn their backs on you.

Kaz had rescued her from that hopelessness, and their lives had been a series of rescues ever since.

"Trusting the wrong person can get you killed."

"I can’t do this alone."

"Knowledge isn’t a sign of divine favor. Prosperity is."

"The Barrel eats people."

"Maybe they’re making up for all the fun we’re having."

"This city is worse than the guidebooks said!"

"Bad situations happen to be my area of expertise."

"You’re the one who put them on the table like a nub."

"What does it matter? We survived. That’s the important part."

"I always liked this part of town."

Be all right, Nina willed silently, hoping her thoughts could somehow cut through the air, speed over the waters of the Ketterdam harbors, and reach her friend.

You survived the worst of it, she had told herself. The parem is out of reach, and now you can stop thinking about it.

You’re all a bunch of useless skivs.

Because I was the weapon.

If you’d had parem, you’d be completely addicted and well on your way to the Reaper’s Barge.

Sometimes, the only way to get justice is to take it for yourself.

Keep your head down and watch your step.

You can’t be so bad, boy. You haven’t been alive long enough to rack up your share of sin.

Anything can happen in this city.

Let’s go get our girl.

She’d survived too much to let Jan Van Eck destroy her.

I will pay him back in kind.

Canal rats have a way of surviving, no matter how hard you try to stamp us out.

You think he won’t? Vile, ruthless, amoral. Isn’t that why you hired Kaz in the first place?

Even if my plan fails, I’ll find a way to fight back.

What will you and Kaz Brekker leave behind but corpses to be burned on the Reaper’s Barge?

A patriot would have offered to free Kuwei without the promise of reward.

You lay a finger on me and Kaz Brekker will cut the baby from your pretty wife’s stomach.

Kaz would get her free, and then they’d show this man exactly what whores and canal rats could do.

Even better men can be bested.

Matthias would be atoning for the mistakes he’d made in this life long into the next one, but he’d always believed that despite his crimes and failings, there was a core of decency inside him that could never be breached.

Always hit where the mark isn’t looking.

The first trick had been finding her. Van Eck was no fool.

There’s a lot that has to happen before the exchange tomorrow.

I promise that no one will hurt you.

It’s very important that you stay calm so that you don’t make yourself ill.

When you were outgunned and outmanned, you sought the less defended targets.

I didn’t ask for a description.

I want you to think about what a promise from me costs and what you’re willing to pay for it.

No mourners. No funerals.

It was dangerous to ignore the details.

He was a wounded animal who needed to be put down.

Patience would bring all his enemies to their knees in time.

Lucky for you, we live in a world where men can make up for being old by being rich.

He assumed Van Eck would have people positioned in the surrounding buildings just as he did.

Kaz didn’t bother to answer.

Kaz wanted the crowd in a very good mood.

Good to have you back, Wraith.

He’d invested a lot of time and money in getting his Wraith back.

He didn’t have to look to know she was beside him—silent, sure-footed.

It’s a law of systems... The more complicated a plan is, the more ways it can go wrong.

We broaden our options. We keep every possible avenue of escape open.

Things are always more interesting in the dark.

Never underestimate the public’s desire to get something for nothing.

If they came looking for fun, let’s give them some.

Let’s see if you’re metal all the way through.

Get me out of this thing before her friend comes looking for us.

The world can be cruel to your kind.

I’m afraid for you. The world can be cruel to your kind.

Jesper’s existence had been a string of close calls and near disasters.

We greet the unexpected visitor.

Better terrible truths than kind lies.

They’re called friendships, Kaz.

I’ll be no use to him anymore.

If I’m going to do this, I want us to get the rest of the Grisha out of the city.

We are not our fathers.

Do you want to beat Van Eck?

Everyone is a negotiation with you, Brekker. You probably bartered your way out of the womb.

What if someone had been hurt? What if all of them didn’t make it back to the island?

I don’t need a net.

You protect your investments.

What you want and what the world needs are not always in accord. Praying and wishing are not the same thing.

You couldn’t go to war with an upstanding merch like Van Eck, not if you were a thug with a reputation dirtier than a stable hand’s boot sole.

She doesn’t belong to anyone.

We don’t leave our own at the mercy of merch scum.

I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing.

Sometimes the trick to getting the best of a situation was just to wait.

If you didn’t like the weather, you didn’t rush into the storm—you waited until it changed.

You’re cocky little bastard who’s about to make you one of the richest bosses in the Barrel.

All I need is a little more time.

...a sense of purpose made it easier to rise from her bed.

I don’t want to see anyone else made a slave.

Zoya used to say that fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.

You’re very welcome, Nina Zenik. You may repay me in the customary way.

What is Roennigsdjel?

You could be a maiden on the first day of Roennigsdjel.

There’s no safety to be had on these streets.

You have no idea what might be waiting for you.

Pretend everyone you meet is a kitten you’re trying not to scare.

I’ll be the barbarian and you can be the princess.

I need to do this. I’ve never been to my mother’s grave. I’m not leaving Kerch without saying goodbye.

Trust me, you care more than she does.

One thing at a time.

You can’t run from this forever.

They don’t disinherit their sons because they didn’t get the child they wanted.

It’s rotten, and I’d like to string your father up in a barren field and let the vultures have at him.

Nothing could make this right, ever. But Kaz could make his father’s life very wrong.

Actually, that helps a lot.

Let’s go steal all my dad’s money.

I love a little righteous comeuppance.

"You are not just a soldier to command."

"Do not let them cow you. You are not the girl you were."

"I will stand with you against any foe—including this accursed drug."

"Nothing about us will ever be proper."

"If I could, I would have cornered you in the pantry."

"You are every blossom in the wood blooming at once. You are a tidal wave. You’re a stampede."

"There is no greater honor than to stand by your side."

"The first day you showed up at my house for this proper courtship, I would have cornered you in the pantry."

"You have my attention."

"When things go wrong, it's easy to subscribe to the idea that hope is just an illusion, but the truth is, hope is what keeps us alive."

"If word gets out there’s a Grisha living here—"

"What kind of mother would I be to my son if I hid away my talents?"

"I don’t like it when he worries about me."

"You must never do that again. Promise me. Your ma had the same gift. It can bring you only misery."

"She was a queen, Jes. She was our queen."

"If she’d been conscious, if she’d been stronger, she might have been able to heal herself."

"I want to celebrate with all of you when that boat leaves the harbor."

"I should. Kaz is the planner."

"We don’t mention this to Da, hmm?"

"I want Da to get his money as fast as possible and then get back to Novyi Zem."

No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck.

No matter the height of the mountain, the climbing is the same.

And I know no fiercer warrior, powers or not.

You could learn the swings, but you had to be born to the wire.

Once she’d climbed down, her mother had spent the better part of an hour alternating between hugging her and shrieking at her.

When others walked the wire, they fought it... Inej was its moon.

I will have you without armor.

In moments, she’d reached the rooftop of the second silo.

She focused on the wire, feeling the familiar kinship she’d experienced as a child.

The world became a reflection of itself, its shapes stunted, its shadows elongated.

If you wanted to master it, you had to learn it so well you could put it back together.

We know each other’s secrets, the house seemed to say. Welcome back.

If I spill a single drop of this, it will burn straight through the floor onto my father’s dinner guests.

What a luxury to turn your back on luxury.

You’re not weak because you can’t read. You’re weak because you’re afraid of people seeing your weakness.

You’re letting shame decide who you are.

It’s shame that eats men whole.

How would I run an empire? I can’t read a ledger or a bill of lading.

They feel pity. Now, what do they think when they see me coming? They think they’d better cross the street.

Think on it, Wylan.

"We’re surrounded."

"They want you alive, so they’re being cautious."

"Maybe not."

"Two of us are Grisha."

"It’s just some of the stuff he used to make the fireworks for Goedmedbridge."

"The gas should have diffused, but I want you to run."

"We’re going to make some ghosts."

"To the shore!" said Matthias.

"You do realize you just led your own little Grisha army?" said Jesper.

"What if Djel’s hand had raised the waters the night of the wrathful storm that wrecked the drüskelle ship and bound Matthias and Nina together?"

Our work is death, and it is holy.

I was born without fear.

If you couldn’t beat the odds, you changed the game.

They are the jewels I wear. They are my glory in this world and will bring me honor in the next.

Doesn’t ring a bell.

What business?

But what do I find? A smudge of a Suli acrobat who fights like a common street thug.

You’re being used now.

Fate brought me here.

Protect me,

"I don’t work with a net."

"If you couldn’t open a door, you just had to make a new one."

"When one plan was blown, you made a new one. When they backed you into a corner, you cut a hole in the roof."

"You take things too personally, Brekker. You should be focused on the job, but you’re too busy holding a grudge."

"I cradle it. I coddle it. I feed it fine cuts of meat and send it to the best schools. I nurture my grudges, Rollins."

"There is no safe. Not in the Barrel. Not anywhere."

"You’ll grow into it, boy."

"What do we do now?"

"Shut up, Wylan, I need to think."

"Pick up a pair of oars and make yourself useful, or I’ll put your pampered ass in the drink and let your father fish you out."

I know no fiercer warrior, powers or not.

You’re not fast enough.

I’m fast enough to make sure you never raise a flag on West Stave again.

Don’t make us come get you, girl.

Come to me.

I’m not going to be much good to Pekka if you plug me full of holes like the top of a saltshaker.

We’ll fight our way out together.

You had a good night.

Well, how about you get your friends here to relax and lower those weapons so I can teach you some new words.

There would be time to worry later.

They’ll be all right. He’ll be all right.

Whatever it took to survive the Barrel, Wylan knew he didn’t have it.

He thought of Jesper pleading with Colm. I know I let you down. Just give me one more chance.

He’d believed that despite his father’s wealth and influence, this crew—his crew—was a match for Jan Van Eck.

Kaz had known his true identity all along.

They valued the things he could do instead of punishing him for the things he couldn’t.

If this is your city, what’s left of it?

I can get the stadwatch to stand down.

We’ll be hunted by every stadwatch grunt and Barrel thug in the city, until we’re found.

We’re done with that. We’re going to stage a little auction.

You have a weak spot. We all have weak spots.

But when someone does wrong, when we make mistakes, we don’t say we’re sorry. We promise to make amends.

This action will have no echo. It means we won’t repeat the same mistakes, that we won’t continue to do harm.

You have to find some other way to heal that part of yourself.

Stop treating your pain like it’s something you imagined.

If you see the wound is real, then you can heal it.

You’ll both be glad to know where you stand.

I want to be a better person, a better son.

You taught me to lie.

It’s not a gift. It’s a curse.

"The trick to beating Rollins is never sit down at the table with him. He’s the house. He has the resources to play until your luck runs out."

"This is the city I bled for. And if Ketterdam has taught me anything, it’s that you can always bleed a little more."

"What do I have to lose, Jes? My life is you and the farm. This is the only way I can protect both of those things."

"We set a low floor to enter the fund, say, two million kruge. And then we let them wait... We can’t involve ourselves in the auction, but they can guarantee they make a lot of money whatever the outcome."

"If we go through with the auction, Ravka won’t be able to bid competitively."

"If I had to bet, I’d say we’ll have five million from each Council member by the time we’re through."

"Once Kuwei declares his contract open, no one can stop the auction until bidding has closed."

"There’s another problem... You could have at least pretended to be surprised."

"There’s a new player on the field, a mercenary hired by Pekka Rollins."

"And you think they’re going to show up to protect Kuwei now? We can’t send him into a public auction alone."

There was always an angle, and he was an expert at finding it.

Life isn’t ever what we deserve, Inej. If it were—

I don’t want you beholden to Per Haskell. Or me.

Words have not been invented for such an occasion.

You earn it.

You don’t ask for forgiveness, Kaz. You earn it.

Whatever happens to me, survive this city.

A fighter always has a tell, a sign of an old injury.

If you ever cared about me at all, don’t follow.

I’m a cripple. That’s my tell.

You don’t ask for respect. You earn it.

I may not walk straight, but at least I don’t run from a fight.

In the Barrel, we don’t trade in safety. There’s only strength and weakness.

This is my gang, and I’m done taking orders.

But I’m not angry. Not about that.

The fight was just the opening act.

You think you’re safe because you rolled over for Pekka Rollins?

Who do you want standing in that doorway when the lion gets hungry?

Kaz had always kept himself at a remove from everyone.

But this was no cheap comedy. It was a bloody rite.

"I can’t read."

"It’s easier when you’re younger, but so is everything. Children learn languages more easily. They learn mathematics more easily."

"And they’re unafraid. It’s other people who teach them their limits."

"Telling Kaz, facing my father, freed something in me. And every time I tell someone new, I feel freer."

"I just don’t get it. I’ve spent my whole life hiding the things I can’t do. Why run from the amazing things you can do?"

"You keep pretending everything is okay. You move on to the next fight or the next party. What are you afraid is going to happen if you stop?"

"What if you don’t miss because you’re directing your bullets too?"

"For me? Or for you?"

"You remind me of her."

"This was the kiss he’d been waiting for. It was a gunshot. It was prairie fire."

I am the worst kind of Barrel thug. And if I don’t look like I just trounced ten of the best toughs Per Haskell had to offer, then no one’s going to believe I did.

Sometimes, a proper thief doesn’t just take. He leaves something behind.

The toughest mark is an honest one. Thankfully, they’re always in short supply.

He wants to believe he deserves every penny he’s got, so they forget what they owe to chance.

With every passing hour, his confidence had grown, and Nina had begun to feel the stirrings of hope.

It's not too late to change course.

In commerce we see His hand.

We only ask that you make no final decision until we’ve had a chance to make our case for taking over the fund.

You look like the enemy.

If I had any idea where he’s taken your son, I would tell the authorities.

"We all want different things from this day. Freedom, redemption—"

"They don’t know who we are. Not really. They don’t know what we’ve done, what we’ve managed together."

"Let’s go show them they picked the wrong damn fight."

"As long as you don’t try to con me, you can enter as the Fairy Queen of Istamere."

"More than a bit of both," said Kaz. "You’re risking a country. We’re risking our lives. Seems a fair trade."

"You speak Kerch like a native—a rich native. You don’t talk like someone who came up with sailors and street thugs."

"I am in a vulnerable position. I am a king ruling a country with an empty treasury, facing enemies on all sides."

"Are you so sure that would be possible, Brekker? I know your plans now."

"If one of us goes down, we all go down."

"It’s bad for the constitution."

I’m here for her.

Only he could see his father punished for what he’d done.

I think you’d be good for him.

You gave him someone to run to. No matter what he did or what went wrong.

I guess I know what it’s like to get things wrong.

Jan Van Eck was not going to get his wish. Wylan wasn’t going anywhere.

He summoned every bit of bravado he’d learned from Nina, the will he’d learned from Matthias, the focus he’d studied in Kaz, the courage he’d learned from Inej, and the wild, reckless hope he’d learned from Jesper.

I won’t talk.

In the end, he was not Nina or Matthias or Kaz or Inej or Jesper. He was just Wylan Van Eck.

I’m here for her, Wylan reminded himself.

She was made to find the hidden places, the corners and cracks where no one thought to look.

If Inej got her money, if she got her ship, she might do her part to change all of that.

She imagined all of them—Kaz, Nina, Matthias, Jesper, Wylan, Kuwei—perched side by side on a wire, their balance precarious, their lives tethered together by hope and belief in one another.

It was hard not to feel that this city was her home.

But maybe Pekka Rollins and Jan Van Eck had something else planned for her.

Inej didn't want it throwing off her balance.

There were plenty of other places from which she could have observed the Exchange or the Beurscanal.

Ghezen was not her god, and she had no desire to be lectured on how she might better serve him.

The bidding will start at one million kruge.

This auction is a sham.

It’s just another weapon. Its nature depends on who wields it.

He could not hate this boy. He’d been him.

The auction has been compromised. It cannot go on until we have determined whether any member of the Council knowingly channeled funds to one of the bidders.

That, Kuwei, is the sound that death makes when she comes calling.

His eyes strayed to the Fjerdan delegation gathered in the front pews and the drüskelle there.

The rules of the auction are clear.

The members of the Merchant Council were on their feet now, demanding answers.

Can you produce it?

Help him!” Radmakker shouted to a stadwatch officer. “Can’t you see the boy is hurt?”

The whole city has been searching for him, rewards have been offered.

Perhaps Djel extinguished one light and lit another.

I did this, she thought wonderingly. I commanded those corpses, those bits of bone, those dying cells. What did that make her?

We are tied to the power of creation itself, the making at the heart of the world.

She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.

But she hadn’t been made for shame.

What would the other Grisha think of her?

Only the very young in Ketterdam didn’t have a clear memory of the Queen’s Lady Plague.

The plague could not be stopped with guns or money. It could not be reasoned with or prayed away.

Her breath came easy, the ache in her muscles had dimmed. She was ravenous.

The craving for parem felt distant, like a memory of real hunger.

Innocence was a luxury, and Inej did not believe her Saints demanded it.

We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary.

I will never serve you.

There is no shame in meeting a worthy opponent. It means there is more to learn, a welcome reminder to pursue humility.

I am not sorry. I had chosen to live freely as a killer rather than die quietly as a slave.

She knew every inch of this city like a map of her heart.

You are a murderer and a thief. I was chosen to rid this world of people like you.

The blood you spill is the blood of kings. You are not fit for such a gift.

Some are meant to serve. And some are meant to rule.

Then learn fear now before you die.

Until an idiot like him came along and used that pretty curio for target practice.

Exchanging harsh words with his father had left a lump in his gut like bad porridge.

I’m going to pretend to be a tourist more often.

He was going to fail them all.

What good is a shooter without his guns?

Impossible. He couldn’t even get eyes on Kuwei from here.

Not everybody can aim.

If he missed, someone could be hurt badly. But if he didn’t shoot, a lot of people would be hurt.

It’s not a gift. It’s a curse. But when it came down to it, Jesper’s life had been full of blessings.

Maybe nothing. Maybe the impossible.

The trick is not to love anything, Rollins.

Suffering is like anything else. Live with it long enough, you learn to like the taste.

Fate has plans for us all.

Sometimes fate needs a little assistance.

You showed mercy, Kaz. You were the better man.

You can threaten me all you like.

I could only kill Pekka’s son once. He can imagine his death a thousand times.

What good is all that if there’s no one to leave it to?

I remember. I remember all of it. It’s easy.

Will he get there in time?

"Fear is how they control you."

"There’s so much in the world you don’t have to be afraid of, if you would only open your eyes."

"I am guilty. I’ve done terrible things."

"You have my word. And you have the gun. There’s nothing to fear from me."

"I know what it’s like there, the thoughts they put in your head. But you don’t have to do this."

"Do not be afraid."

"You’re a traitor and a coward." "Good, he believed Kuwei was dead."

"I joined when I was even younger than you."

"I will go with you. You have my word."

"You can be reached."

"Kuwei was hope. And he was a boy who deserved a chance to live without a target on his back."

"You’re a soldier," said Zoya. "You’re Grisha. And we’d be lucky to have you."

"Ravka is grateful for your service," Sturmhond said as they turned to go. "And so is the crown."

"Be free, as you were meant to be. Be a warrior, as you always have been."

"There has to be a Fjerda worth saving. Promise me."

"I have been made to protect you. Even in death, I will find a way."

"I promise, Matthias. I’ll take you home."

"I am already home."

"Come back to me," she whispered. "Come back."

"You will meet him again in the next life, but only if you suffer this now."

Somehow he knew that she would be safe.

His heart was easy.

He was on the ice once more.

Somewhere he could hear the wolves howling.

This time, he knew they were welcoming him home.

The storm raged around him.

Dreaming of her.

Drowning out Nina’s voice.

He could feel the warmth of hope.

Even amidst the chaos, there was a sense of belonging.

"We did it. And I know Kaz had his own motives, but I’m pretty sure that we just helped prevent a war."

"It’s going to be okay," he said. "I promise."

"Your word is worth nothing!" snapped Radmakker.

"You do realize we’re stealing your money?"

"You can only sharpen a blade so far. In the end, it comes down to the quality of the metal."

"Sometimes a proper thief doesn’t just take. He leaves something behind."

"It’s all right, Mister Radmakker. If it will help us end this tragic business, I will oblige my father."

"Maybe it’s best that we don’t handle this now. I find I’m a bit shaken."

"How would you feel about waiting out all this nasty business in the country?"

"For the baby."

"You’re my son, Jesper. I can’t protect you. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried. But I will be there even when you falter. Every time."

"Remember this feeling, he told himself. Remember all you have to lose."

"I mean the little rescues. Laughing at my jokes. Forgiving me when I was foolish. Never trying to make me feel small."

"I’ll take him north. To the ice. I’ll bury him near the shore."

"We were all supposed to make it."

"No mourners, no funerals."

"Stop playing around, Brekker, or I’ll send my unholy army of the dead after you."

"This action will have no echo."

"I could have told you it doesn’t work that way."

"He loved you so much, Nina. Loving you made him better."

"I’m a thief and a smuggler. Try to catch hold of me and you’ll find you’re trying to hold air."

"Ketterdam is made of monsters. I just happen to have the longest teeth."

"Tell you what," said Kaz. "When that day comes, mark it on your calendars. I can think of a lot of people who’ll want to throw a party."

"You do not want the Council of Tides as an enemy, young man. None of your shipments will ever leave port again."

"By all means, do. I don’t own shares in Fifth Harbor anymore."

"I don’t know where Kuwei Yul-Bo is. You can drown me where I stand and nothing will change that."

"The public will clamor for action. They’ll burn the towers from the ground up."

"Then it’s lucky for you it died with that poor Shu kid."

"When Pekka Rollins returned to the city, Kaz would find a way to cut him out of the business."

"I created this plague, and I control it."

Here’s to new beginnings. May they be brighter than the last.

You have to fight the monsters to save your city, to save yourself.

Be the thing they all fear when they close their eyes at night.

The world is made of miracles, unexpected earthquakes, storms that come from nowhere.

I wanted to believe in the impossible.

This city doesn’t need a good man. It needs you.

Say you’ll return.

Life was a series of impossible moments, and I wanted to keep asking for the impossible.

Crows remember human faces. They remember the people who feed them, who are kind to them.

Anything is possible.

"Its every detail spoke respectability, prosperity, permanence."

"He’d started life as a no one. A stone breaker from the Wandering Isle."

"He’d been a boxer, a bruiser, the most feared enforcer in the gangs."

"Now all he wanted to do was sit inside, drink his whiskey, watch the shadows move across the ceiling."

"Things were in disastrous shape... But he’d had setbacks before."

"And if any of those little skivs roaming the streets had forgotten that fact, he’d be happy to serve them a reminder."

"In the morning, he would rise refreshed and restored, ready to see to the real work of reclaiming his throne."

"Death is a gift you haven’t yet earned."

"He’d taken pride in making Ketterdam his. He’d laid the traps, set the fires, put his boot to the necks of all those who’d challenged him, and reaped the rewards of his boldness."

"Yes, he did, very much indeed, and he intended to go on living for a good long time."