How we cite our quotes: (Story.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
With a deep, visceral ache, she wished her true form might prove to be a sleek and shining one, like a stiletto blade slicing free of an ungainly sheath. Like a bird of prey losing its hatchling fluff to hunt in cold, magnificent skies. That she might become something glittering, something startling, something dangerous. (1.3.2)
Now that Kizzy's finally been noticed by a hot boy, she feels as though she can start to shed her outer shell and maybe even become the person that she wants to be. To be clear, she wants to be interesting and dangerous instead of just another typical teenage girl.
Quote #5
[…] and the girl believed the servants. In that raucous palace of singing sisters, she lived her life butterfly-silent, never giving so much as a laugh out loud. When Vasudev spied on her in the garden, he saw a deep sadness in her, a dreamy wistfulness, but he never saw her test the curse, not even on a beetle or an ant. (2.3.5)
Anamique carries the weight of the world on her shoulders growing up because everyone sees her as the cursed girl. Instead of being allowed to live out a carefree childhood and adolescence, she always has to monitor herself to make sure that she doesn't slip up and make noise.
Quote #6
He didn't believe in magic and demons. He believed in day and night, endurance and fury, cold mud and loneliness and the speed with which blood leaves the body. He also believed in miserable, defiant hope and the way the shape of the girl you love can fill your arms like an eidolon when you dream about dancing with her.
But whether he believed it or not, his shadow was… missing. (2.8.29-30)
James prides himself on being a rational guy who doesn't believe in any of that supernatural nonsense, but now he's not so sure. After all, that old woman was able to pluck away his shadow like it was a physical object. How do you explain that?