How we cite our quotes: (Story.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"The first time I touched him and felt that his flesh was warm like mine, not cold like theirs, I can't explain it, my darling, that was the first time I understood I was real. He wasn't nice at first, but why should he have been? They had stolen him! But in time, between us, there was tenderness." (3.4.21)
Mab hasn't experienced the kind of romantic love that teenage girls come to expect. She didn't even get romance with Esmé's father because they were both basically slaves to the Druj. The most she could hope for was some understanding and compassion between them.
Quote #8
It was hard later to admit it, but she had adored her then, the tall, beautiful creature who held her on her hip, so easy in the crook of one long arm. She had even loved her eyes and thought they were like the blue jewels in the frame of the great milky mirror in her Tabernacle of Spies. (3.6.11)
The Druj Queen may be a cold unfeeling mistress, but she's still the closest thing to a mother that Mab has ever had. Because of this, Mab grows up adoring her—even when she's treated with cruelty and neglect.
Quote #9
It would seem to her that the gathering doom should have blotted out all else, like thunderheads roiling before the sun, but there had been nothing like that, only a small, pathetic hope that the Queen might love her again. Love! As if the Druj were capable of it. She herself didn't even know the word then, scarcely knew the feeling. But she would learn it. (3.7.19)
As powerful and immortal as the Druj are, there's one thing that they just don't get—and that's good old fashioned love. The Druj Queen will never feel the kind of warm and fuzzy feelings that a mere slave like Mab is capable of.