Dalila

“So when we are unhappy we feel the unhappiness of others more; feeling is not destroyed but concentrated. . . .”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights

“He was drugged by this tender touch, by this searing heat that soothed him, each caress lulling him toward something that felt like home. He was safe here. With her.”
― Tahereh Mafi, All This Twisted Glory

“I’ve been waiting,” said Cyrus, “for this to be over.”
A spark of approval animated Rostam’s eyes. “And where have you waited, little one?”
Quietly, he said, “In the future.”
“Three hours of your life, lost.”
― Tahereh Mafi, All This Twisted Glory

“He only closed his eyes against her hair and fought the desperate crush of his chest, the violence of his affection for her. How she managed to disarm him even now, on the brink of death, he could not understand. She’d wept for his pain, wiped the blood from his eyes, taken an arrow in the back for him. She’d shown him more loyalty and tenderness in two days than he’d ever felt in his life, and he knew then, with a force that drove the air from his lungs, that he would never survive her.”
― Tahereh Mafi, All This Twisted Glory