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“Perhaps a necklace of tears to weep so that she won't have to? A pin of teeth to bite annoying husbands? No.' He continues to walk through the small space. He lifts a ring. 'To bring on a child?' And then, seeing my face, lifts a pair of earrings, one in the shape of a crescent moon and the other in the shape of a star. 'Ah, yes. Here. This is what you want.'

'What do they do?' I ask.

He laughs. 'They are beautiful- isn't that enough?'

I give him a skeptical look. 'It would be enough, considering how exquisite they are, but I bet it isn't all.'

He enjoys that. 'Clever girl. They are not only beautiful, but they add to beauty. They make someone more lovely than they were, painfully lovely. Her husband will not leave her side for quite some time.'

The look on his face is a challenge. He believes I am too vain to give such a gift to my sister.

How well he knows the selfish human heart. Taryn will be a beautiful bride. How much more do I, her twin, want to put myself in her shadow? How lovely can I bear her to be?

And yet, what better gift for a human girl wedded to the beauty of the Folk?

'What would you take for them?' I ask.

'Oh, any number of little things. A year of your life. The luster of your hair. The sound of your laugh.'

'My laugh is not such a sweet sound as all that.'

'Not sweet, but I bet it's rare,' he says, and I wonder at his knowing that.

'What about my tears?' I ask. 'You could make another necklace.'

He looks at me, as though evaluating how often I weep. 'I will take a single tear,' he says finally. 'And you will take an offer to the High King for me.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Tell your king that if he declares war, I will make him armour of ice to shatter every blade that strikes it and that will make his heart too cold to feel pity. Tell him I will make him three swords that, when used in the same battle, will fight with the might of thirty soldiers.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Prize out the gems, and your beauty would fade- not just the extra smidge they grant, but all your beauty, until you were so wretched that the sight of you would set even the Folk to screaming.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing