Bhakti Negi

“Aleksander's body shook as he fought to keep his sanity. That deafening, maddening vibration traveling through his skull. His threads of shadow wrapped around the demon's body, giving strength to its limbs, banding together and binding to its form.

The creature shrieked. Aleksander felt the demon's mind. Nikolai's mind.

The monster is me...

The ghost of a thought.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“He reached up and brushed his knuckles over the wetness on my cheek. The smallest smile touched his bloodstained lips. "Someone to mourn me." He dropped his hand, as if the weight were too much. "No grave," he gasped, his hand tightening on mine, "for them to desecrate."
"All right," I said. The tears came harder. There will be nothing left.
He shuddered. His eyelids drooped.
"Once more," he said. "Speak my name once more."
He was ancient, I knew that. But in this moment he was just a boy- brilliant, blessed with too much power, burdened by eternity.
"Aleksander."
His eyes fluttered shut. "Don't let me be alone," he murmured. And then he was gone.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“The Darkling appeared to me almost every day, usually in his chambers or the aisles of the library, sometimes in the war room during council meetings or as I walked back from the Grand Palace at dusk.
“Why won’t you leave me alone?” I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to work at my desk.
Long minutes passed. I didn’t think he would answer. I even had time to hope he might have gone, until I felt his hand on my shoulder.
“Then I’d be alone, too,” he said, and he stayed the whole night through, till the lamps burned down to nothing.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“No one knew his name to curse or extol, so I spoke it softly, beneath my breath.
“Aleksander,” I whispered. A boy’s name, given up. Almost forgotten.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising