"My love of music eventually lured me from the safety of my father's house, propelling me into the city and the royal court. I took a terrible risk, but I could not do otherwise. I did not understand that I carried loneliness before me on a plate, and that music would be the light illuminating me from behind." Prologue, page 5

"It's not nearly as hideous as I always pictured it." Eskar, Chapter 2, page 29

"You never understood this, Seraphina. I have neutralized every trace of your mother, renamed her, reframed her, given her another past- another life. Only two things of hers can still harm us: her insufferable brother- but he won't, with my eye upon him- and her music." Papa, Chapter 3, pages 34-35

"I tried to shrink into myself. I felt disgusting to my very soul- if I even had a soul. My mother was a dragon. Nothing...