" Reluctantly, he lifts his eyes. The intensity of his pale gaze makes my heart stutter, but I don’t let myself look away. There’s a loneliness to him that makes me ache. He’s dying. He knows it. Perhaps life does not get more lonely than that. Right now, all I want is for that loneliness to fade—even if it’s for a moment. So I do what Darin used to when he wanted to cheer me up, and I make an absurd face. Elias stares at me in surprise before cracking a grin that lights him up—and then he makes a ridiculous face of his own. "

― Sabaa Tahir , A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)