"Caring for someone may be unfamiliar to you, Zoya, but it's not the same as mothering." This remark belies her instinctive defensiveness—protectiveness, really, that it shared both ways between her and Genya.

She can't help bristling. The Little Palace had been hard enough for Genya from what little Alina had understood of it. It can't have gotten easier with her faced scarred.