Belladonna

 “It was strange, the things his laughter did to her. Though Signa had spent years building her words for this moment, she found that now she had none. And even if she did, what was the point? She couldn’t let herself be swayed by curious words—not when his actions had all but ruined her life, stripping her of every friend, guardian, and home she’d ever had.”

This quote highlights Signa’s early view of Death and how quickly she begins to recognize her misjudgment of him, introducing The Complex Emotions Surrounding Death. However, as she questions herself, Signa is still held back by her hatred of Death. Even so, she starts to see he is more human than he first appears when he does things like laughing, leaving Signa to doubt her feelings about him.

“‘You never asked for this to happen,’ Signa whispered to herself as she braced against anxious onlookers. ‘You may have thought it, but thinking is not the same as doing. You are good. People could learn to like you. This is his fault.’ His fault, his fault, his fault. It was her new mantra. Signa hated Death even more now than she did before. Hated what he’d somehow caused her to become. Though… she couldn’t say she was sad that Aunt Magda was gone.”

Signa says this to herself after the death of Aunt Magda. Continuing to blame Death for all of her problems, she reassures herself that she did not kill Magda because that would warp her view of the world and Death as she has always known it. The final sentence of this quote also highlights her complex and shifting views about death and how she sees the morals surrounding it.

“She was glad, at least, that the hatchling would no longer feel pain. Glad that if she was to be a monster, at least she could deliver mercy.”

Similarly to the previous quote, Signa feels the need to assure herself that she is better than what she believes Death to be as she knows how much pain Death has caused her. In the earlier chapters of the novel, as Signa discovers her powers, she frequently contrasts herself with Death, as she still feels he is to blame for her misery.