The Darkling: I read your letters. All these years, you never truly appreciated who she is. But it's all right because I do.
Mal: Oh, you have no chance, shadow man, because I'm the one she chose.
The Darkling: You are a child, and she is Grisha. Take away my shadows, and I still have something that you don't. Patience. Alina may well take years to forgive me, but I can wait. Meanwhile, you will grow old, your hair will gray, and she will remain ageless, like me. And one day, maybe a year from now, maybe fifty. She'll realize that she has only one equal. That there are no others like us and that there never will be. I'm not going to kill you, Mal. I don't need to. Time will do it for me.