Anastasia

Even if you see how dark the world can be...choose to believe it could be better. Life had been beautiful once. It could be beautiful again.

The truth is a blade that only cuts a liar. And the most dangerous lies are the ones you tell yourself.

You can never see what you don't know. That's the point-- you don't fucking know it.

One heart, one mind, one soul. What is joined by choice can never be torn apart. You're mine, and I'm yours. Yesterday, today, and forever.

It hurts because we love him. That's the balance of life, hard as it is to accept. A heart open to joy is a heart vulnerable to sorrow. There's no family without loss, no love without pain.

It’s not that I wanted to miss behave, but the most interesting things were always forbidden.

I don’t know why we can love things on other people but not ourselves.

The ones we love aren’t lost to us forever. Love endures past anything else. It’s the strongest energy in the universe. It changes and flows, but can never be destroyed.

A heart open to joy is a heart vulnerable to sorrow. There's no family without loss, no love without pain.

You’re mine, and I’m yours. Yesterday, today, and forever.

Love is always magic. It's not rational, it doesn't follow any law. You can't make rules for it, you can't forbid it. You can't even make it disappear within yourself. It's alive like all magic, and it wants to change you.

I don’t think you’ve ever called me anything but ‘idiot.’” Names come from observation.

I love you,” I said. “When I thought I missed the chance to tell you that, I’ve never regretted anything more.

I don’t mind it. In fact, it feels stranger when it’s off.” “It feels like I’m being swallowed by an anaconda!” “You can loosen it after the party,” Ollie said. “That’s what I do.” I planned to burn my corset after the party but didn’t say so.

That’s the trouble with democracy—it’s damned fickle.

The only things that seemed to matter around here were the things that didn’t matter at all.

Whatever else is taken from you, never lose hope. Even if you see how dark the world can be, choose to believe it could be better.

A heart open to joy is a heart vulnerable to sorrow.

Even if it could never happen… I’m glad we had the dream.

The man who waits for ‘someday’ waits all his life

Even if you see how dark the world can be … choose to believe it could be better.

The worst part of being royal is when your best intentions end in ruin.

That’s the balance of life, hard as it is to accept. A heart open to joy is a heart vulnerable to sorrow. There’s no family without loss, no love without pain.

Mama pulled me against her side. “It hurts because we love him. That’s the balance of life, hard as it is to accept. A heart open to joy is a heart vulnerable to sorrow. There’s no family without loss, no love without pain.

I don’t know how it benefits the gods for a woman to suffer humiliation and loneliness all the days of her life.

I wanted to tell her so badly what I knew in my heart: that these were our last days together. But that was my burden to bear. I wanted her to have nothing but happiness in all the hours we had left. I couldn’t destroy her hope when she needed it most.

Her face flashed into my mind: eyes that bright and velvety blue, tilted up at the corners so they always seemed laughing, especially when she looked up at me. The spatter of freckles across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, usually a soft fawn color, but sometimes dark as chocolate from sun, disappearing by candlelight. And her mouth, wide, red, always quirked with some expression—curious, mocking, surprised, gleeful.

Happy birthday, princess. You don’t ride horses like a Romanov. You ride them like a Cossack. So I made this for you, because that’s what Cossacks do—we put carvings of our favorite things on our saddles to remind us of home when we’re away. To remind us what we fight for.

As Damien turned to leave, I plucked one of the white flowers pinned at my shoulder and threw it down to him. He caught it in his gloved hand and raised it to his lips without quite touching it. Then he tucked it away inside his coat.