“No matter how far I go, I'm still your person. We stand together now.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“But everyone knows that the Breccia Domain is more than an empty hole in the earth. Who knows what happened to the queens who were thrown down into the dark? Into the heart of the island, where the Goddess’s eye is always open. Who knows how she kept those queens or what she turned them into”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“Outside in the yard, Arsinoe follows Jules past the chicken coops as she and Camden stretch their sore limbs in the sun. Then she darts off into the woodpile.
“What are you digging for?” Jules asks.
“Nothing.” But Arsinoe returns with a book, brushing bits of bark off the soft green cover. She holds it up and Jules frowns. It is a book of poison plants, lifted discreetly from one of the shelves in Luke’s bookshop.
“You shouldn’t be messing about with that,” Jules says. “And what if someone sees you with it?”
“Then they’ll think I’m trying to get revenge, for what was done to you.”
“That won’t work. Reading a book to out-poison the poisoners? You can’t even poison a poisoner, can you?”
“Say ‘poison’ one more time, Jules.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“The cloth overlay of Billy’s cart clucks, and a brown chicken pokes her head out from under the covering, stepping out of the basket she was riding in.
“There is a chicken in your cart.”
“I know,” Billy snaps, and slaps his napkin across his lap.
“Why is there a chicken in your cart?”
“Because this was supposed to be chicken stew,” he says. “I’ve been hand-feeding this bird for days to be sure it was not poisoned before the fact. And now . . .” He pours Mirabella some water and drinks from her cup. The hen clucks, and Billy tosses down a chunk of bread.
“Now her name is Harriet,” he says quietly.
Mirabella laughs.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“Tommy Stratford and Michael . . . something or other,” she says. “Are you worried I’ll like them better than I like you?”
“That’s just not possible.”
“Why? Because you’re so irresistible?”
“No. Because you don’t like anyone.”
Arsinoe snorts.
“I do like you, Junior.”
“Oh?”
“But I have more important things to think about right now.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“Mirabella’s eyes fill with tears, and Billy quickly wipes his mouth. He scoops strawberry tart onto his fork and holds it out.
“Here,” he says. “You must try this.” As she takes the bite, he uses his thumb to discreetly wipe the tear that falls down her cheek.
“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “I suppose I haven’t even tried to consider your point of view. It was thoughtless of me.”
“It is all right,” Mirabella says. “Does she know that you love her?”
Billy raises his eyebrows.
“Why would she when I didn’t? It wasn’t like I read in books. A thunderclap. Eyes meeting. Tortured glances. With Arsinoe it was more like . . . having cold water poured down your back and learning to enjoy it.”
“And does she love you?”
“I don’t know. I think she might.” He smiles. “I hope she does.”
“I hope so too.” Another tear slides down her cheek, and Billy darts forward to discreetly hide it.
“It is all right,” she says. “They will think I am only crying because of how terrible this strawberry tart is.”
Billy sets down his fork, insulted. Then they both begin to laugh.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“She jogs until she reaches Billy, and falls in step beside him. He glances at her, then back at the ground.
“Is this how it is, then?” she asks after several moments. “One visit to my sister and we are no longer friends?”
He stops at the crest of a hill and squints out at the sun sparkling off the ripples in Sealhead Cove.
“I wish we weren’t. When my father sent me to Rolanth, I swore that I would hate you. That I wouldn’t be a fool like Joseph and get myself stuck in between.” He smiles at her sadly. “Why couldn’t you be wretched? Don’t you have any manners? You should’ve had the courtesy to be terrible. So I could despise you.”
“I am sorry. Shall I start now? Spit in your eye and kick you?”
“That sounds like something Arsinoe would do, actually. So I would find it endearing”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“Mirabella is still upright amid everything, and Arsinoe smiles. She does not know how anyone ever expected that she or Katharine could stand against that.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“Jules!” Arsinoe hisses. “Jules, are you down here?”
“Arsinoe!” Jules and Camden scramble up to the bars as Arsinoe runs to them. They embrace her as well as they can with hands and paws. Camden purrs and licks her face.
“Camden, blegh.” Arsinoe grins and wipes her cheek.
“I might have licked you as well, I’m so happy to see you.” Jules gasps.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“Willa walks past Arsinoe on the way to the kitchen.
“Goose and onion pie tonight.” Willa holds up a small yellow onion and chucks Arsinoe beneath the chin with it.
“Mmm,” Arsinoe replies uncertainly. “Was that . . . one of my favorites?”
“You do not remember?”
“I don’t.” Arsinoe follows her through the sitting room, looking at the paintings and the furniture. It would not have changed much, but nothing feels familiar. “Mirabella remembers everything. If she were here, the sentimental goof would be hugging that chair.”
“Even when she was a girl, Mirabella had far too much dignity to go about hugging chairs. Unlike you.”
― Kendare Blake, quote from One Dark Throne
“Akasha, for two thousand years I have watched,' he said. 'Call me the Roman in the Arena if you will and tell me tales of the ages that went before. When I knelt at your feet I begged you for your knowledge. But what I have witnessed in this short span has filled me with awe and love for all things mortal; I have seen revolutions in thought and philosophy which I believed impossible. Is not the human race moving towards the very age of peace you describe?'
Her face was a picture of disdain.
'Marius,' she said, 'this will go down as one of the bloodiest centuries in the history of the human race. What revolutions do you speak of, when millions have been exterminated by one small European nation on the whim of a madman, when entire cities were melted into oblivion by bombs? When children in desert countries of the East war on other children in the name of an ancient and despotic God? Marius, women the world over wash the fruits of their wombs down public drains. The screams of the hungry are deafening, yet unheard by the rich who cavort in technological citadels; disease runs rampant among the starving of whole continents while the sick in palatial hospitals spend the wealth of the world on cosmetics refinements and the promise of eternal life through pills and vials." She laughed softly. 'Did ever the cries of the dying ring so thickly in the ears of those of us who can hear them? Has ever more blood been shed?”
― Anne Rice, quote from The Queen of the Damned
“I don the robe of hermit without a cry.”
― Richard Matheson, quote from I Am Legend and Other Stories
“You don’t own a thing unless you can give it up, what does it profit a man, it profits him nothing, it profits him zilch, and you don’t learn that in school, you learn it on the road, you learn it from Ferd Janklow, and Wolf, and Richard going head-first into the rocks like a Titan II that didn’t fire off right.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Talisman
“Above his head at street level, he saw an angled aileron of a scarlet Porsche, its jaunty fin more or less at the upper edge of his window frame. A pair of very soft, clean glistening black shoes appeared, followed by impeccably creased matt charcoal pinstriped light woollen legs, followed by the beautifully cut lower hem of a jacket, its black vent revealing a scarlet silk lining, its open front revealing a flat muscular stomach under a finely-striped red and white shirt. Val’s legs followed, in powder-blue stockings and saxe-blue shoes, under the limp hem of a crêpey mustard-coloured dress, printed with blue moony flowers. The four feet advanced and retreated, retreated and advanced, the male feet insisting towards the basement stairs, the female feet resisting, parrying. Roland opened the door and went into the area, fired mostly by what always got him, pure curiosity as to what the top half looked like.”
― A.S. Byatt, quote from Possession
“He brought his lips to my ear. "I would have been gentle with you, though." I shuddered as I closed my eyes. Every inch of my body went taut as his words echoed through me. "I would have had you moaning my name throughout it all. And I would have taken a very, very long time, Feyre.”
― Sarah J. Maas, quote from A Court of Thorns and Roses
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