“This should never have happened, Brishen. We were unimportant, you and I. We weren't supposed to mean anything to anyone."
"Woman of day," he said slowly. "You mean everything to me.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“You make a very handsome dead eel, my husband,”
“For a boiled mollusk, you wear black quite well, my wife,”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Sleep here each day, Ildiko.” A sweet warmth suffused her. She entangled her legs with his and hugged his arm to her waist. “As you wish. Just don’t steal the blankets.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“While he disliked the idea of scaring her, ignorance had killed more than its fair share of people, and he wanted her aware of the danger.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“see past the surface to the tides below. ”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Ildiko had been tempted more than a few times to cross her eyes and watch their reaction.
“Don’t even think about it, wife. You’ll notice half of them are sharpening or cleaning their weapons. All I need is for someone to inadvertently slice themselves open because you startled them.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Had you crawled out from under my bed when I was a child, I would have bludgeoned you to death with my father’s mace.” Brishen”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“An excellent choice to pair the scarpatine with the potato, Your Highness. They are better together than apart.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“He allowed himself a small chuckle then. “I will conquer kingdoms for you if you but ask it of me, Ildiko.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“She made him strong; she made him weak, and in that moment, she nearly put him on his knees. ”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“She reached into a pocket of her tunic and brought out a small decorative box. She placed it on the table and slid it toward him. He squelched the urge to push it back. “I came to bring you this. It’s yours.” ”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“I'm serious, Brishen. Promise me you'll not get yourself killed or maimed out there."
"I can't make that promise, Ildiko, but I can swear to do my best to come back with all arms and legs attached."
She frowned. "Your head too, if you please."
Brishen laughed then. "My head too.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Resting beside her, he seemed to Ildiko a living statue, carved from dark granite into a form of supple elegance and power. He was beautiful, and the tremor change in her perception of him robbed her lungs of air.
He opened both eyes suddenly, making her jump. Two shimmering gold coins stared at her unblinking. "Good evening, wife," he said in a voice raspy with the remnants of sleep. A closed-lip smile curved his mouth upward and deepened the tiny lines that fanned from the corners of his eyes. "You're staring. Do I have a fly on my nose?"
Fighting down a blush at being caught gawking at her own husband, Ildiko lightly tapped the tip of his nose with one finger. "I was trying to find a way to kill it without punching you in the face. Lucky for you, it flew away.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“pads of his fingers, their dark claws a whisper of movement”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“A wash of relief poured through her, along with a kindling of hope. Her bridegroom wasn't Gauri; he wasn't even human. He was, however, congenial and gracious. She had proclaimed his appearance ghastly and his honesty handsome. Ildiko still stood by both opinions. She could have done infinitely worse. More than a few Gauri women had the misfortune to marry human men with handsome faces and ghastly souls.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“You might have a face to turn my hair white, but your honesty is handsome.” She”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“She was halfway through the book, her eyes heavy with sleep, when the bedroom door opened. Brishen stood at the threshold, dressed down to undertunic and trousers, his feet bare and his hair damp. He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms. “Woman of day, you waited for me.”
Ildiko closed her book and offered him a drowsy smile. Relief and happiness coursed through her. “Prince of night, you’ve come back to me—your head intact.”
“I promised I’d try.” ”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Will you be that for me, Ildiko,” he said. “That beacon in the void?”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“The void is vast, like the sea at night and no land in sight. I’ll be the beacon, Brishen.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“She was ugly; she was beautiful, and she was his. “My Ildiko,” he whispered.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Ildiko might not reciprocate the feeling, but Brishen considered himself fortunate to have such a wife.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“They laughed together then until the woman's features turned somber. "Thank you for not lying about what you thought of my appearance. You might have a face to turn my hair white, but your honesty is handsome.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Her eyes bothered him most. Unlike the Kai, hers were layers of opaque white, blue ringed in gray and black pinpoint centers that expanded or contracted with the light. The first time he’d witnessed that reaction in a human, all the hairs on his nape stood straight up. That, and the way the contrasting colors made it easy to see the eyes move in their sockets gave the impression they weren’t body parts but entities unto themselves living as parasites inside their hosts’ skulls.
He was used to seeing the frantic eye-rolling in a frightened horse but not a person. If the parasite impression didn’t repulse him so much, he’d think humans lived in a constant state of hysterical terror.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“It’ll be hard not to tease your folk sometimes.”
Brishen couldn’t imagine how she might go about such a thing. He had no idea if the Kai and the Gauri even knew the same jokes or found the same things funny. “What do you mean?”
He almost leapt out of his skin when Ildiko stared at him as both of her eyes drifted slowly down and over until they seemed to meet together, separated only by the elegant bridge of her nose.
“Lover of thorns and holy gods!” he yelped and clapped one hand across her eyes to shut out the sight. “Stop that,” he ordered.
Ildiko laughed and pushed his hand away. She laughed even harder when she caught sight of his expression. “Wait,” she gasped on a giggle. “I can do better. Want to see me make one eye cross and have the other stay still?”
Brishen reared back. “No!” He grimaced. “Nightmarish. I’ll thank you to keep that particular talent to yourself, wife.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“When it was just he, Ildiko and Anhuset, his cousin rounded on him. “Are you trying to worry me into an early death?” she snapped.
“Stop henpecking me,” he snapped back. “I have a wife for that, and even she doesn’t do it.”
Muffled laughter sounded next to him. Ildiko stared at them both with watery eyes and a hand clapped over her mouth. She lowered her hand and compressed her lips in an obvious effort to contain her mirth. “Sorry,” she managed to gasp out between giggles.
Anhuset didn’t share in her amusement. Her expression darkened before she bowed a second time. “I will see you both in the town square.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“She made him strong; she made him weak, and in that moment, she nearly put him on his knees.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Ildiko shuddered. Her hope to never again see or eat the Kai’s most beloved and revolting delicacy had been in vain. When Brishen informed her that the dish was one of Serovek’s favorites, she resigned herself to another culinary battle with her food and put the scarpatine on the menu. She ordered roasted potatoes as well, much to the head cook’s disgust.
When servants brought out the food and set it on the table, Brishen leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Revenge, wife?”
“Hardly,” she replied, keeping a wary eye on the pie closest to her. The golden top crust, with its sprinkle of sparkling salt, pitched in a lazy undulation. “But I’m starving, and I have no intention of filling up on that abomination.”
Their guest of honor didn’t share their dislike of either food. As deft as any Kai, Serovek made short work of the scarpatine and its whipping tail, cleaved open the shell with his knife and took a generous bite of the steaming gray meat.
Ildiko’s stomach heaved. She forgot her nausea when Serovek complimented her. “An excellent choice to pair the scarpatine with the potato, Your Highness. They are better together than apart.”
Beside her, Brishen choked into his goblet. He wiped his mouth with his sanap. “What a waste of good scarpatine,” he muttered under his breath.
What a waste of a nice potato, she thought. However, the more she thought on Serovek’s remark, the more her amusement grew.
“And what has you smiling so brightly?” Brishen stared at her, his lambent eyes glowing nearly white in the hall’s torchlight.
She glanced at Serovek, happily cleaning his plate and shooting the occasional glance at Anhuset nearby. Brishen’s cousin refused to meet his gaze, but Ildiko had caught the woman watching the Beladine lord more than a few times during dinner.
“That’s us, you know,” she said.
“What is us?”
“The scarpatine and the potato. Better together than alone. At least I think so.”
One of Brishen’s eyebrows slid upward. “I thought we were hag and dead eel. I think I like those comparisons more.” He shoved his barely-touched potato to the edge of his plate with his knife tip, upper lip curled in revulsion to reveal a gleaming white fang.
Ildiko laughed and stabbed a piece of the potato off his plate. She popped it into her mouth and chewed with gusto, eager to blunt the taste of scarpatine still lingering on her tongue.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“Ildiko clutched his arm, unwilling to have him leave her side. “I enjoy your touch, Brishen.”
The stiffness eased from his shoulders. He gave her a wry look and pressed his palm to the pale expanse of skin just below her collarbones. His hand rose and fell in quick time to her breathing. “I believe you, but this tells me you fear it as well.”
She winced. “Your teeth are so...sharp.”
“They are, but I’m not careless, wife. And if, for some unfathomable reason, I accidently bite you, you’re welcome to bite me back.”
His attempt at humor worked, and Ildiko chuckled. “Brishen—” She offered him a toothy grin. “These wouldn’t do much damage.”
He traced the line of her collarbones with the rough pads of his fingers, their dark claws a whisper of movement across her flesh. “You have obviously never been badly bitten by a horse.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“I wish merely to understand my husband’s sacrifice. He will live among his own people. I cannot bear him children, but the line of succession is secured many times over. He cannot marry a Kai woman, but if the Kai court is anything like the Gauri court, his union with me won’t prevent him from having a mistress. Several if he wishes. If he can’t bear the sight of me, we can talk in the daylight when he doesn’t see so well. Then I can argue the sacrifice is mine, not his.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
“You find me ugly, don’t you?” Brishen had faced abominations on the battlefield without flinching, leapt into the thick of the fighting against creatures born from the nightmares of lesser demons. Not once had he been tempted to run away in fear. Now, his leg muscles rippled with the urge to flee. He clenched his teeth instead, prayed he wouldn’t start a war with their newest ally and answered honestly. “Hideous,” he said. “A hag of a woman.”
― Grace Draven, quote from Radiance
Grace Draven
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