“But she underestimated me. I played my cards, I laid in wait, I let myself be beaten and manipulated. If she keeps that promise she made to me, I’ll show her the truth I’ve learned on her boat. I don’t just raise monsters. I am one.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“And it sucks, because I want to kiss her. It's infuriating how perfect it would be to kiss her right now, perched on a cannon on a pirate ship under the stars. That sounds like something off the pages of an adventure novel. But my life isn't one of those stories. My story is a hurricane, and here with Swift is just the eye.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“It's one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, knowing their stories.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“They can try to kill me all they want, but I'm the girl who stands on tha backs of the beasts of the NeoPacific. The Minnow blazes from within, promising life and warmth and vilainy, but out here I'm mighty.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“You don't touch her controls. You never touch my ship like that again. Next time it happens, I cut a finger off. Each time you go against me, you lose another finger. When you're out of fingers, you're out of luck. Am I clear?"
... "Perfectly," I choke. "Ten chances it is.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“Am I 'just one of them'?" Swift asks, miffed.
"No, you're so much more."
...
Home is what you kill for.
And I killed for Swift”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“Don't get too chummy with me, Cas. I'll eat you alive." - Swift
... "Was that a threat? God, you're the least intimidating pirate I've ever had the misfortune to meet." - Cas”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“You're at the top of the world - you're the most powerful thing on the sea when you're serving under her - but there's a cost. There's always a cost.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“Did it ever occur to you that your neck might matter to me at least as much as mine? Actually, probably more than mine? - Swift, to Cas”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“What do you mean, what's the deal with my hair?" - Swift
...
"Did you get bored one day and hack half of it off? You look like you've had a close call with a weed whacker." - Cas”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“Home is what you kill for. And I killed for Swift.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“But when you suffer with someone, you learn them. And it’s hard to kill a person you’ve learned.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“I don’t just raise monsters. I am one.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, knowing their stories.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“But before that day it felt like at least I had an ally on this boat. Now I have nothing. Well, I have a fat baby sea monster. But Bao doesn't tell jokes, and somehow I need that.
I hate how I need that.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“Dad takes a step back, one hand still on my shoulder, and reaches into his pocket. He draws out a little blue capsule, and I feel every molecule in my body screaming to run. Dad must catch the panic in my eyes - he squeezes my shoulder and holds out the capsule. "Cas, it's fine. It's going to be fine. This is just in case."
Just in case. Just in case the worst happens. The ship falls. Durga fails, I fail, and the knowledge I carry as a Reckoner trainer must be disposed of. That information can't fall into the wrong hands, into the hands of people who will do anything to take down our beasts.
So this little capsule holds the pill that will kill me if it comes to that.
"It's waterproof," Dad continues, pressing it into my hand. "The pocket on the collar of your wetsuit, keep it there. It has to stay with you at all times."
It won't happen on this voyage. It's such a basic mission, gift-wrapped to be easy enough for me to handle on my own. But even holding the pill fills me with revulsion. On all my training voyages, I've never had to carry one of these capsules. That burden only goes to full-time trainers.
"Cas." Dad tilts my chin up, ripping my gaze from the pull. "You were born to do this. I promise you, you'll forget you even have it." I suppose he ought to know - he's been carrying one for two decades.
It's just a right of passage, I tell myself, and throw my arms around his neck once more.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
“She probably just wants to see me get eaten.”
― Emily Skrutskie, quote from The Abyss Surrounds Us
Emily Skrutskie
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“Irgendwo war mir ein Rest von Glauben an den freien Willen geblieben, aber an diesem Morgen war ich sicher, dem Menschen blieb so viel freie Wahl wie dem Uhrwerk in meiner Armbanduhr oder der Fliege, die auf dem Rand meiner Untertasse saß. Es waren die gleichen Kräfte, die Hitler, Stalin, den Papst, den Rabbi von Gur und ein Molekül in der Mitte der Erde antrieben, wie auch ein Sternbild, das Milliarden Lichtjahre entfernt von der Milchstraße war. Blinde Mächte? Sehende Mächte? Es war gleichgültig geworden. Es war uns bestimmt, unsere kleinen Spiele zu spielen und zermalmt zu werden.”
― Isaac Bashevis Singer, quote from Shosha
“The Sultan tapped his tented fingers, staring into the distance. Suddenly, he lunged toward me, took hold of my wrist, and pulled me roughly down to sit on the cushion beside him. “This . . . mermaid,” he said through clenched teeth, leaning in so close to me that I could smell the mint on his breath. “The one who sang to the king at night.” His voice was fierce, but quiet. I couldn’t tell if anyone but me could hear. “How . . .” he began. “How did she think of the king . . . in her heart?”
I glanced quickly up at his face and saw there a look that took me by surprise. An oddly soft, vulnerable, hurting look. The look of a man who might cry out in his sleep at night, like a child. But then the stony mask slid back.
“Did she despise him,” the Sultan asked, “for making her sing for her life each night? Did she only pretend affection to save her own skin? Did she . . . loathe him for what he had done before, to his other wives? For his . . . sins?”
“No, my lord,” I said softly. “She loved him.”
“Do you swear it?” He gripped my wrist harder, until it hurt.
“Yes, my lord. She told me—” I stopped, corrected myself. “She told the mermaid with the broken fin. She said the king—the merman king, my lord—she said that he had a deep hurting inside him. She said that she wanted to soothe him. And when the mermaid with the broken fin . . . questioned how the queen could love him—because of the things you just said, my lord—the queen said, ‘I’m not ashamed of loving him. There’s nothing wrong with loving someone. It’s hating—that’s what’s wrong.”
― Susan Fletcher, quote from Shadow Spinner
“To be alive is to have a story to tell.”
― Daniel Mendelsohn, quote from The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
“A little while later Jack walked into the kitchen at the bar and saw Preacher scowl his greeting. Bravely, Jack walked up to the counter. “Hey, man,” he said. “You were
right, I was wrong, and I’d like us to get back on the same team.”
“You sure this team of mine isn’t too much trouble for little you?” Preacher asked.
“Okay, you about done? Because this really hurts and I’m trying not to deck you right
now.”
― Robyn Carr, quote from Shelter Mountain
“But I really wanted to believe that there were these magic celestial bodies that would direct my life, tell me what to do, and it turns out it's not stars, it's some bits of screwy DNA. I'm just meat with faulty programming.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from Zoo City
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