To Kill a Kingdom

Technically, I’m a murderer, but I like to think that’s one of my better qualities.

How strange that instead of taking his heart, I'm hoping he takes mine.

In my heart, I’m as wild as the ocean that raised me.

You can't win a war. Someone else just loses.

They celebrate love as though it's power, even though it has killed far more humans than I ever have.

Lies aren't answers." "But they sound so much better than the truth.

Love and madness are two stars in the same sky. You cannot build a roof to keep out last year’s rain.

You are a little heartless today, aren't you?" "Never," I say. "There are seventeen under my bed.

Some people burn so brightly, it's impossible to put the flames out.

People don’t tell secrets because someone needs to know them. They do it because they need someone to tell.

It's like holding a story rather than a person; she feels wild and infinite in my arms.

That's the thing about risks," Kye says. " It's impossible to know which ones are worth it until it's too late.

Everyone is a blank canvas, waiting to be filled with the colour of discovery.

And the ocean, calling out to us both. A song of freedom and longing.

You can’t bend to the world; you have to make it bend to you.

You should be careful" I tell Yukiko. "The thing about taking something that's not yours is that there will always be someone out there ready to take it back." "I suppose I'll have to watch my back, then." "No need," I tell her. "I can see it perfectly.

I’ve made a mistake. It started with a prince, as most stories do. Once I felt the thrum of his heart beneath my fingers, I couldn’t forget it.

I reach out my hand to pull her up, and the look Lira gives me is nothing short of poisonous. “Do you want me to chop it off?” she asks. I keep my hand hovering in the space between us. “Not particularly.” “Then get it out of my face.

If your only instrument is a sword, then you will always strike at your problems.

He has eyes like vast pools and a jaw made from shipwrecks and broken coral. Every movement he makes is as quick and fluid as a tidal wave. He belongs to the ocean. He is made from it, as much as I am.

Any human who takes a siren's heart will be immune to the power of their song. Only Elian didn't need to take my heart; I gave it to him.

Hearts are power, and if there’s one thing my kind craves more than the ocean, it’s power.

Elian doesn't just look at the stars, but he imagines them, too. He draws pictures of them in his mind, creating stories about gods and wars and the souls of explorers. He thinks about where his soul will go when he dies and if he will become part of the night.

In the pits of our souls - if I amuse myself with the notion that I have a soul - Elian and I aren't so different. Two kingdoms that come with responsibilities we each have trouble bearing. Him, the shackles of being pinned to one land and one life. Me, trapped in the confines of my mother's murderous legacy. And the ocean, calling out to us both. A song of freedom and longing.

And in another life, if I ever had a choice about who to be, maybe I would have been like him.

I could have killed her, but I didn’t, because she’s a wonder.

He belongs to the ocean. He is made from it, as much as I am.

I let it all fall away. My mission, my kingdom. The world. They exist somewhere other than in this moment, and now there is only this. Me, my ship, and a girl with oceans in her eyes.

To them, the sea is never the true danger. Even crawling with sirens and sharks and beasts that can devour them whole in seconds. The true danger is people. They are the unpredictable. The betrayers and the liars.