“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“When no one understands, that's usually a good sign that you're wrong.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“But these words people threw around - humans, monsters, heroes, villains - to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“He wanted to care, he wanted to care so badly, but there was this gap between what he felt and what he wanted to feel, a space where something important had been carved out.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“The absence of pain led to an absence of fear, and the absence of fear led to a disregard for consequence.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“There are no good men in this game.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“The moments that define lives aren't always obvious. They don't scream LEDGE, and nine times out of ten there's no rope to duck under, no line to cross, no blood pact, no official letter on fancy paper. They aren't always protracted, heavy with meaning. Between one sip and the next, Victor made the biggest mistake of his life, and it was made of nothing more than one line. Three small words.
"I'll go first.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain?
He took a long sip of his drink, tipped his head back against the couch, and decided he could live with that.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Because you don't think I'm a bad person," he said. "And I don't want to prove you wrong.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“I want to believe that there's more. That we could be more. Hell, we could be heroes.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Be lost. Give up. Give In. in the end It would be better to surrender before you begin. be lost. Be lost And then you will not care if you are ever found.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“The world resists, when you break its rules.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Picking the best solution really depended on your definition of best.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Victor didn't want to run while Eli was busy trying to fly.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“―We could be dead- said Eli.
―That‘s a risk everyone takes by living.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“You must make time for that which matters, for that which defines you: your passion, your progress, your pen. Take it up, and write your own story.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“I watch you, and it's like watching two people.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Did you know that when you take away a person's fear of pain, you take away their fear of death? You make them, in their own eyes, immortal. Which of course they're not, but what's the saying? We are all immortal until proven otherwise?”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“The absence of pain led to an absence of fear, and the absence of fear led to a disregard for consequences.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“You don't understand," gasped Eli. "No one understands."
"When no one understands, that's usually a good sign that you're wrong.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“There were some people you had to stay away from, people who poisoned everything in reach. Then there were people you wanted to stick with, the ones with silver tongues and golden touched. And then, there were people you stood beside, because it meant you weren't in their way. And whoever Victor Vale was, whatever he was, and whatever he was up to, the only thing Mitch knew was that he did not want to be in his way.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“He was like one of those pictures full of small errors, the kind you could only pick out by searching the image from every angle, and even then, a few always slipped by. On the surface, Eli seemed perfectly normal, but now and then Victor would catch a crack, a sideways glance, a moment when his roommate's face and his words, his look and his meaning, would not line up. Those fleeting slices fascinated Victor. It was like watching two people, one hiding in the other's skin. And their skin was always too dry, on the verge of cracking and showing the color of the thing beneath.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“I don’t want to be forgotten.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Like everything was real, but nothing mattered.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Victor was naturally quiet, but even more so under pressure, which gave his peers the distinct impression he knew what he was doing, even when he didn't.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“The paper called Eli a hero. The word made Victor laugh. Not just because it was absurd, but because it posed a question. If Eli was really a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him a villain? He took a long sip of his drink, tipped his head back against the couch, and decided he could live with that.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Victor wondered about lots of things. He wondered about himself (whether he was broken, or special, or better, or worse) and about other people (whether they were all really as stupid as they seemed). He wondered about Angie - what would happen if he told her how he felt, what it would be like if she chose him. He wondered about life, and people, and science, and magic, and God, and whether he believed in any of them.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“The moments that define lives aren't always obvious. They don't always scream LEDGE, and nine times out of ten there's no rope to duck under, no line to cross, no blood pact, no official letter on fancy paper. They aren't always protracted, heavy with meaning.”
― V.E. Schwab, quote from Vicious
“Glorious mind fuck, she’s addictive. It makes my mind go to places that it hasn’t even fathomed before. She denies me while denying herself. She’s growing weak. I can feel, as she trembles against me, her walls coming down slowly, even as she struggles to keep them up. The scent of her need makes me want to pull back the delicate petals of her flower and devour it, consume it, fuck it.”
― Amelia Hutchins, quote from Fighting Destiny
“I libri devono essere pesanti perché dentro hanno il mondo intero.”
― Cornelia Funke, quote from The Inkheart Trilogy: Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath
“If You don't give readers what they want, they'll be mad at you. If you give them what they do want, they'll be even more mad at you.”
― Cassandra Clare, quote from The Mortal Instruments
“I tell you, commander, it's true that some of the most terrible things in the world are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they're doing it for the best, especially if there is some god involved.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Snuff
“I don’t belong here, David. Not yet. Maybe someday. If-- when Yasmine becomes Queen, she’ll need me, but for now, what Avalon really needs is someone in the human world, just like Jamison said. Someone to remind them how great humans really are. How great you really are,’ She added. ‘And I intend to do just that.’
‘Laurel?’
There was an edge of desperation in his voice, a deep sorrow she knew she had put there. ‘Yeah?’
He was quiet for a long time and Laurel wondered if he had changed his mind when he blurted, ‘We could have made it. If it hadn’t been for... for him, we would have had the real thing. Our whole lives. I truely believe that.’
Laurel smiled sadly. ‘Me too.’ She threw herself into David’s arms, pressing her cheek to his warm chest, the same way she’d hugged him countless times before. But there was something more in it, this time, as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. And she knew, despite the fact that she would see him everyday from now through graduation, that this was goodbye.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘For everything.’
A movement caught the corner of her eye; he was fat away, but she knew him in an instant. Tamani was struggling up the pathway on his own, hardly able to put one foot in front of the other. Even as she watched he stumbled and barely caught himself.
Laurel gasped and was on her feet in an instant. ‘I have to help him,’ she said.
David met her eyes and held her gaze for several seconds before he looked down and nodded. ‘Go,’ he said. ‘He needs you.’
‘David?’ Laurel said. ‘Sometimes...’ she tried to remember how Chelsea had explained it to her once. ‘Sometimes we’re busy looking at one thing, one... person... that we can’t see anything else. Maybe-- maybe it’s time for you to open your eyes and look around.’
That message delivered, Laurel whirled and headed for Tamani without a backward glance.
Chapter 27
‘Tamani!’ Laurel called, running to him.
He looked up and for a second, Laurel saw joy in his eyes. But then darkness clouded his expression. He blinked and looked down at the ground, running his fingers through his hair almost nervously.
Laurel tucked herself underneath his good arm, wanting to chide him for doing so much. Beneath her fingertips Laurel could feel no trace of Klea’s virulent toxin, which was encouraging, but his wounds were grevious on their own. ‘Are you alright?’
He shook hes head and his eyes looked haunted in a way she had never seen before. Yesterday she had been peripherally aware that he was pushing his emotions aside to accomplish the tasks before him. But here, with no one around bur Laurel, with no lives to save, he had let his defenses fo and allowed himself to really feel. And it showed. ‘No,’ he said, his voice shaking. ‘I’m not all right. And I don’t think I’m going to be alright for a long time. But I’ll live,’ he added after a brief pause.
‘Sit,’ Laurel said pulling him off the path to a patch of grass where a larege pine shaded them from not only the rising sun, but also from prying eyes. For just a moment, she wanted him all to herself. ’Where’s Chelsea?’
‘She’ll be here soon,’ he said wearily.
‘Where were you?’ She asked.
He was silent for a moment. ‘Shar’s house,’ he finally finally said, his voice cracking.
‘Oh, Tam,’ Laurel breathed, her hands gripping his shoulders.
‘It was his last request,’ Tamani said, one silent tear tracing down his face for an instant before he broke her gaze and rubbed it with his sleeve.
Laurel wanted to wrap her arms around him, to offer her shoulder for him to cry on, to soothe away those terrible lines on his forehead, but she didn’t know where to begin. ‘Tamani, what’s going on?’
Tamani swallowed, then shook his head. ‘I’ll get you back to California-- you’ll see. You, Chelsea, and David.’
‘But--’
‘But I’m not coming with you.’
‘You-- you have to,’ Laurel said, but Tamani was shaking his head.”
― Aprilynne Pike, quote from Destined
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