Quotes from Holly Black

Everything ought to be as it was before, except it isn't. Whenever my hand brushes Oak's as he passes me a piece of bread or a skin of water, I can't help but notice. When we sleep in shifts, one of us left to navigate by the stars, I am drawn to watching his face, as though through his dreams, I will learn his secrets.

Only idiots aren't afraid of scary things.

He is a gravitational force, pulling everything toward him.

She thought of his eyes, red like spilled garnets, red as poppies, red as the bright embers of a fire. She thought of what they taught in school: cold hands, dead heart. Plenty of vampires had forgotten how to feel anything but hunger. He'd helped her, sure, but that didn't mean she could trust him not to turn on her now that they were out of danger. Vampires were unpredictable.

Her eyes are the bright blue of chipped beach glass.

Your ridiculous family might be surprised to find that not everything is solved by murder," Locke calls after me. "We would be surprised to find that," I call back.

Since I never intended to quit, it's nice to have someone making all this effort to get me to do something I would have done anyway.

The point of a fight is not to have a good fight, it's to win.

If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back." ? Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

Cardan's clothes are disarranged from crawling under tables or being captured and tied, and his infamous tail is showing under the white lawn of his shirt. It it slim, nearly hairless, with a tuft of black fur at the tip. As I watch, the tail forms one wavering curve after another snaking back and forth, betraying his cool face, telling its own story of uncertainty and fear. I can see why he hides that thing away.

Why should death discriminate between age and youth, you mean?" he asked calmly. "Death has his favorites, like anyone. Those who are beloved of Death will not die.

I feel helpless, as though he's herding me around a chessboard to checkmate.

Perhaps you could just allow yourself to be rescued,' Cardan says. 'For once.

Marry me,' he says. 'Become the Queen of Elfhame.

No one in chains could ever truly love you.

Your ridiculous family might be surprised to find that not everything is solved by murder,' Locke calls after me. 'We would be surprised to find that,' I call back.

He sent me to kill you" I whisper against his ear. A shiver goes through his body, and his hand goes to my waist, but instead of pushing me away, he pulls me into the bed with him, rolling my body across him onto the heavily embroidered coverlets.

We don't always have a choice in our fate.

Why was I cruel to Folk? Why was I awful to you? Because I could be. Because I liked it. Because, for a moment, when I was at my worst, I felt powerful, and most of the time, I felt powerless, despite being a prince and the son of the High King of Faerie.

Cardan draws a sharp breath and then lets it out slowly. 'I'd prefer to live.

In all the commotion, no one remembered the Glock.

Because I don't like being the fool who'd been tricked. I like games, but I hate to lose.

He reaches out and touches my hair, traces the hollow of my cheekbone.

There is always something to lose.