Quotes from Holly Black

Air all around him, there was air in the water, all elements were one, fire and earth, air and water. All are but one thing, not four, not two, and not three, but one. He

Looking past Lucien and Elisabet, Tana finally saw Aidan. He was underdressed, slouching against a wall in a black silk shirt over black jeans. Tana wondered if Midnight had picked out those clothes for him and then wondered if they'd been borrowed from Rufus. Steeling herself, she walked over to him, giving a wide berth to any other vampire she saw. "Tana!" Aidan said, looking incredibly pleased to see her right up to the moment when she punched him in the face.

Fight your fight,' she tells me. 'Let someone else worry about theirs.

I don't feel calm at all. I am a maelstrom of emotions. All I want to do is scream.

Maybe like the bat in the birdcage, Gavriel had been waiting for dark, waiting to get out of the chains, drink Aidan's blood, and escape. But when she showed up, he figured he could use them for a ride through daylight, so long as he seemed harmless enough to need saving. A chill crept up her spine.

The very thought of being there, of seeing Cardan, speeds my heart. Page 39

It came to her, all of a sudden, the words he'd said to her in Lance's house. If I'm hurt, you must be very careful. No, Tana, you must listen. You must be careful of me. He hadn't been worried he was going to get hurt. He'd been worried that he was going to hurt someone else.

Life's full of opportunities to make crappy decisions that feel good. And after the first one, the rest get a whole lot easier.

Vow she won't be harmed,' Oak says, breathing hard. 'Also me. I would like not to be harmed as well.

She had shrieked and shrieked for her mother, but her mother was already there. Her mother was the monster.

High King Cardans presence seems to infect the very air I breathe. For a wild moment, I consider turning and getting out of there before he spots me. I dont know if I can do this. I feel a little dizzy. I dont know if I can look at him and not show on my face any of what I am feeling. Page 60

Cardan's fingers dig into my back. He's trembling, and whether it is from ebbing magic or horror, I am not sure. But he holds me as though I am the only solid thing in the world.

What they don't realise is this: Yes, they frighten me, but I have always been scared, since the day I got here. I was raised by the man who murdered my parents, reared in a land of monsters. I live with that fear, let it settle in to my bones, and ignore it. If I didn't pretend not to be scared, I would hide under my owl-down coverlets in Madoc's estate forever. I would lie there and scream until there was nothing left of me. I refuse to do that. I will not do that.

Poison may be a coward's weapon, but it's an effective one.

Let me have everything I ever wanted, everything I ever dreamed, and eternal misery along with it.

Being in the infirmary when you'd gotten injured being awesome was totally different from being in the Infirmary for doing something dumb.

We caught a few courtiers speculating about assassinating the mortal queen. Their plans got blown up.' A small smile crosses her face. 'As did they.

You whom I could not save Listen to me." —CZESLAW MILOSZ, "Dedication

I feel the stitches holding me together as though I am a rag doll with stuffing trying to leak out.

When you're in danger , everything becomes clear,doesn't it? Everything else falls away. Danger is a terrible addiction, but that's what I like - the clarity of thought that it provides. How about you?

We'll get you another day," Gavriel said, with such odd sincerity that she had to smile.

I was meant for the purpose of betraying the High Court. Never to survive past that. If I am the cause of Lady Nore's fall, it will give me all the more pleasure for her never having anticipated it.

I have often wondered if my past is the reason I am the way I am, if it has made me monstrous. If so, will I make a monster out of him"?

Cardan stands over me. His jacket is thrown on a nearby chair, the velvet soaked through with some dark substance. His white sleeves are rolled up, and he's washing my hands with a wet cloth. Getting the blood off them. I try to speak, but my mouth feels like it is full of honey. I slide back into the syrupy dark.