Quotes from Holly Black

Greetings, Your Majesty, you betraying toad.' No, that wouldn't work, no matter how good it felt. 'Greetings, Your Majesty,' I try again. 'I didn't kill my husband even though he richly deserved it.

I'm fine,' Oak says, sliding off the horse and immediately collapsing onto the asphalt. 'Fine?' the knight echoes, eyebrows raised. 'I couldn't say it if it wasn't true,' says the prince, and manages to stagger to his feet. He leans heavily on a nearby car.

Pain makes you strong... Get used to the weight.

She smiled too. 'Have you ever had a boyfriend this bad?' Her words hung in the air a moment. It was the first time any of them had ventured a guess. 'Worse,' he said, 'and girlfriends too. I have terrible taste.' Mary sat down next to him on the bench. 'Girlfriends too?' He nodded and lifted a glass of iced tea to his mouth. 'When you don't know what you're searching for,' he said, 'you have to look absolutely everywhere.

Cardan glances toward me, as though for help. When I am silent, he frowns, annoyed with both of us. 'Although I am wearing the cloak Mother Marrow made me, the one that will turn any blade, I still promise to run, tail between my legs. And since I have a tail, that should be amusing for everyone. Are you satisfied?

He gives me a smile, a strange light in his eyes. 'If we were capable of putting mistrust aside, we might be a formidable pair.

now normal felt fragile, as though she could unravel it all just by teasing out a single string.

Idly, I wonder what sort of execution Cardan might order. Maybe he'd strap me to some rocks and let the sea do the work. Nicasia would like that. If he's not in the mood, though, there's always beheading, hanging, exsanguination, drawn and quartered, fed whole to a riding toad...

But he holds me as though I am the only solid thing in the world.

Cardan lies on the rug with one arm propping up his head and the other slung across Jude's waist. He understands everything and nothing he sees on the screen- just as he understands everything and nothing about being here with her family. He feels like a feral cat that might bite out of habit.

His cuffs are jewelled, and the moth pin that holds his cloak in place has wings that move on their own.

Ah, and now you laugh. It is my curse to adore cruel women.

Jasper just kept looking angry and staring up at the sky as if hoping to be saved by a helicopter or an air elemental, or maybe an elemental driving a helicopter.

Rain, rain, go away, come back when I am marathoning anime.

In this hair, and with this dress, I look pretty. The kind of pretty that allows monsters to deceive people into forests, into dances where they will find their doom.

I wish I could punch him in his smug face and show him how undeterred I am by his exile.

I do have a bad habit," he says. "of falling in love. With regularity and to spectacular effect. You see, it never goes well.

Oh, tell me the rest. I like tricks and snares. Even ones I was nearly caught in.

Jude never loved Locke.' My face feels hot, but my shame is an excellent cover to hide behind. 'She loved someone else. He's the one she'd want dead.' I am pleased to see Cardan flinch. 'Enough,' he says before I can go on. 'I have heard all I care to on this subject-

He gives me one of his most awful smiles. 'I suppose she'll have to be searched.' ... 'My husband was murdered,' I say. 'And whether or not you believe me, I do mourn him. I will not make a spectacle of myself for the Court's amusement when his body is barely cold.' Unfortunately, the High King's smile only grows. 'As you wish. Then I suppose I will have to examine you along in my chambers.

We can enchant you to run around on all fours, barking like a dog. We can curse you to wither away for want of a song you'll never hear again or a kind word from my lips. We're not mortal. We will break you. You're a fragile little thing; we'd hardly need to try. Give up.' 'Never,' I say. He smiles, smug. 'Never? Never is like forever- too big for mortals to comprehend.

I can see why a mortal would make a useful spy, beyond the ability to lie. A mortal can pass in to low places and high without much notice. Holding a harp, we're bards. In homespun, we're servants. In gowns, we're wives with squalling goblin children. I guess being beneath notice has advantages.

Have you come to gloat?' I ask, frustrated. 'To stop me?' I am not sure how powerful a kelpie is out of the water and in the shape of a man. 'To surprise you,' he says. 'Aren't surprises wonderful?

Little brother,' Balekin says without waiting to be acknowledged. He wears his chained cuffs on his wrists as though they are bracelets, as though they add to his status instead of marking him as a prisoner. 'You requested an audience with the crown,' Cardan says. 'No, brother, it was you I wanted to speak with, not the ornament on your head.