Quotes from Holly Black

The High King Balekin is a friend to my lady's Court,' Cardan says, silver-tongued in his silver fox mask. He wears an easy half smile. He's speaking the language of privilege, speaking it with his drawling tone, with the looseness of his limbs, as though he thinks he owns everything he can see.

He and Jericho and Sarah were my best friends

When it was his turn to talk, he told stories. He told me ones I knew, old stories, and he told me old-sounding ones I had never heard.

You can't win when someone else makes all the rules

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 leans in for a kiss and

Let me make you an offer, little goat. We spar. If you lose, my cap is returned to me, unburnt. I continue to hunt as I have. And you give me your littlest finger.' 'To eat?' I ask, taking the flame away from the hat. 'If I like,' she returns. 'Or to wear like a brooch. What do you care what I do with it? The point is that it will be mine.

Because they could kill you!" "They better," I say to her. "Because anything less than that isn't going to work.

Cardan is clever, but it's not a nice kind of cleverness.

Cardan's hands are deftly splitting the deck of cards, but his glittering black eyes are on me.

I can't believe the land chose me.

But before they got what was coming to them, they got to be the fairest in all the land.

No geas can save you from the effects of our fruits and poisons. Think carefully. I could grant you the power to enrapture all who looked upon you instead. I could give you a spot right there.' He touches my forehead. 'And anyone who saw it would be struck with love. I could give you a magical blade that cuts through starlight.

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, SONNET CXLVII

as though she was the only real thing in a land of ghosts.

I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear. Maybe he was more right than I wanted to believe.

If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back.

It turns out I am far from done with making mistakes.

Tell me you hate me.' 'I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.' He kisses me harder. 'I hate you. I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.

Maybe I can't help being attracted to her the same way flies can't help being attracted to carnivorous plants.

Here's why I don't like these stories: They highlight that I am vulnerable. No matter how careful I am, eventually I'll make another misstep. I am weak. I am fragile. I am mortal. I hate that most of all. Even if, by some miracle, I could be better than them, I will never be one of them.

Given what we saw yesterday, I must admit you were right to suggest we circle around this stretch of woods," Oak says, staring into the trees and frowning. Tiernan gives a half smile. "I congratulate you on this wise decision.

Maybe you're about to reveal your evil scheme and bend me to your will. Just so you know, I don't think it will be very hard to bend me to your will.

O lady fair! O lady cruel! How I miss your sweet misrule. I miss your hair. I miss your eyes. But most of all, I miss your thighs.