Quotes from R.L. LaFevers

Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf?

Whenever you are ready, or if you never are, my heart is yours....

When one consorts with assassins, one must expect to dance along the edge of a knife once or twice.

Surely He does not give us hearts so we may spend our lives ignoring them.

There is no shame in scars, Ismae.

Whenever you are ready, or if you never are, my heart is yours, until Death do us part. Whatever that may mean when consorting with one of Death's handmaidens.

I am sorry,' he whispers. 'I am sorry I treated you so ill. I thought only to protect Duval.' 'It was not I who was poisoning him,' I say. 'No, but you had stolen his heart and I was afraid you would rip it from his chest when you left.

while I am Death's daughter and walk in His dark shadow, surely the darkness can give way to light sometimes.

I will sit here but an hour or two, then leave." I yawn. "So very long as that?" When he answers, there is a wry note in his voice. "I do have my reputation to protect.

Are men truly such idiots that they cannot resist two orbs of flesh?

Hate cannot be fought with hate. Evil cannot be conquered by darkness. Only love has the power to conquer them both.

I stare at him coldly. "I do not care for needlework." I pause. "Unless it involves the base of the skull.

So.... You are well equipped for our service.' 'Which is?' 'We kill people.

God's Teeth,' he says. 'I was only trying to wake you. You were crying out in your sleep.' 'I was not,' I say, then look from his neck to my knife. 'When I tried to wake you, you stabbed me.' He sounds sore put out. and I cannot blame him.

He smiles then, and even though it is well past midnight, its as if the sun has just come out.

true faith never comes without anguish.

It is a good thing I no longer have a heart, because if I did, it would surely break.

And just as love has two sides, so too does Death. While Ismae will serve as His mercy, I will not, for that is not how He fashioned me. Every death I have witnessed, every horror I have endured, has forged me to be who I am -- Death's justice.

This is what I want to be. An instrument of mercy, not vengeance.

A kiss for luck, demoiselle?" It is a magnificent, lusty kiss and I feel nothing but deep regret that it may be his last. Just before he pulls away, he whispers in my ear. "Duval said to give you that should I get a chance. It is from him.

Jewels can be replaced, cousin. Independence, once lost, cannot.

I cannot tell her I have been moping over a broken heart when I have worked so hard to convince her I have no heart at all.

In the distance a wolf howls. Let it come, I think. Beast will most likely simply howl back, and the creature will either turn tail and run or fall into line behind him, like the rest of us have.

For all that I have kissed before, I have never felt anything like this. It is as if I have swallowed a tiny piece of the sun, its warmth and light reaching into every corner of my soul and chasing away the shadows. I surrender to that kiss - surrender to the strength and the courage and the sheer goodness of the man.