Quotes from Mary E. Pearson

His eyes narrowed as if contemplating the gravity of the unforgivable. That was what I both hated and loved about Rafe. He challenged me on everything I said, but he also listened intently. He listened as if every word I said mattered.

Say it again, Jase. But you already know the answer. But it's an answer I will never grow tired of. And maybe I never tired of telling it to her.

I'm not sure how long it will take to convince my heart to stop racing every time I'm confronted with no place to hide. Maybe a lifetime. Are you up for that?" "That's a lot of riddles." "I still have a few in me." I did too.

No one would recognize us," I answered. "We're hardly a proper prince and princess anymore." He laughed mid-kiss and leaned back to look at me. "You were never a proper princess." His hands cradled my face, and his smile faded. "But you're everything I want. Remember that. I love you, Lia. Not a title. And not because a piece of paper says I should. Because I do.

He leaned back, the misery in his eyes cutting through me. "But they're only wishes Lia, because you've made promises and so have I. Tomorrow will come, and tomorrow will matter, to your kingdom and to mine. So please, don't ask me again if I wish for something, because I don't want to be reminded that every day I wish for something I cannot have.

It was a wild indulgent slope we had cascaded down, and I didn't care. For once in my life, I didn't care about tomorrow. I didn't care if I starved or died. I feasted on the now, and I didn't let myself think about who he was or who I was, only who we were right now in this moment and how he made me feel on this patch of earth, in this patch of shade. In this strange upside-down world, ignoring tomorrow seemed as natural and expected as breathing.

Choice is powerful and can lead to great things if not held in the tight fists of a few.

Am I less because I have fewer, or do the few I have mean more?

We are easily seduced. It's magic lures us, and we are it's willing victims.

I love you Jase Ballenger, and I will for all my days.

It's not every day one has a first kiss,' I said. 'May I remind you that it wasn't your first kiss?' 'It felt like it was. It was the first one that mattered.

It wasn't good to dwell on maybes. Maybes could be twisted into things that never really existed

My mother's abscence hit me in a new, bitter way, because sometimes you can't begin to know everything you've lost until someone shows you what you might have had.

It's other people who make us wise, and I haven't known nearly enough.

If ever there were three mismatched riders, it was us- the crown prince of Dalbreck, the Assassin of Venda, and the fugitive princess of Morrighan. Sons and daughter of three kingdoms, each bent on domination of the other two.

Choose your words carefully, even the words you think, because they become seeds, and seeds become history.

When your life has had few events to occupy it, it's amazing how a simple encounter can seem like an entire three-act play.

Because if I could believe in tomorrow or the next day, maybe that would give the magic time to come true. Or better, maybe by then I wouldn't need the magic at all.

Rafe pulled against the soldiers who twisted his hands behind his back to chain him, but his eyes never left mine. I looked at him, not a stranger, but not a farmer either. It had been a clever deception from the very beginning. The wind swirled between us, threw mist in our faces. Whispered. In the farthest corner … I will find you. I wiped at my eyes, the real and true blurring. But I knew this much. He came. He was here. And maybe, for now, that was all the truth I needed.

Memories are short. It is the forgetting that I fear.

Aster was eager for any kind of— Chance. She had only wanted a chance . A way out, a greater story than the one that had been written for her, just like I had wanted. Tell my bapa I tried, Miz . A chance to control her own destiny. But for her, escape was impossible.

They Thought Themselves only a step lower than the gods, proud in their power over heaven and earth. They grew strong in their knowledge but weak in their wisdom, craving more and still more power, crushing the defenseless. _ Morrighan Book of Holy Text,Vol. IV

The wind, time, They circle, repeat, Teaching us to be every watchful, For freedoms are never won, Once and for all, But must be won over and over again. - Song of Jezelia

I am yours, Morrighan, forever yours … and when the last star of the universe blinks silent, I will still be yours.