Quotes About Manipulation

I made you believe that you were what I wanted you to become.

El poder es infeccioso. El poder es insaciable.

Greetings, Your Majesty, you betraying toad.

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.

You can't help trying to charm every snake you come upon, no matter how cold-blooded or vicious. Let that one be.

Are you enjoying yourself?" I overhear Nicasia ask Locke once, as he joins them for a lecture. "Cardan won't forgive you for what you're doing with her.

There are rumours that Cardan never wanted the throne, that he will hand it over to Oak willingly at some vague future time. But when I think of High King Cardan with his black curls and cruel mouth, the way he behaves- silly and dangersome all at once- I don't believe he would relinquish power. He might, however, trick Oak into going on a quest he wouldn't return from. Build him up with stories of honour and valiant deeds.

I keep thinking of the lazy blink of Cardan's lashes over his coal-bright eyes. He looked gleeful, gloating, as though my fist tightening on his shirt was exactly what he would have wished. As though, if I struck him, it would be because he had made me do it.

Jude here made me her prisoner," he says, and I have to fight down the urge to step heavily on his foot. "She ties very tight knots.

If anyone can get me through tonight, it's him. He's good at putting those around him at ease, even when they ought to know better. Unfortunately, what I am good at is getting under people's skin. But at least I am also good at lying.

Charmers are charming, but that's all they are.

Bring me the crown, Cardan,' Balekin says. Prince Cardan turns on his elder brother the same cool and calculated gaze with which he has regarded so many other creatures before he's torn the wings from their back, before he's cast them in to rivers or sent them from the Court entirely. 'No, brother. I do not think that I will. I think that if I did not have another reason to cross you, I would do it for spite.

You could take the job," Balthazar said. "You want to quit the game for good? Go out in style. Come on, Charlatan, you could steal breath from a body, hate from a heart, the moon from the sky." "Flattery is so unlike you.

We're enemies, no matter how many jokes he tells or how friendly he seems. Charmers are charming, but that's all they are.

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

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.

I look to see that it's the worst person possible: Cardan.

Get down on your knees," Cardan says, looking insufferably pleased with himself. His fury has transmuted into gloating. "Beg. Make it pretty. Flowery. Worthy of me.

He'd like to make you believe he's our leader, but it's more than Nicasia likes power, I like dramatics, and Valerian likes violence. Cardan can provide us with all three, or at least excuses for all three.' 'Dramatics?' I echo. 'I like for things to happen, for stories to unfold. And if I can't find a good enough story, I make one.' He looks every inch the trickster in that moment.

Jude, you keep smiling a pleasant smile in front of Madoc, but all I can see anymore is bared teeth.

Surely Nicasia would expect more of Cardan's mother than the thin gruel of emotion she has served her son.

You want to know what I did to make him raise me up?' I ask, leaning toward her, close enough that she can feel the warmth of my breath. 'I kissed him on the mouth, and then I threatened to kiss him some more if he didn't do exactly what I wanted.' 'Liar,' she hisses. 'If you're such good friends,' I say, repeating her own words back to her with malicious satisfaction, 'why don't you ask him?

Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?" Cardan asks, leaning back in the elaborately carved chair, the warmth of his words turning the question into something like a compliment. "No," I say, glad to be annoyed back into the present. "Tell me." "I cannot," he says, then frowns.

Lying is so easy here. I can do it all day long and never be caught.