And I wondered if love was too weak a word for what he felt, what he’d done for me. For what I felt for him.
I love you,’ he whispered, and kissed my brow. ‘Thorns and all.
I threw myself into that fire, threw myself into it, into him, and let myself burn.
I’m not married,” he said softly, “because I can’t stomach the idea of marrying a woman inferior to me in mind and spirit. It would mean the death of my soul.
So I’m your huntress and thief?” His hands slid down to cup the backs of my knees as he said with a roguish grin, “You are my salvation, Feyre.
Say it,” I gritted out.“The High Lord of the Night Court is your mate.
Some things you hear with your ears. Others, you hear with your heart.
My name is Celaena Sardothien,” she whispered, “and I will not be afraid.
He moved to sniff some white-and-yellow flowers.A nightmare. This was a nightmare. “You can’t really like flowers.”Again those dark eyes shifted to her. Blinked once. I most certainly do, he seemed to say.
I have no name,” she purred. “I’m whoever the keepers of my fate tell me to be.
I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world.
If you were going to die, I was going to die with you. I couldn’t stop thinking it over and over as you screamed, as I tried to kill her: you were my mate my mate my mate.
Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you.
But death was her curse and her gift, and death had been her good friend these long, long years.
She was a wolf. She was death, devourer of the worlds.
Cauldron save you.Mother hold you.Pass through the gates, and smell that immortal land of milk and honey.Fear no evil.Feel no pain.Go, and enter eternity.
When your people are lying dead around you, don’t come crying to me…
I see all of you, Rhys. And there is not one part that I do not love with everything I am.
You’re my equal. And as much as that means we have each other’s backs in public, it also means we that grant each other the gift of honesty – of truth.
A snap of Rhys’s fingers, and my nightclothes—and some flimsy underthings—appeared on the bed. “I couldn’t decide which scrap of lace I wanted you to wear, so I brought you a few to choose from.” “Pig,” I barked
Aelin would likely laughed to see him now. The man who had stumbled out of her room after she’d declared that her cycle had arrived. Now sitting in this fine room, mostly naked and not giving a shit about it.
I was burning through books every day – stories about people and places I’d never heard of. They were perhaps the only thing that kept me from teetering into utter despair.
It had filled my time – given me quiet, steadfast company with those characters, who did not exist and never would, but somehow made me feel less … alone.
Fear could break a line faster than any enemy charge.
The fear of loss . . . it can destroy you as much as the loss itself.
Centre yourself. Fear will get you killed as easily as a weapon.
You said you didn’t care what I thought. Or what I did. Or if I died, if I’m not mistaken.”“I lied! And you know I lied, you stupid bastard!
I love you. There is no limit to what I can give to you, no time I need. Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you.
And he looked lonely enough that she said, ‘If you like, you could be my friend’.
Females and males watched Rhysand throughout the hall—and the shadowsinger and I made a game of betting on who, exactly, would work up the nerve to invite the High Lord home.
He looked at his friend, perhaps for the last time, and said what he had always known, from the moment they’d met, when he’d understood that the prince was his brother in soul. “I love you.
I’m thinking it would be very easy to love you. And easier to call you my friend.
I didn’t think saying good-bye would be so hard. And with everything that’s to come—We’ll face it together. To whatever end.
The Court of Dreams. The people who knew that there was a price, and one worth paying, for that dream.
He opened his mouth, but stopped as he beheld her smile. Though she had no regrets about her choice, she felt something strangely like disappointment when he said, “As you wish.
A life of open skies and roads, of wandering where the wind takes you, answering to no one and nothing? A life of freedom…” She shook her head. “What more could I ask than to live a life unchecked by cages?
Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With my knives.
A lovely girl gazing at the stars, and the stars who gazed back.
No. I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material.
If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it- to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger.
I’d have my happy ending, whether I deserved it or not. But this land, these people – they would have their happy ending too. The first few steps toward healing. Toward peace. And then things would be fine. Then I’d be fine.
Perhaps there was an unstoppable magic inherent in music and art.
I like music,’ she said slowly, ‘because when I hear it, I…I lose myself within myself if that makes any sense. I become empty and full all at once.
Rhysand stared at me for long enough that I faced him.”Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.
Her hand rose to her lips and she stared up at the stars, feeling her heart grow, and grow, and grow.
What we think to be our greatest weakness can sometimes be our biggest strength.
The great joy and honour of my life has been to know you. To call you my family. And I am grateful – more than I can possibly say – that I was given this time with you all
To the stars who listen – and the dreams that are answered.
Perhaps Nesta will take up the blood-drinking habit, too. I certainly believe her threat to rip out my throat. Maybe she’ll enjoy the taste.
She’s your mate, Amren bit at me, not your spy go get her. She is my mate and my spy, I said too quietly. And she is the high lady of the night court. Not a consort,not wife. Feyre is high lady of the night court, my equal in every way.
To save the queen who held his heart in her scarred hands.
Chaol,” he said, looking over his shoulder. Dorian’s eyes were frozen, his jaw clenched. “Treat her well.
Having Aelin help him the first time had been awkward enough that he couldn’t even go until she started singing a bawdy tune at the top of her lungs and turned on the sink faucet, all the while helping him stand over the toilet.
What’s the point in having a mind if you don’t use it to make judgements?
They joined hands.So the world ended.And the next one began.
Celaena opened her arms wide, Goldryn burning bright in one hand. “Behold my power, Maeve. Behold what I grapple with in the deep dark, what prowls under my skin.”Celaena exhaled a breath and extinguished each and every flame in the
His lips were smooth against my skin, his breath warm, and my knees buckled as he lifted my other hand to his mouth and kissed it, too. Kissed it carefully – in a way that made heat begin pounding in my core, between my legs.
She did not want to be a consolation prize. Be pitied or a distraction.
Fate had kept me alive just to get to this point, just to see if I had been listening.
Fate had kept me alive just to get to this point, just to see if I was listening.
To four years until freedom,” she said lifting her glass.He raised his in salute. “To you, Celaena.” Their eyes met, and Chaol didn’t hide his smile as she grinned at him. Perhaps four years with her might not be enough.
I waited for the fear to hit; waited for my body to shriek to find a way to get out of this dinner, but … nothing. Maybe it’d be a mercy to be en
Like a prayer, that was how her name sounded on his lips. She took his face in her hands, finding his eyes blazing, his breathing as ragged as her own
Ten years of shadows, but no longer. Light up the darkness, Magesty.
You want to know what price I asked for forgiving Arobynn, Celaena?” Sam stood so still the he might have been a statue. “My price was his oath that he’d never lay a hand on you again. I told him I’d forgive him in exchange for that.
Celaena knew where she was before she awoke. And she didn’t care. She was living the same story again and
Fireheart, why do you cry?””Because I am lost. And do not know the way
One faerie – and then we were free. Just on more swing of my arm. And maybe one more after that – maybe one more swing, up and inward and into my own heart.
Very well.””Say it.””Say what?””Say my name. Say, ‘Very well, Dorian.'”She rolled her eyes. “If it pleases Your Magnanimous Holiness, I shall call you by your first name.
Where do men find it in themselves to do such monstrous things?
You could be great. You could rattle the stars. You could do anything if only you dared.
This witch had been crafted from the darkness between the stars.
A gift.A gift from a queen who had seen another woman in hell and thought to reach back a hand. With no thought of it ever being returned. A moment of kindness, a tug on a thread.
For him, I had done this-for him I’d gladly wrecked myself and my immortal soul. And now I had an eternity to live with it.
Maybe I’d always been broken and dark inside. Maybe someone who’ve been born whole and good would have put down the ash dagger and embraced death rather than what lay before me.
There are good days and hard days for me. Don’t let the hard days win ~Mor ~A Court of Mist and Fury
When you spend so long trapped in darkness, you find that the darkness begins to stare back.
Ten years of shadows, but no longer. Light up the darkness, Majesty.
There is the darkness that frightens, the darkness that soothes, the darkness that is restful.
There was such glittering darkness in her, an endless rift straight through her core
She would have an adventure. For herself. This one time. She would see her homeland, and smell it and breathe it in. See it from high above, see it racing as fast as the wind. She owed herself that much.
Hide from fate all you like,” Baba Yellowlegs said as they turned away. “But it shall soon find you!
Ashryver eyes.The fairest eyes, from legends oldof brightest, ringed with gold.
He’d known, since the moment he figured out who she was, that while Celaena would always pick him, Aelin would not.
And I didn’t think even eternity would be long enough to fix me.
Alone in my bedroom, I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I’d truly laughed.
She had awoken this morning and slipped the amethyst ring off her finger. It had felt liked a blessed release, a final shadow lifted from her heart.
I think Nesta feels everything— sees too much; sees and feels it all. And she burns with it. Keeping that wall up helps from being overwhelmed, from caring too greatly.
What’s the point in having a mind if you don’t use it to make judgements?””What’s the point of having a heart if you don’t use it to spare others from the harsh judgements of your mind?
The silence was suddenly too charged, his face too beautiful in the light.
We’d better eat before we raise hell.” – Aelin Ashrvyer Galathynius
Everyone wants to talk-talk-talk. Can’t we eat-eat-eat, and then talk?
He wouldn’t let his servants change the sheets on his bed because they still smelled like her, because he went to sleep dreaming that she was still lying beside him.
He didn’t know why, but seeing her made him feel like a man. She was something out of a dream – a dream in which he was not a spoiled young prince, but a king.
Many atrocities, have been done in the name of the greater good.
With each day he felt the barriers melting. He let them melt. Because of her genuine laugh, because he caught her one afternoon sleeping with her face in the middle of a book, because he knew she would win.
I glanced at my mate- the male who had always presented me with a choice not as a gift, but as my own gods-given right.
Rowan considered for a moment, and then said, “I have known many kings in my life, Dorian Havilliard. And it was a rare man indeed who asked for help when he needed it, who would put aside pride.
The girl wore her scars the way some women wore their finest jewelry.
A court that wouldn’t just change the world. It would start the world over.
This thing between them, the force of it, could devour the world. And if they picked it, picked them, it might very well cause the end of it.
Not realizing that I craved his warmth, his nearness, until he was gone.
You could rattle the stars,’ she whispered. ‘You could do anything, if only you dared.
And he will never know what it is to look up at the night sky and wish.
They had survived, when so many had not. And no one else could understand what it was like to bear it, unless they had lost as much.
If I offer you the moon on a string, will you give me a kiss, too?” – Lucien Vanserra
Not forever,’ he said onto my mouth. And though I knew it was a lie, I put my arms around his neck and kissed him.
She should not remember what it was like to be free.
They had slept in the shelter of the ruins, though neither of them really got true rest.
But the king was frowning. “I expected you a month ago.”Aedion actually had the nerve to shrug. “Apologies. The Staghorns were slammed with a final winter storm. I left when I could.”Every person in the hall held their breath.
Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.
How much had I missed in these months of despair and numbness?
She didn’t fear the night, though she found little comfort in its dark hours.
That sounds a lot like, ’ I have more secrets that I’m going to spring on you whenever I feel like stopping your heart dead in your chest.
There were many, many debts to be paid before she left Rifthold and took back her throne. Starting now. Fortunate that she was in a killing sort of mood.
Was I interrupting? I thought it was over.” Rhys gave me a smile dripping with venom. He knew-through that bond, through whatever magic was between us, he’d known I was about to say no. “At least Feyre seemed to think so.
Celaena?” Sam asked into the dark. “Should I worry about going to sleep?”She blinked, then laughed under her breath. At least Sam took her threats somewhat seriously.
There was good in people – deep down, there was always a shred of good.
Why bother? Maybe the world’s not worth saving.” She knew he meant it, too. Those lifeless eyes spoke volumes.
A few fires flickered, plumes of dark smoke marring the ruby sky.
She wouldn’t ask. Didn’t want to know what manner of thing might crawl toward a fire.
As I lifted the ash dagger, something inside me fractured so completely that there would be no hope of ever repairing it.
Her cheek against the moss, the young princess she had been – Aelin Galathynius – reached a hand for her. ‘Get up’, she said softly.
As my friend, you should either bring me along, or keep me company.””Friend?” he asked.She blushed. “Well, ‘scowling escort’ is a better description. Or ‘reluctant acquaintance’, if you prefer.
It didn’t excuse what he’d done. Even if he’d…saved me-I choked on the word-from having to refuse Tamlin. Having to explain.
But anyone with witch-blood in their veins was worth keeping an eye on.Or Thirteen.
And if I asked for the moon on a string?” – Sorsha
Holy gods. He’d frozen the whole damn lake. He was THAT powerful?
We’re all broken,” Mor said. “In our own ways – in places no one might see.
Then, like a shimmering disk too rich and clear to be described, the sun slipped over the horizon and lined everything with gold. It was like seeing the world being born, and we were the sole witnesses.
To listen to what I’d heard – as if I’d already learned everything I needed.
Sometimes, the wicked will tell us things just to confuse us–to haunt our thoughts long after we’ve faced them.
There had once been a time when I’d dreaded the end of summer, had prayed it would hold out for as long as possible. Now the thought of endless warmth and sun made me . . . bored. Restless.
The girl was alluring. Like wildfire, or a summer storm swept off the Gulf of Oro.
In the garden, the Captain of the Guard stared up at the young woman’s balcony, watching as she waltzed alone, lost in her dreams. But he knew her thoughts weren’t of him.
To the stars who listen – and the dreams that are answered.
Rhysand yelled my name again – yelled it as though he cared. I blacked out, but she brought me back, ensuring that I felt everything ensuring that I screamed every time a bone broke.
Where will we go?””I hear hell is particularly nice at this time of year.
But perhaps the monsters needed to look out for each other every now and then.
Because all the monsters have been let out of their cages tonight, no matter what court they belong to. So I may roam wherever I wish until the dawn.