Kiersten White, And I Darken
29 quotes
"Belief is not weakness. Faith is the greatest strength we can have."
"A true conversion is always only between a man and God."
"What exactly does a friend do?"
"Some victories are merely defeat wearing the wrong clothing"
"I cannot afford to lose you, too""You cannot lose something you do not own. Take me with you"
"There are other ways to beat someone than with fists."
"On our wedding night," she said, "I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied."
"So the question becomes, Daughter of the Dragon, what will you sacrifice? What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power?"
"But there are many ways to be powerful. There is power in stillness. There is power in watching, waiting, saying the right thing at the right time to the right person. There is power in being a woman---oh yes, power in these bodies you gaze upon with derision."
"What would you sacrifice for power?"
"Religion was a means to an end. She had seen it wielded as a weapon. If she needed to use it, she would, but she would never allow herself to be used by it."
"Lada had a sense for power--the fine threads that connected everyone around her, the way those threads could be pulled, tightened, wrapped around someone until they cut off the blood supply.Or snapped entirely."
"I am yours,” she whispered. The words cut like knives, barely out of her mouth before he stole them, sealing them with his own lips."
"Fire burned in her heart, and her wounded soul spread out, casting a shadow like wings across her country."
"Lada made her face stone, her heart a mountain. A mountain that would never be pierced to let cold, clear water flow. “Nothing holds me here."
"Those same fists had always defied everything expected of her."
"The price of living seems to always be death."
"People respond to kindness. They trust a smile more than a promise that you will leave them choking on their own blood."
"The last time she was up here, she had been... staring up at the sky and dreaming of stars. Now, she looked down and plotted flames."
"Because I am in love with you. Because I cannot be around you for fear you will finally see what is written across my heart. Because the pain of you is one I cannot bear"
"Marry me, Lada. It is the perfect solution." Lada laughed. Mehmed's smile grew, until he realized her laugh was not a sweet breeze of delight, but a brutal desert wind carrying stinging sand in its wake. "I will never marry."
"A brother,” she said, her voice soft.The baby started to cry, a weak, garbled sound that worried the nurse. Lada’s scowl deepened. She slapped a dimpled hand over his mouth. The nurse pulled him away quickly, and Lada looked up, face contorted in rage.“Mine!” she shouted.It was her first word.The nurse laughed, shocked, and lowered the baby once more. Lada glared at him until he stopped crying. Then, apparently satisfied, she toddled out of the room."
"What is wrong with you?” Radu sounded on the verge of tears. “Why do you have to destroy everything good we have here?”“Because,” Lada said, voice flat with the sudden wave of exhaustion pulling her heavily to the ground. “We have nothing. Can you not see that?”“We have Mehmed!”Lada looked up. The stars were static, still and cold in the night, all the fire gone from the sky. “It is not enough,” she said."
"Lady's mouth tasted like blood and iron all the time now. It tasted like defeat."
"And so she cut out her heart and offered it as a sacrifice. She would pay whatever price her mother Wallachia demanded.“Make me prince,” she said without feeling."