zuzanna > zuzanna's Quotes

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“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 can't.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Father, I am what you made me. I’ve become your daughter after all.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You really do want me,' I say, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath as it hitches. 'And you hate it.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“He looks up at me with his night-colored eyes, beautiful and terrible all at once. “For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.”

I make a face at him. “And what made you decide it wasn’t?”

He grins up at me. “They missed.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Tell me again what you said at the revel,” he says, climbing over me, his body against mine.

“What?” I can barely think.

“That you hate me,” he says, his voice hoarse. “Tell me that you hate me.”

“I hate you,” I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. A litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”

He kisses me harder.

“I hate you,” I breathe into his mouth. “I hate you so much that sometimes I can’t think of anything else.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Kill him before he makes you love him.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Yes, my great villan, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“I hate you," I breathed into his mouth. "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“I wasn't kind, Jude. Not to many people. Not to you. I wasn't sure if I wanted you or if I wanted you gone from my sight so that I would stop feeling as I did, which made me even more unkind. But when you were gone—truly gone beneath the waves—I hated myself as I never have before.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god… Sweet Jude. You are my dearest punishment”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself that strong.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“The disturbing thing about Cardan is how well he plays the fool to disguise his own cleverness.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“The Folk doubtlessly learned this lesson long ago. They do not need to deceive humans. Humans will deceive themselves.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“By you, I am forever undone.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I missed you," I whisper against his skin and feel dizzy with the intimacy of the admission, feel more naked than when he could see every inch of me. "In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you."
"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Jude, you can't really think I don't know it's you. I knew you from the moment you walked into the brugh.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“And yet my heart is buried with you in the strange soil of the mortal world, as it was drowned with you in the cold waters of the undersea.
It was yours before I could ever admit it, and yours it shall ever remain.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. “And you.” He looks at me, his lips curving in something that’s not quite a smile; it’s more and less than that. “I knew little else, but I always knew you.” And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I think of his riddle. How do people like us take off our armor?
One piece at a time.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Clap her in chains," says Randalin.
Never have I so wished there was a way for me to show I was telling the truth. But there isn't. No oath of mine carries any weight.
I feel a guard's hand close on my arm. Then Cardan's voice comes.
"Do not touch her."
A terrible silence follows. I wait for him to pronounce judgement on me. Whatever he commands will be done. His power is absolute. I don't even have the strength to fight back.
"Whatever can you mean?" Randalin says. "She's-"
"She is my wife," Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd.
"The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Tell me what I must slay, what I must steal, tell me the riddle I must solve or the hag I must trick. Only tell me the way, and I will do it, no matter the danger, no matter the hardship, no matter the cost.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Come be angry at a nearer distance”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing