my favorite the folk of the air quotes
"I do not yearn to be their equal. In my heart, I yearn to best them" jude duarte, 31.
"But I am done with being weak. I am done with being good. I think I am going to be something else." jude duarte, 43.
"Because you're like a story that hasn't happened yet" locke, 101
"Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear" jude duarte, 197
"If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse." jude duarte, 210
"But we all want stupid things. That doesn't mean we should have them" jude duarte, 219
"If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back." jude duarte, 231
"I hate how I feel around him, the irrational panic when I touch his skin" jude duarte, 262
"Prince Cardan is my prisoner" jude duarte, 267
"There are so many broken things that I don't know how to fix. But I know how to fight" jude duarte, 276
"Children can laugh all day and still cry themselves to sleep at night." jude duarte, 286
"I forgot how charming he can be — and how dangerous that is" jude duarte, 298
"Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop" cardan, 307
"You really do want me. And you hate it" jude duarte, 307
"I can be charming. I charmed you, didn't I?" "Do not expect others to share my depraved tastes"
"She liked it when she was angry, too. Angry was better than scared" epilogue
"Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to" Madoc, 6
"It amuses her to keep me out of trouble" cardan, 14
"I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear. Your hearts beats fast. Your senses are heightened. You grow light-headed, maybe even dizzy" Balekin, 25
"Your infernal majesty" jude duarte, 46
"The disturbing thing about Cardan is how well he plays the fool to disguise his own cleverness" jude duarte, 49
"For a moment, I wondered if it wasn't you shooting bolts at me." "And what made you decide it wasn't?" "They missed." 57
"Kiss me again. Kiss me until I'm sick of it." cardan, 57
"He hates you. Even if he wants you, he hates you. Maybe he hates you the more for it" jude duarte, 57
"If you're the sickness, I suppose you can't also be the cure" cardan, 57
"You're never to deny me an audience or give an order to keep me from your side." "Whysoever would I want you to leave my side?" jude & cardan, 59
"You want to know what I did to make him raise me up? I kissed him on the mouth, and then I threatened to kiss him some more if he didn't do exactly what I wanted." jude duarte, 81
"You ought not to be here tonight, little ant" cardan, 98
"I have too often been troubled by dreams of Jude. Her face features prominently in my most frequent nightmares." cardan, 103
"I hate you." He tilts my face to his. "Say it again." jude & cardan, 104
"Whatever you do to me, I can do worse to you" jude duarte, 107
"I stare at his treacherous mouth and imagine it on me" jude duarte, 107
"Tell me that you hate me." "I hate you" jude & cardan, 144
"I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else." jude, 145
"I want to tell you so many lies." cardan, 145
"I like him better than I've ever liked anyone." jude duarte, 146
"So much of winning is waiting" jude duarte, 147
"I can't help recalling him gazing up from my bed, intoxicated and disturbingly intoxicating" jude duarte, 157
"I wonder if I will ever be able to look at him again without remembering what it was like to touch him." jude duarte, 180
"It seems I have a singular taste for women who threaten me." cardan, 180
"It occurs to me that maybe desire isn't something overindulging helps. Maybe it is not unlike mithridatism; maybe I took a killing dose when I should have been poisoning myself slowly, one kiss at a time." jude duarte, 181
"I hope Cardan misses me." jude duarte, 225
"Fear is terrible, but the combination of hope and fear is worse" jude duarte, 244
"I never thought he liked me enough to save me" jude duarte, 253
"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." cardan, 266
"Sometimes lying is a real pleasure." jude duarte, 277
"Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god." cardan, 284
"Sweet Jude. You're my dearest punishment." cardan, 285
"You say I will be well because you fear I won't be." cardan, 288
"Glad you're up to mocking" "I hope it's the last thing about me to go." jude & cardan, 289
"Marry me. Become the queen of Elfhame." cardan, 304
"Maybe I wouldn't have to be afraid to love him." jude duarte, 306
"I will lie down. If you lie with me." cardan, 308
"I have become the Queen of Faerie" jude duarte, 308
"Revenge is sweet, but ice cream is sweeter" vivi, 321
"All power is cursed." jude duarte, 10
"Love is stupid. All we do is break one another's hearts" Heather, 31
"Didn't you get my letters?" cardan, 68
"Maybe I believe that it's time for Elfhame to be ruled by a queen." jude duarte, 128
"She is my wife. The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile." cardan, 147
"It was terrifying, watching you fall. I mean, you're generally terrifying, but I am unused to fearing for you." cardan, 159
"You never break." cardan, 159
"He was a symbol of everything about Elfhame that I couldn't have, everything that would never want me." jude duarte, 161
"I want you here by my side, as my queen" cardan, 163
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe he'd like to hear me scream." "I would. And perhaps one day I will." jude & cardan, 166
"I never thought love was a game" cardan, 185
"He's so beautiful, so perfectly, horribly, inhumanely beautiful that I can't barely breathe" jude duarte, 201
"By you, I am forever undone." cardan, 203
"We have lived in our armor for so long, you and I. And now I am not sure if either of us knows how to remove it." cardan, 203
"I missed you. In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you." jude duarte, 204
"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned." cardan, 204
"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." cardan, 209
"I do love you. I will always love you." jude duarte, 278
"Every part of me is a delight." cardan, 282
"I love you." jude duarte, 291
"If I let myself love you, I would burn up like a match. Like the whole matchbook" jude duarte, 291
"And you do love me." "I love you." "Because I am clever and funny. You didn't mention my handsomeness." "Or your deliciousness. Although those are both good qualities" cardan & jude, 291
"I knew little else, but I always knew you." cardan, 292
how the king of elfhame learned to hate stories:
"Not a heart of stone, but a heart of fire." 31
"The odd curve of her ear was what he had noticed first." 55
"Jude, Cardan thought, hating even the shape of her name. Jude." 57
"Playing the villain was the only thing he'd ever really excelled at." 73
"There was absolutely no reason to think of Jude in that moment. she was utterly insignificant." 74
"Boys change. And so do stories." 79
"A heart of stone can still be broken." 86
"Stop telling me who I am. I am tired of your stories." 99
"I am nothing, if not dramatic." 111
"He had always been awful. Now he was just worse." 118
"And all through that night and for many nights after, he couldn't rid his thoughts of her. Not the hatred in her eyes. That he understood. That he didn't mind. It warmed him." 124
"But every night, Jude haunted him. The coils of her hair. The calluses on her fingers. An absent bite of her lip. It was too much, the way he thought about her. He knew it was too much, but he couldn't stop. It disgusted him that he couldn't stop." 124
"Remember, all you really get to control is yourself." 12
"Cardan cannot mind when he takes Jude in his arms." 132
"Why didn't you hate everyone? Everyone, all the time." "I hated you." 133
"Because stories tell a truth, if not precisely the truth." 159
"You don't think monster girls and wicked boys deserve love?" 162
"Having a heart is terrible, but you need one anyway." 165
"No one's heart has to remain stone." 166
"Surely you've heard of her, Jude Duarte." 166
"Truly, I don't know what I would do without her." 166
"You didn't hear the story I told. A shame. It featured a handsome boy with a heart of stone and a natural aptitude for villainy. Everything you could like." "You are really terrible, you know that? I don't even understand why the things you say makes me smile." 172
"The next time you want to make a point, I beg you not to make it so dramatically. "So long as you're begging." 173
"If I look at him too long, I want to take a bite out of him." 28
"I wonder which sister he'd glamoured. I hoped not the one who sat on the throne now, his life in her hands." 46
"The sword's name is Nightfell," he whispered. "It belongs to Jude." 49
"Some people are ridiculous. Especially when it comes to love." 69
"Let me do that," he says, taking strands of my hair in his fingers. "it's the color of primroses." 102
"Since you're in a benevolent mood, perhaps you'll also dance with me." 117
"Kissing him is profane. It gives all the horrible satisfaction of smashing a crystal goblet." 120
"Hit me again," the prince says, daring them. 146
"It's me. Now go away." "But I've only just found you. And I want to talk." "What will you give me if I do, Prince of Elfhame?" "The pleasure of my company?" 152
"Let me stay in the woods with you." 153
"I thought you didn't like me." "I can prentend, for one night." 155
"He'd acted the fool, that his enemies might believe he was one." 168
"It pleases me to see a Greenbriar with some teeth." I assume that the last is a dig at the High king, well known for leaving the fighting to his wife. 169
"It would be safer if I hated him. Since I cannot, perhaps it is a good thing that he now hates me" 171
"Maybe I'm glad that you gave me the opportunity to be my worst self." 173
"I suppose you want to believe I charmed you into kissing me?" 191
"He'll steal your heart." 198
"Do you know what I admire about you? That you never stopped being angry. It can be brave to hate. Sometimes it's like hope." 216
"It is my curse to adore cruel women." 235
"When his eyes meet mine, desire, as keen as any blade, bends the air between us. The moment slows. I want to bite his lip. To feel the heat of his skin. To slide my hands beneath his armor and trace the map of his scars." 247
"I am poison. Poison in my blood. I poison everything I touch." 279
"Pretend with me," he whispers. And then he presses his mouth to mine. 291
"My greatest weakness has always been my desire for love. It is a yawning chasm within me, and the more that I reach for it, the more easily I am tricked. I am a walking bruise, an open sore." 333
"Fear is not love, but it can appear much the same. So too, power." 349
"But I can't pretend that I don't like the sound of him screaming my name." 352
