A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC / A GATHERING OF SHADOWS by v. e. schwab sentence meme.
❛ I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still. ❜
❛ After all, you can kill people, but you cannot kill magic. Not truly. ❜
❛ Impossible. What a useless word, in a world with magic. ❜
❛ Everyone thinks I have a death wish, you know? But I don’t want to die – dying is easy. No, I want to live, but getting close to death is the only way to feel alive. And once you do, it makes you realize that everything you were actually doing before wasn’t actually living. It was just making do. Call me crazy, but I think we do the best living when the stakes are high. ❜
❛ You have two faces. One you wear for the world at large, and the one you wear for those you love. ❜
❛ Everyone’s immortal until they’re not. ❜
❛ It is as it is. It cannot be undone. So please, be grateful, and be done with it. ❜
❛ The thing about freedom? It doesn’t come naturally. Almost no one has it handed to them. I’m free because I fought for it. ❜
❛ I know you can do this. I know you can hear me. Stay with me. Listen to my voice. ❜
❛ Maybe you just got a taste of what it really means to be alive. You almost died. So now you know what it feels like to live. To fear for that life. To fight for it. And once you know, well, there’s no going back. ❜
❛ You made a mistake. Everybody makes them. Even me. I’ve made many. It’s only fair that you made one. ❜
❛ I did only what I had to do. If I could have given my life for yours, I would have. ❜
❛ A kiss for luck. Not that I need it. ❜
❛ I know. I know what and who you are. What will you do? Kill me? ❜
❛ Why am I the only one in this fucking world to be held accountable for my actions? ❜
❛ Aren’t you afraid of dying? ❜
❛ I’m sorry. For whatever happened to you. For whoever hurt you so deeply that you see things like friends and fondness as weapons instead of shields. ❜
❛ You know so little of war. Battles may be fought from the outside in, but wars are won from the inside out. ❜
❛ Between the two of us, we’ll tear the whole world down. ❜
❛ I am going to cut that smile off your face. ❜
❛ It hurts. More than dying ever did. There are days when I feel like I deserve this. ❜
❛ Death doesn’t scare me. Not nearly as much as the idea of wasting a perfectly good life in fear of it. ❜
❛ You’re always so eager to slash and stab, why couldn’t you have stabbed him. ❜
❛ Which is it, huh? You’re angry at me, or worried about me, or happy to see me? Because I can’t keep up. ❜
❛ Wouldn’t it be amazing, if we got away with it? ❜
❛ Shall we see how well you suffer? ❜
❛ Because it’s my duty to protect you. And because I love you. ❜
❛ Politics is a dance until the moment it becomes a war. And we control the music. ❜
❛ You play with magic as if it were a game. You don’t even understand the rules. Or worse, you decide there are none. ❜
❛ You’re going to die. You might as well die trying. ❜
❛ Where have you been? And what kind of trouble did you get into? ❜
❛ Strength and weakness are tangled things. They look so much alike, we often confuse them. ❜
❛ I bend most of the rules and break the rest. ❜
❛ You know… A little piece of me was hoping you would say that. This is going to be fun. ❜
❛ You have a house if not a home. You have people who care for you if not about you. You may not have everything you want, but I’d wager you have everything you could ever need, and you have the audacity to claim it all forfeit because it is not love. ❜
❛ Love doesn’t keep us from freezing to death, or starving, or being killed for what’s in our pockets. Love doesn’t buy us anything, so be glad for what you have and who you have because you may want for things but you need nothing. ❜
❛ An army full of men cannot do what I can. I don’t need any of you. I am one of a damned kind. ❜
❛ You tried to seduce me, for information. ❜
❛ Well I was running out of options, and I figured it was worth a shot. ❜
❛ You never listen. You never think. Having power is a responsibility, one you clearly don’t deserve. ❜
❛ People don’t really want to know. They think they do, but knowing only makes them miserable. ❜
❛ After all, if you run far enough, no one can catch you. ❜
❛ Chaos needs order. Magic needs moderation. It’s like a fire. It doesn’t have self-control. It feeds off whatever you give it, and if you give it too much, it burns and burns until there’s nothing left. ❜
❛ You go stomping through this world, doing whatever the hell you please. You’re careless. Senseless. Reckless. ❜
❛ It’s such a peculiar thing, to know your pain is tethered to someone else’s, that every time you hurt, they feel it, and every time they hurt, it’s because of you. ❜
❛ Some people steal to stay alive, and some steal to feel alive. Simple as that. ❜
❛ Do not lie. Not to me. ❜
❛ I don’t know. I don’t understand what I am, how I’m alive, what I can do. ❜
❛ I still want it. Every day, I wake up wanting to be a stronger person. A better person. A worthy one. That want, it’s like a fire in my chest. And then, there are these moments, these horrible, icy moments when I remember what I did… To myself. To you. And it hurts. ❜
❛ You can’t glare magic into happening. ❜
❛ Have I done something wrong? Am I being punished? ❜
❛ I hate that I hate it. I hate that I’ve become thing I never wanted to be, a burden to you, a source of pain and suffering, a prison. I hate that if I’d had a choice I’d have said no. That I was grateful I didn’t have a choice, because I wanted to live, even if I didn’t deserve to. ❜
❛ I was dead, and you brought me back. You have already given me something I shouldn’t have. If it were lost again, I would still have lived twice. This is all borrowed. ❜
❛ This gesture – this foolish, mad, dangerous gesture – is the best I can do. The least I can do. ❜
❛ Does that mean you’ve since developed a fondness for me? ❜
❛ There’s really no winning with you. ❜
❛ For how long? You cannot measure out what you have done. I am grateful for the life you’ve bought me, though I hate the cost. But what do you want me to do? Live forever? I don’t want that. ❜
❛ Death comes for everyone. I’m not afraid of dying. But I am afraid of dying here. ❜
❛ Ah, there it is! That famous scowl. ❜
❛ Look, I know things have been hard. Harder these past months than ever. And I know I’ve only made it worse. I’ve been difficult. ❜
❛ You can’t hold that against me forever. ❜
❛ I’m sorry, I was under the impression that I was free to do as I please. ❜
❛ I need you here beside me. ❜
❛ Do you think you’ll ever stop running? ❜
❛ Death comes for us all. You cannot hide it from it forever. We will die one day, you and I. ❜
❛ Careful now, your ego is showing. ❜
❛ We all have demons. But if yours are all really dead then I envy you. ❜
❛ I don’t know why we keep circling each other like stars. ❜
❛ If you break their heart a second time I will cut yours out. I stand by that promise. ❜
❛ If there is a god, a celestial body, a heavenly power or anyone above – or below – who might just like to see us live another day, for pity’s or entertainment’s sake, now would be a good time to intercede. ❜
❛ I’m not asking you to mind their lives, you idiot, I’m asking you to mind your own. ❜
❛ And for the record, this is a terrible idea. You will get caught. Maybe not right away. But eventually. And when you do, I won’t protect you. ❜
❛ I’m not asking you to do anything. Believe it or not, I can protect myself. ❜
❛ So you can confess it? That you are mine. ❜
❛ You have a dangerous disregard for your own life, and the lives of others. ❜
❛ So I’ve been told. Are you going to try to stop me? ❜
❛ Has anyone ever told you that you’re too sharp for your own good? ❜
❛ I sometimes think I’ve gone mad. ❜
❛ I haven’t let you do anything. I simply haven’t stopped you, because if I’ve learned one thing about you, it’s that if you want to do a thing, you’ll do it, the world be damned. ❜
❛ Too sharp. Too loud. Too reckless. I’ve heard it all. It’s a wonder I’m still alive. ❜
❛ This is an expensive secret. I’ll keep it, in trade for another. ❜
❛ Word of mouth has its own kind of magic. ❜
❛ Don’t fucking give up. Do you hear me? ❜
❛ I live by a simple rule: if a thing is worth having, it is worth taking. ❜
❛ I warned you this would happen. I told you that if you carried on with this you would be caught and that even I could not protect you then. ❜
❛ I can’t help you if you won’t let me. ❜
❛ You’ll have to try harder than that to kill me. ❜
❛ Who needs magic when you look this good? ❜
❛ Impossibility is a thing that begs to be disproven. Perhaps it hasn’t been possible for years, perhaps it’s not even possible right now, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. It doesn’t mean it won’t be. ❜
❛ The world is neither fair nor right, but it has a way of balancing itself. ❜
❛ All right. But I want a favor in return. ❜
❛ There you go again. You never let me fall. ❜
❛ See? I’m a fast learner. ❜
❛ Look, everyone talks about the unknown like it’s some big scary thing, but it’s the familiar that’s always bothered me. It’s heavy, builds up around you like rocks, until it’s walls and a ceiling and a cell. ❜
❛ Is that all you have? The same, tired tricks? ❜
❛ I said they forgave you. I never said I did. ❜
❛ A respectable prison is still a prison. ❜
❛ Tell me everything. But start with this, what foolish things have you done now? ❜
❛ You were dying. I saved your life. ❜
❛ How could you? How could you carry that weight? ❜
❛ Lovers like men with scars. Or so I’ve heard. ❜
❛ Seems right somehow. You gave me something of yours. I give you something of mine. Now we’re linked. ❜
❛ But I suppose the thing about killing is that it gets easier. ❜
❛ It’s easy to be loved. I want to be respected. ❜
❛ I asked so nicely. I gave you the chance to give in. You made me use force. ❜
❛ The ones who think they’re ready always end up dead. ❜
❛ You poor thing. What do you want? Pity? You won’t find it from me. ❜
❛ Will they every forgive us? ❜
