Rosamund Hodge, Cruel Beauty

"I remembered Ignifex's smirk and his confident words: I can wait all I want and still have you. And I thought, Here is one thing he isn't getting. Standing on my toes, I kissed Shade on the lips. It was just a bump of my face against his. Despite Aunt Telomache's lecture, I had no idea how long to prolong a kiss, and his lips startled me, foreign and cool as glass. But then he caught me under the chin and gently kissed my mouth open. Though his lips were still cool, his breath was warm; as he kissed me. I breathed in time to him, until I felt like my body was only a breath of air mixing with his."

"Study the sky but never love it,” Father had told Astraia and me a thousand times. “It is our prison and the symbol of our captor."

"And you would know so much about women, locked up in your castle."Locked up with eight wives. And sometimes I make house calls for my bargainers. There's many a lovely woman desperate enough to bargain with me." This idea had never occurred to me before. "You touch another woman and I'll cut your hands off," I snapped. He looked delighted. "I thought you were afraid of hurting me."

"You will honor my mother or I will break this bottle over your head"

"Almost immediately, I found the red door into the library. I opened it idly- and the breath stopped in my throat. It was the same room I remembered: the shelves, the lion-footed table, the white bass-relief of Clio. But now, tendrils of dark green ivy grew between the shelves, reaching toward the books as if they were hungry to read. White mist flowed along the floor, rippling and tumbling as if blown by wind. Across the ceiling wove a network of icy ropes like tree roots. They dripped- not little droplets like the ice melting off a tree but grape-sized drops of water, like giant tears, that splashed on the table, plopped to the floor."

"She dared to cry? On this day of all days? I was the one who would be married at sunset, and I hadn't let myself cry in five years. There was ice in my lungs and in my heart. I was floating. I was swept away, and out of the cold I spoke to her in a voice as soft as snow, the gentle and obedient voice I had used to consent to every order that Father and Aunt Telomache ever gave me, every order that they would never give Astraia because they actually loved her."You know, that Rhyme is a lie that Aunt Telomache only told you because you weren't strong enough to bear the truth."I had thought the words so often, they felt like nothing in my mouth, like no more than a breath of air, and as easily as breathing I went on."The truth is, Mother died because of you, and now I have to die for your sake, too. And neither one of us will ever forgive you."Then I shoved her aside and strode out of the room."

"But I can’t . . . I can’t leave anyone to the darkness."

"I coudn't be kind to him after what he'd done, couldn't be cruel after what I had done"

"His kindness was only meant to make later torments crueler."

"I remember the hours I had spent in Father's library, drugging myself with books so I could forget my doom for an hour.."

"Though mountains melt and oceans burn,The gifts of love shall still return."

"Why is he scared of the dark"I meant the words for a joke, but Shade nodded seriously. "Like all monsters. Because it reminds him of what he truly is"."

"Knowing the truth is not always a kindness."

"You deserve all that and more. It made me happy to see you suffer. I would do it all over again if I could.' I realized I was shaking as the words tumbled out of me. 'I would do it again and again. Every night I would torment you and laugh. Do you understand? You are never safe with me.' I drew a shuddering breath, trying to will away the sting of tears. He opened his eyes and stared up at me as if I were the door out of Arcadia and back to the true sky. 'That's what makes you my favorite.' He reached up and wiped a tear off my cheek with his thumb. 'Every wicked bit of you."

"They said that love was terrifying and tender, wild and sweet, and none of it made any sense. But now I knew that every mad word was true."

"Where you go, I shall go; where you die, I shall die, and there will I be buried."