01c. 1986 ADHe'd known, since the moment he figured out who she was, that while Celaena would always pick him, Aelin would not.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
02c. 1986 ADNehemia was gone. That vibrant, fierce, loving soul; the princess who had been called the Light of Eyllwe; the woman who had been a beacon of hope—just like that, as if she were no more than a wisp of candlelight, she was gone.When it had mattered most Celaena hadn't been there.Nehemia was gone.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
03c. 1986 ADShe leaned against the stone wall of the narrow landing, a hand on her thundering heart. It was the smart thing to do, the right thing to do. She had survived this long, and would only survive the road ahead if she continued to be unnoticed, reliable, quiet. But she did't want to be unnoticed—not with him, not forever.He made her want to laugh and sing and shake the world with her voice.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
05c. 1986 ADAlone in my bedroom, I realized I couldn't remember the last time I'd truly laughed.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
06c. 1986 ADSam," she said."I'm trying!""Sam," she repeated."No," he spat, hearing her tone. "No!"He began screaming for help then. Celaena pressed her face to one of the holes in the grate. Help wasn't going to come-not fast enough."Please," Sam begged as he beat and yanked on the grate, he tried to wedge another dagger under the lid. "Please don't."She knew he wasn't speaking to her.The water hit her neck."Please," Sam moaned, his fingers now touching hers. She'd have one last breath. Her last words."Take my body home to Terrasen, Sam," she whispered. And with a gasping breath, she went under.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
07c. 1986 ADShe had awoken this morning and slipped the amethyst ring off her finger. It had felt liked a blessed release, a final shadow lifted from her heart.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
10c. 1986 ADI think Nesta feels everything— sees too much; sees and feels it all. And she burns with it. Keeping that wall up helps from being overwhelmed, from caring too greatly.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
11c. 1986 ADWhat's the point in having a mind if you don't use it to make judgements?""What's the point of having a heart if you don't use it to spare others from the harsh judgements of your mind?Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
12c. 1986 ADYou can’t write, yet you learned to hunt, to survive. How?”I paused with my foot on the threshold. “That’s what happens when you’re responsible for lives other than your own, isn’t it? You do what you have to do.”He was still sitting on the table, still straddling that inner line between the here and now and wherever he’d had to go in his mind to endure the fight with the Bogge. I met his feral and glowing stare.“You aren’t what I expected—for a human.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
13c. 1986 ADThe silence was suddenly too charged, his face too beautiful in the light.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
14c. 1986 ADWe'd better eat before we raise hell." - Aelin Ashrvyer GalathyniusSarah J. Maas / quote ↗
15c. 1986 ADEveryone wants to talk-talk-talk. Can't we eat-eat-eat, and then talk?Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
16c. 1986 ADAware of every breath, every movement, I sat in his lap. His hands gently braced my hips as I studied his face. "And now I want you to know, Rhysand, that I love you. I want you to know..." His lips trembled, and I brushed away the tear that escaped down his cheek. "I want you to know," I whispered, "that I am broken and healing, but every piece of my heart belongs to you. And I am honored- honored to be your mate.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
17c. 1986 ADHe wouldn't let his servants change the sheets on his bed because they still smelled like her, because he went to sleep dreaming that she was still lying beside him.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
19c. 1986 ADHe didn't know why, but seeing her made him feel like a man. She was something out of a dream - a dream in which he was not a spoiled young prince, but a king.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
21c. 1986 ADWith each day he felt the barriers melting. He let them melt. Because of her genuine laugh, because he caught her one afternoon sleeping with her face in the middle of a book, because he knew she would win.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
22c. 1986 ADHe sighed and grabbed my left arm, examining the tattoo. “What were you thinking? Didn’t you know I’d come as soon as I could?”I yanked my arm from him. “I was dying! I had a fever—I was barely able to keep conscious! How was I supposed to know you’d come? That you even understood how quickly humans can die of that sort of thing? You told me you hesitated that time with the naga.”“I swore an oath to Tamlin—”“I had no other choice! You think I’m going to trust you after everything you said to me at the manor?”“I risked my neck for you during your task. Was that not enough?” His metal eye whirred softly. “You offered up your name for me—after all that I said to you, all I did, you still offered up your name. Didn’t you realize I would help you after that? Oath or no oath?”I hadn’t realized it would mean anything to him at all. “I had no other choice,” I said again, breathing hard.“Don’t you understand what Rhys is?”“I do!” I barked, then sighed. “I do,” I repeated, and glared at the eye in my palm. “It’s done with. So you needn’t hold to whatever oath you swore to Tamlin to protect me—or feel like you owe me anything for saving you from Amarantha. I would have done it just to wipe the smirk off your brothers’ faces.”Lucien clicked his tongue, but his remaining russet eye shone. “I’m glad to see you didn’t sell your lively human spirit or stubbornness to Rhys.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
23c. 1986 ADSay that you don’t love him!” Amarantha shrieked, and the blood on my hands became the blood of that rabbit—became the blood of what I had lost.But I wouldn’t say it. Because loving Tamlin was the only thing I had left, the only thing I couldn’t sacrifice.A path cleared through my red-and-black vision. I found Tamlin’s eyes—wide as he crawled toward Amarantha, watching me die, and unable to save me while his wound slowly healed, while she still gripped his power.Amarantha had never intended for me to live, never intended to let him go.“Amarantha, stop this,” Tamlin begged at her feet as he clutched the gaping wound in his chest. “Stop. I’m sorry—I’m sorry for what I said about Clythia all those years ago. Please.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
24c. 1986 ADAedion touched her shoulder. "Welcome home, Aelin."A land of towering mountains-the Stagehorns-spread before them, with valleys and rivers and hills; a land of untamed, wild beauty.Terrasen.And the smell-of pine and snow.. How had she never realized that Rowan's scent was of Terrasen, of home? Rowan came close enough to graze her shoulder and murmured, "I feel as if I've been looking for this place my entire life.Sarah J. Maas / quote ↗
