Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta > Quotes

“Oh apologies,” Merlin’s face blotched with red. “I, um, come from a society with a history of gender assumptions based on physical markers, aesthetics…et cetera.”
Ew,” Ari said.
“That’s wicked sad,” Kay added.
Merlin, at least, looked deeply ashamed. “You’ve no idea.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Leave the sword,” Jordan growled.
“I’m not going to stab him!”
“So I can polish it! You’re doing a terrible job. No wonder you failed knight camp.”
“These two flunked out. I was a conscientious objector!”
“Yes, and what are you now?” Jordan asked, never fazed by Ari’s temper.
“King Fucking Arthur, that’s who!”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Seriously, Lam? Sinister enchantress cannot be your type.”
“Sexy in a slip dress certainly is,” Lam said.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Imagine going through existence as a ghost. An unwelcome whisper. A living curse.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Motherfucking assballs of unrelenting space whores!”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“If you did die tomorrow…”
Merlin’s fingers flew into the air. “I can’t—”
“Theoretically,” Val said, gently rolling his eyes. “What would you want people to say about you?”
“Once upon a time, he had a very nice beard,” Merlin said. “He was the teacher of forty-two king Arthurs. He never gave in to tyrants.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Are you two old friends?” Lam asked, stepping forward with interest.
She gave them a smile that she had honed to a blade over the centuries. “I hate Merlin with the venom of an adder, the rage of a forest fire, and the vigor of a woman making love.”
“So…no.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“ Ugh, boys,” said Val.
“I believe the phrase you’re looking for is straight boys, Merlin corrected.
“What is straight? Lam asked, furrowing their brow.
“Oh goodness,” Merlin said. “We’ll it’s when a person has attractions to people who are on the other binary end of the…ummm…”
“They’re messing with you, Merlin.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Ari had believed, on some deep level, that she was alone in the universe. That’s why she’d tried to solve all her problems by herself.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“When you want to become a dragon slayer, you don’t charge straight into the nest, swords swinging,” Merlin said. “You sneak in and steal a few coins from his hoard first.”
“What if the dragon worked hard for that money?” Lam asked. “You don’t know his life. And how do you even know the dragon’s a..”
“ He’s a boy dragon!” Merlin roared.
“Sure thing, old man,” Kay said, slapping his arm.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“What did they pick you up for?”
“Disturbing the thing that passes for peace,” Merlin spat. “And yourself?”
“I stole seventy-two piñatas,” said Hex, deadpan.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“I was trapped by an ancient enchantress who—”
“Another one?” Val asked. “How many magical women have you pissed off?”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“…might look and taste and feel like the future, but this was just a new kind of Dark Age. The path humans took through time was less a mythical arrow of progress and more of a squiggle that doubled back on itself, curling and looping. A roller coaster designed by a drunkard.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Warmth fell over her like a soft rainstorm. They were in a tropical bubble. The frozen ground had turned to warm, yielding sand, and above, a hot, beautiful sun shone. There was no wind here, but—did Ari imagine it?—there seemed to be music. A classical guitar strumming somewhere nearby. There was even a damn palm tree next to Lam.
“What the hell is this?” Kay blustered.
“Bermuda,” Merlin said with a small shrug that made him stumble. “My happy place.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“He apologized for breaking his promise not to use magic as he took down the guard with the needle. Then another apology—"sorry, quite sorry" —as he zinged the one holding Hex.
"Why are you being so nice to them right now?" Hex asked.
"I'm British!" Merlin cried.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Someone really should write the rest of the story. You know, the cycles that came after the first Arthur? All the way to the end, with your magical sword sticking Nin’s lake into a billion icy bits? Seems like a pretty huge omission if you ask me.”
“Actually a pair of twenty-first-century authors came rather close!” Merlin said, skimming through the books and pulling out one with an electric pink, glowing Excalibur on the cover. “They got a few things lopsided, of course. I am a good dancer.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“Your fear is a tyrant.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Dragons and misogyny could fuck right off.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“Because he’s eleven?”
“Every time you say his age, he gets younger,” Lam pointed out.
“Which is offensive to those of us who actually age backwards!” Merlin cried.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“I only pinch books nobody is using. And I do good works, too. I rescued quite a lot of manuscripts from the library of Alexandria before it burned down. And I had a lovely chat with the librarian. She wasn’t even worried when I walked out of a black spot in the wall. People in ancient times were much more open to magic.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“Holy shit!” he shouted. “You were nearly incinerated!”
“Merlin?” Gwen said as Mercer weapons began to reload.
Merlin snapped his fingers and every living on the moon, apart from the three of them, froze. “Note to self, the moment they need me is a tad too literal. Next time I’ll try for an hour before the moment they need me. Although, let’s not hope for a next time.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“He tried clearing his mind like a junk drawer, rattling everything out. He hopped on one foot to regain equilibrium. He even ate a sandwich, which required an enormous amount of magic to summon. “Nothing worse for future workings than low blood sugar,” he muttered”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“We can play battle and knights and kings, but in the end we just want to exist.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future

“Are you going to kill me? That's what men do. That's what men have always done. They kill and burn and take, and they stuff their ears against the screams but at the end of the day they want to be remembered as good. So they write stories about their shining deeds and all are made to watch and listen and love them.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta

“This whole planet can kiss my ass!”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“It’s official. I loathe caves,” Val said, wiping off his pants and tugging his corset back into place. He reached desperately for a joke. “When we get back to the future, someone is eventually going to say, ‘Come see these amazing cave formations!’ And I’m going to be like, ‘Leave. We’re not friends anymore.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“You thought you beat me,” he said. “But we are more than songs and sparks.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“Two girls burning like stars.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“But then you left so mad at me.”
Ari took Gwen’s hand and turned it over, pressing small kisses down the side of her thumb toward her wrist. “It didn’t stick. I crashed on your planet and accidentally married you.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Sword in the Stars

“I wanted to make a difference in this ridiculous universe.”
― Cori McCarthy & Amy Rose Capetta, Once & Future