Anne Zoelle > Quotes

“There was something special about sunrise. I just preferred to experience it behind closed eyelids.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Protection of Ren Crown

“I'll do horrible, terrible things in your name,” he murmured, fingertips dragging along my skin.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“His warm fingers slid along my cheek, then wrapped into my hair. He leaned down to rest his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “The ribbon. I lied.”
“What? We aren't engaged?” I asked, smiling shakily, curling my fingers into his shirt. “I have to show up to family dinners as your weird second cousin?”
He opened his eyes and looked into mine. “It doesn't mean family. Not like that. Not to me.”
And his emotional connection opened cleanly, without the muddle he usually hid his true feelings within. And it was love, clear and without artifice, shining there.
I stared at him, breath caught in my chest. “You—”
His emotions were wrapping around me, free and clear and relieved. Like honey and copper—sweet, tangy, and charged—gentle, consuming, warm, passionate, and resolute. “No tricks. No games. No expectations. No lies—not to you, not ever again.”
Stunned, I watched him pull away.
He looked at peace for the first time in weeks. Months. Then he looked down at our connection threads and I wondered what on earth he’d see.
He looked up, and a smile, brilliant and all-consuming split his face. He backed up slowly. “Interesting. See you soon, darling.” He winked, turned, and flipped over the edge of the seal and through the vortex.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“Darling, your entire existence is a revolution.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“Hooded eyes shifted to me. “Marry me.”
“I thought we were already engaged?” I asked, yawning.
“Don't say such lovely things, darling. I'll hold you to them.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“Leandred never uses magic without reason. He’s not going to freak out and do magic because he experiences emotion. It’s doubtful, anyway.” Patrick shrugged. “Before you showed up, I would have told you he was dead inside.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“I looked back at Constantine, and for a moment, his expression held a look of longing so fierce that it made me blink.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“I replaced my lip with my thumb as my nervous chewing object. "I've taken over your workspace. Your hours. Your life."
"You've taken over the very heart of me. Blah, blah. What do you want to do about it?" He tilted his head and drew his ribbon through his fingers. "No, I'll tell you what I want. I wa-"
"I'm sorry!"
"Do you hear me complaining, Crown? Do you actually know me to do anything I don't want to do?”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“I will break you, Ren," he said, voice heavy. You need to understand that.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“You didn't have to-"
"You are at ease now," he said, as if unaffected by the magic I could still see rippling over his fingers. He slowly released my elbow. "And your trust is critical."
I frowned. "Critical to what?"
"To me, of course," he said lightly.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“Con?"
He blew out a breath. "You exhaust me."
"No, I don't."
I caught his smile before he grew serious again. "I'll see what I can do.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“I let you in.” He reentered my space, as if he could do nothing else. “I let you get close, so I could get closer to Verisetti. Stupid.”
“And here I thought my power was half the draw,” I said evenly.
“Your stupid sense of loyalty. Your stupid trust. Your brilliance. You are my weakness. And I thought I had gotten rid of those.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“Nothing can kill me."
"Everyone has a weakness."
He stared at her. "I have no weakness of flesh. Only a weakness of you.”
― Anne Zoelle, Tender of the Garden

“Darling, no,” Constantine said.
“Love admit-and-runners don't get to have a say.”
He smiled slowly. “I'll remember that.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“You aren't going to die for me," I said fiercely, shaking him a little, using up half a container of magic to heal everything in him faster.
His smile was red. "Don't worry so, darling. I'm far too pretty to die.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“I had thought we could be happy, just the two of us hidden away.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“I'm not giving up Neph," I said, returning to the previous conversation.
"Any fool can see that, darling." He looked at me through dark eyes. "You don't give up people, ever.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“But family... family is something you guard. Sometimes you are born to that family, and sometimes you create it, one connection at a time”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“I don't think you fully appreciate the dirty lengths the people around you will go to for you," he said evenly.
"I don't want want anyone to do bad things for me." I gnawed at my lip. "But I'm trying to rely on others more."
"That's a horrible plan, darling. You should only rely on yourself, and me."
Tilting my head up, I gave him a look. "I don't want you to do bad things for me either."
"I'll do horrible, terrible things in your name," he murmured, fingertips dragging along my skin.
I sighed. "That doesn't work on me."
"I know. More's the pity." He smiled and lifted a lock of my hair against his lips.
It was the closest I'd ever felt Constantine experience contentment.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“Perhaps I'm just trying to get you to trust me implicitly," he said.
It was a very Constantine-like thing to say.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“I'll ruin you. If Alexander doesn't do it first.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Rise of Ren Crown

“Constantine's face softened. “Perhaps.” He touched my cheek and wiped the silver-gold tear there.
Mindful of the crowd, I pulled fingers through my tangled hair and checked our spells for something to do that didn’t include responding to that touch. I could feel Constantine smiling.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“He stared at me, unreadable for a moment. "I've had women try to save me before," he said idly.
"Then that means I'll be yesterday's trash soon on that part of the equation, but we will still be friends."
He smiled with a far truer lift of his cheeks. "Don't be foolish. I told you before. I'd never let you go." He touched my chin, tilting it up toward him. "I could remove the danger, you know. Lock you in a room—a tower—"
"My hair isn't long enough," I said automatically.
"But you would spin me gold. So many things better than gold. Truer." His gaze dropped to my lips. "I would keep you in the finest of materials, handcrafted with only you in mind. The finest paints, in a tower so high that you would have no cares.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Unleashing of Ren Crown

“You steal the very breath from my body. I suffocate with the feelings, it's true.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Unleashing of Ren Crown

“—watching as a galaxy was born, cosmic events swirling in endless lines and patterns around it. Endless possibilities and explorations. I reached out with my other hand and grabbed Constantine’s.
He didn’t inhale at all. I looked over and saw that he was staring at me instead, gaze indecipherable. Then he looked upward, and I saw his lips part.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“Would you—"
"Yes."
"You don't know what I was going to ask."
"Don't I?" A ghost of a smile worked his lips, and he turned his head just a fraction toward me, looking at me through a lock of hair. "The answer is yes anyways."
"I should make you do part of my community service," I mused, kicking back in the chair across the table from him. "That would serve you right."
"Go ahead. I can't say no to you either, darling."
"What do you mean, either?"
He smiled—though it was more of a smirk this time. "Either, one or the other, all of the above.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Unleashing of Ren Crown

“The only emotions coming from him were light, playful—maybe with a little resignation wrapped in there, but positive feelings flowed across out bond.
"You are amused," I said. "What was in the vial? What are you so suddenly amused?"
He tipped his head. "It's...freeing, this shift in perspective. It's all rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but you want this—for campus, your new home, to be happy and free. Easy enough to assist with, so here I am."
"I had to drag you here."
"It wouldn't be a game otherwise. You would have been far more skeptical had I come willingly. You'd never have brought it and I'd have been made to stand elsewhere, relegated to being good."
I looked at him, then slipped my hand around his arm and squeezed. "I'd buy it."
Bonds wrapped around me—family, fondness, and something slightly darker and more fatalistic. He squeezed my hand beneath his, then pulled away before I could identify the last feeling.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Unleashing of Ren Crown

“Dare's going to bring you more trouble,” Olivia said, as if she too understood that volatility was more perilous than cold dislike.
“You know, Price,” Constantine said, leaning back even more, his roiling emotions calming more than they had in hours. “I think, someday, I might not dislike you.”
“Whatever, Leandred. If I could peel you away from Ren, you'd already be sticking to a waste receptacle somewhere.”
“Likewise.”
For a moment, they both felt oddly serene and in entire accord.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown

“My magic trusts you, so it accepted the hook and spread it, causing it to catch the community trail, from my group to each mage that trusts each of them, and so forth, until everyone had tapped in?" I could see from his expression that I was on the right track. "You are lucky that my magic automatically accepts yours."
There was something in his eyes. "Forever.”
― Anne Zoelle, The Unleashing of Ren Crown

“Constantine leaned in and curled a piece of my false hair around his finger. “We should do lunch instead,” he said, entirely audible so that the whole hallway could hear.
I blinked at him.
“You've been working too hard and these brats will still be here. I'll treat you.” He leaned in, bringing the lock of borrowed black hair to rub against his lips.
“We need to finish our tasks,” I said aloud, swallowing nervously and trying not to watch as another person passed us. She rolled her eyes as the door-magic scanned her.
“Are you certain I can't convince you?” he asked me, somewhat lasciviously.
“Maybe...maybe after?”
Constantine's hand thrust out and gripped the closing door, his finger sliding over the edge deliberately. The door opened again. His gaze never left mine. “I'll hold you to that.”
“I don't know, Trick,” Loudon said cheerfully. “Seems like—ow!”
― Anne Zoelle, The Destiny of Ren Crown