Shantel Tessier > Quotes

“I’d set the world on fire, including myself, if it meant saving her.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“I vow.
You vow.
We vow.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“I want toxic. I want madness. I want someone who makes me question my sanity.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sinner

“When I burn the world down and they ask me why, I’ll tell them the devil asked me to do it. And I wanted to make him proud.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sinner

“Just know this, Blake. If you try to run from me, I will find you. And when I do, you will regret the day you left me.” Softening his eyes, he gives me a threatening smile. “You were mine yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” He gently kisses my forehead. The tenderness a contradiction to his threatening words. “And you will continue to be mine forever.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“If there’s no pain, then how do you know you’re alive?”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“I can’t guarantee that I’ll grow old with her, but I will spend every second of every day that I’m alive proving to her that she comes first no matter what.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“Love? It doesn’t sound so foreign anymore. If loving someone means you’d burn the world to protect them, then I love her.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sacrifice

“If she wants to watch this house burn, I'll hand her the fucking matches.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sinner

“They say love is patient and kind. I’m not either one of those things when it comes to Blakely.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“I’m willing to be her devil as much as she’s willing to be my little demon.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sinner

“And when forced to choose—keep you or let you go—I will hurt you before I live a life without you.”
― Shantel Tessier, Carnage

“Fuck, I love you,” he whispers, his hand wrapped around my neck, crushing the chain into my already sensitive skin. “Remember that when I rip you apart.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“my wife and I are a team. A Lord and a Lady.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“Even the devil catches feelings, or he wouldn’t go into rages. Even he knows how to love.”
― Shantel Tessier, I Dare You

“I made a vow to protect you, Blake, and I’ll show anyone who tries to hurt you my version of hell.” I’d set the world on fire, including myself, if it meant saving her.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“In a world where it’s either you or me…I’ll always choose you, doll face.”
― Shantel Tessier, Madness

“If life has taught me anything, it’s that it doesn’t stop when you need rest. You swallow your cries and you lift your chin. Because life doesn’t give a fuck about you. You either take it, or you let it kill you.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sinner

“Drop your feminism at the door. Haidyn Reeves is going to make you his good little dirty whore in every way.”
― Shantel Tessier, Madness

“I’ve seen what hell looks like, and I’ve embraced it, become it. Now, I will drag her down into the depths of it with me by the chains that I lock her up in, and we will burn together.”
― Shantel Tessier, Carnage

“No two people love the same way. And everyone has a different opinion on what love actually is.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“As blood is my oath, you will forever belong to me and I to you.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sacrifice

“It's not the violence I crave (...) Although I like it rough, I think it's more of the idea of a man being so overcome with desire for me that he can't be stopped. And the fact I have no say over what he does. The feeling of having no control makes me feel in control. I let him catch me even though I run. I let him do it even though I fight him.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“Do you ever just want to shut it all off? Not have to think about the next second of your life? Go on an unplanned road trip? Have a one-night stand with the cute guy you scrolled past on your timeline? Social media makes you think you have all this freedom, but you don’t. Not really. You’re stuck behind a device watching others live out their dreams. You post selfies of fake smiles and expensive clothes, hoping that someone will envy you. Reassure you just how good you have it. All the while hating your life. “Smile, dear, you never know who is watching you,”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“I vow. You vow. We vow. The ritual is what one must do in order to become a chosen. A chosen must be willing to surrender in all that they do.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“Hey, doll face…”

“Haidyn?” I yank the phone from Kashton’s hands and look at the screen to see it’s a video. He’s sitting on my couch, dressed in nothing but a pair of jeans. The phone is propped up against something on the coffee table.

I place my hand over my mouth to hold in my sob at the sight of him. This was last night…when I saw my phone on the coffee table when he stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in my living room.

“This isn’t how I wanted to tell you goodbye. But in our life, we rarely get what we want.” A soft smile tugs at his lips. “You were my exception.”

He bows his head, his right hand twirling his wedding ring around his finger as he looks at it. “I knew that you were too good for me the moment I first saw you. That I’d never live up to the man you’d deserve. So I let you go…but when you were placed back in my life, I couldn’t stop myself.” He looks back at the phone and gives a soft smile.

Back in his life?

“I’ve done a lot of unforgivable shit in my life, but the best thing I ever did was make you my wife. I wish I could have done it differently. You deserved so much more than what I gave you. I should have gotten down on one knee and begged you to spend the rest of your life with me. I should have told you how much you changed me. That you showed me what being alive truly felt like. I always felt like I was missing something…my life was boring. Same thing over and over. And then you walked into my life with that amazing smile and when I looked into your eyes—I saw a future that I never thought existed…not for a man like me, anyway.”

A lump forms in my throat, and I blink to clear the tears from my eyes so I can see him on the screen.

“I knew you’d never give a man like me the chance at forever. So I forced your hand. I had to have Adam help me.” I look up at Adam, and his green eyes are already on mine. Blinking the fresh tears away, I drop mine back to the phone. “Because I knew that’d be the only way I’d ever get you. And I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be your husband.” He looks away from the camera as if he can’t look at me, and my chest tightens.

How dare he leave me this memory? Why break my heart twice? When I found him in the living room and asked if he regretted marrying me…he had just left me this video. He knew then exactly what he was going to do.

His blue eyes come back to the screen, meeting mine once again. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you the forever you deserved, doll face. But I promise I gave you all I had left to offer.”

The knot grows in my throat, and I can’t hold back the sob anymore as I remember what he said when I told him I chose to be with him forever. To some, forever is only a matter of seconds.

“Please know that I loved you more than anything in this world…and when I walk out this door, I’m leaving a piece of myself behind with you because nothing short of forever would have been enough." He smiles, and I try to catch my breath. "You'll be safe at Carnage and my brothers will protect you." He leans forward and picks up the phone before speaking. "I love you, Charlotte.”
― Shantel Tessier, Madness

“Never trust a man unless you know what he’d do to survive.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sinner

“You’re my chosen one. Be proud. I know I am.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual

“I’m in the mood to fuck some shit up.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Sinner

“I'd set the world on fire, including myself, if it meant saving her.”
― Shantel Tessier, The Ritual