Claudia > Claudia's Quotes

“Robin saved me when I thought I was beyond it. When I thought I was beyond anything. I was only alive before him, not really living. The Merry Men have given me a purpose I didn't think I deserved. May you have tricked your way through the pearly gates, Robin." -Adam”
― Jenny Elder Moke, Hood

“I cannot return," she said, sadness weighing down each word.
"I am sorry."
"We need you, Isabelle," Adam said, his voice rough. "We need your clever brain and your wicked shot and your passion for helping people."
"You are talking about Robin," she whispered.
"No, I'm not," he said forcefully. "I'm talking about you. The girl that stood up to a camp of outlaws and challenged for her place among them. The girl who took on the most powerful man in the country and beat him. The girl who stared down a soldier of the king to protect innocent people. We've got our hands full helping the rebel barons and protecting the people of Sherwood. No one knows about Robin's death besides the Men, and we can't let anyone find out. The people need something to believe in now more then ever. We need Robin Hood to live on, even if the man himself is gone. But I'm too tall and Little's a terrible shot. Helena's the only one with a bow arm good enough to pretend to be Robin, and she won't let any of us hear the end of it. We need you." He cleared his throat. "I need you.”
― Jenny Elder Moke, Hood

“I shudder, clutching the pill in my fist. The ridges of the raised lettering on the capsule dig into my skin. Six characters in total. Epi-Tas. Half of a Spartan phrase. E tan e epi tas. With your shield or on it.
Come back alive and victorious, or don't come back at all. That's our way. That's our principle.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Santa Elena lifts a radio to her lips, and a second later, her voice snaps into my ear. "Your orders were to dismantle the persuit and then surrender. The purpose of those orders was to get the damn SRC off our tail. You do realize that by coming back here, you ensured that all of that hard work was for nothing, right? I'm just so curious about what possessed you to come chasing after us. It sure as hell isn't Swift, here. You can't possibly be in that deep.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“It's one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, knowing their stories.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“But she underestimated me. I played my cards, I laid in wait, I let myself be beaten and manipulated. If she keeps that promise she made to me, I’ll show her the truth I’ve learned on her boat. I don’t just raise monsters. I am one.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“You don't touch her controls. You never touch my ship like that again. Next time it happens, I cut a finger off. Each time you go against me, you lose another finger. When you're out of fingers, you're out of luck. Am I clear?"
... "Perfectly," I choke. "Ten chances it is.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Home is what you kill for. And I killed for Swift.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“I don’t just raise monsters. I am one.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“You're at the top of the world - you're the most powerful thing on the sea when you're serving under her - but there's a cost. There's always a cost.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Did it ever occur to you that your neck might matter to me at least as much as mine? Actually, probably more than mine? - Swift, to Cas”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“But when you suffer with someone, you learn them. And it’s hard to kill a person you’ve learned.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“I've taken a monster used to destroy them and tamed it in their favor. I've hatched the enemy's tool and shaped it into something they can wield. And here, sitting squarely on his back, I'm the very image of a conqueror, my full weight thrown on the subjugated.

I am not a girl. I am a symbol.

And I represent everything that I shouldn't.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Dad takes a step back, one hand still on my shoulder, and reaches into his pocket. He draws out a little blue capsule, and I feel every molecule in my body screaming to run. Dad must catch the panic in my eyes - he squeezes my shoulder and holds out the capsule. "Cas, it's fine. It's going to be fine. This is just in case."

Just in case. Just in case the worst happens. The ship falls. Durga fails, I fail, and the knowledge I carry as a Reckoner trainer must be disposed of. That information can't fall into the wrong hands, into the hands of people who will do anything to take down our beasts.

So this little capsule holds the pill that will kill me if it comes to that.

"It's waterproof," Dad continues, pressing it into my hand. "The pocket on the collar of your wetsuit, keep it there. It has to stay with you at all times."

It won't happen on this voyage. It's such a basic mission, gift-wrapped to be easy enough for me to handle on my own. But even holding the pill fills me with revulsion. On all my training voyages, I've never had to carry one of these capsules. That burden only goes to full-time trainers.

"Cas." Dad tilts my chin up, ripping my gaze from the pull. "You were born to do this. I promise you, you'll forget you even have it." I suppose he ought to know - he's been carrying one for two decades.

It's just a right of passage, I tell myself, and throw my arms around his neck once more.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“If it weren't for her, one way or another I'd be another bloated corpse staining the NeoPacific.

So when I lie back and roll onto my side, I decide I'm not bunking back to back with the girl who kept me from sparing Durga or the girl who dragged me aboard the Minnow and threw me into a janitorial closet. She's not the girl who slammed me into a wall a minutes ago or the girl who called me a shoregirl like it was the height of an insult.

I'm just going to sleep next to the girl who saved my life.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“For the love of the Six, don't call me that. Just Mare. Yes, like a horse. Stupid, I know, but I can't stand Amaranthine. What a ridiculously overlong and pretentious collections of syllables.”
― Audrey Coulthurst, Of Fire and Stars

“She led me to her bed and laid me down beside her. I let her hands wander over me, losing myself in the patterns she traced over my skin. When she brought her lips to mine, we kissed until we could hardly breathe, until I couldn’t resist sliding my hand up her thigh, hiking the nightdress over her hips.

Denna grew bold with my touch, finding her way beneath my shirt until she slipped the fabric over my head. Her mouth moved over my exposed skin, awkwardness quickly blooming into desire. When she put her hands between my legs, the last of my shyness vanished.”
― Audrey Coulthurst, Of Fire and Stars

“Loss will rip you apart, Amora... It will take whatever you give it, and it will never be satisfied. So don't you dare give it yourself”
― Adalyn Grace, All the Tides of Fate

“My story was not a fairy tale of a cruel-hearted girl whose shoes danced her to death, or a kindhearted one who threw her red shoes into the river. This was not a story about a wicked queen made to wear iron heels, or a lovely, golden-haired girl in slippers of glass. This had been about a fever, a nightmare, a dance made into a curse.
It was about women turning their own fears into their sharpest blades.”
― Anna-Marie McLemore, Dark and Deepest Red

“So many books to read and worlds to escape into, so much history to learn. No matter what was happening, no matter how distressing it was, all she had to do was go to the library and it would all be well in her world”
― Serena Valentino, Mother Knows Best

“E tan e epi tas.
Come back alive and victorious, or don't come back at all.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“I would find a way to make sure we never had to destroy something of ourselves just to stop other people from taking it. - Rosella”
― Anna-Marie McLemore, Dark and Deepest Red

“I shut my eyes as the ocean swallows me whole. Water floods my lungs, and I choke on the one thing I love the most. The sea. The waters of my kingdom. They'll be the death of me.”
― Adalyn Grace, All the Stars and Teeth

“But even our idols—even those we want to love and trust more than anything—can let us down.”
― Adalyn Grace, All the Stars and Teeth

“I am Amora Montara, Princess of Visidia, and I will be the future High Animancer.
I am the right choice. The only choice. And I will protect my kingdom.”
― Adalyn Grace, All the Stars and Teeth

“Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“No one controls your destiny. Even at the very worst - there is always choice.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“That was such a wonderful time, even in its strangeness and sadness-and life isn't the same now. It's wonderful, but it isn't the same.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“The world unwraps itself to you, again and again as soon as you are ready to see it anew.”
― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“I was talking about how you never, ever stop fighting, no matter how much it hurts.”
― Nina Varela, Crier's War