Natalie > Natalie's Quotes

“A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him up for her own,
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.”
― W.B. Yeats

“Words lie. Blood doesn't.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“Forgiveness doesn't work that way. You may want to forgive, but you can't do it yet. Forgiving someone can take weeks, months, years. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“Everything has a price.”
― Anne Bishop

“Carefully bracing himself so that he wouldn't hurt her, he leaned over and brushed his lips against hers.

He raised his head. Her haunted sapphire eyes stared at him.

"Daemon?" There was so much uncertainty in her voice.

"Hello, sweetheart," he said, his voice husky with the effort not to cry. "I've missed you."

Her hand moved slowly, with effort, until it rested against his face. Her lips curved into a smile. "Daemon."

This time, when she said his name, it sounded like a promise, like a lovely caress.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“Yes, I am,” he said softly. “That’s the way I was. That’s the way I could be again.” He shook his head as he raised his hand, his fingertips touching her hair. “I want to be your lover. I chose to be your lover. That makes all the difference. Being in bed with you is like soaring on a sweet wind. I chose to be your lover, Marian . . . just as you chose to be mine.”
― Anne Bishop, Dreams Made Flesh

“Is that why you've been pushing me away? Because of how you look? [...] I waited for you my whole life. Yearned for you my whole life. After Tersa told me you were coming, I spent seven hundred years searching for you[....] I never gave a damn what you looked like--tall, short, fat, thin, plain, beautiful, ugly. Why would I care about what you looked like? The flesh was the shell that housed the glory[....] Even if I couldn't be your physical lover, there are other ways to be a lover and I know them all. So don't stand there and tell me how you feel depends on how you look!”
― Anne Bishop, Dreams Made Flesh

“Jaenelle woke up in a similar mood,” Lucivar said mildly. “Must have been an interesting night.” “Nothing happened,” Daemon growled as he swiped his hair back. “Nothing physical,” Lucivar said. “But I’ve danced with the Sadist enough times to recognize him when I see him.” Daemon just waited. Lucivar’s lips curled into that lazy, arrogant smile. “Welcome to Kaeleer, brother,” he said softly. “It’s good to have you back.” He paused at the bathroom door. “I’ll bring you a cup of coffee. That and a hot shower ought to wake you up enough.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“I can do this,” [Daemon] crooned, slowly circling around her. “I can keep Dorothea and Hekatah off-balance enough to keep the others safe and also prevent those Ladies from giving the orders to send the Terreillean armies into Kaeleer. I can buy you seventy-two hours, Jaenelle. But it’s going to cost me because I’m going to do things I may never be forgiven for, so I want something in return.” He could taste her slight bafflement before she said, “All right.”

“I don’t want to wear the Consort’s ring anymore.” A slash of pain, quickly stifled.

“All right.”

“I want a wedding ring in its place.” A flash of joy, immediately followed by sorrow. She smiled at him at the same time her eyes filled with tears. “It would be wonderful.” She meant that.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“If the moon smiled, she would resemble you.
You leave the same impression
Of something beautiful, but annihilating.”
― Sylvia Plath, Ariel: The Restored Edition

“Do you trust me?” [Daemon] snapped.

“Yes.” No hesitation, no doubts.

He finally stopped moving and faced her. “Do you know how desperately I love you?”

[Janelle's] voice shook when she answered, “As much as I love you?”

He held her, held on to her as his lifeline, his anchor. It would be all right. As long as he had her, it would be all right.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“She has the strength, the knowledge, and the desire. She’ll bring him out of the Twisted Kingdom.” It wasn’t what Lucivar meant, and they both knew it.

“Why didn’t you stop her? Why are you letting her risk herself?”

Saetan bent his head, avoiding Lucivar’s eyes. “Because she loves him. Because he really is her mate.”

Lucivar was silent for a minute. Then he sighed. “He always said he’d been born to be Witch’s lover. Looks like he was right.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“I’ve been insulted by fools before. I survived.” Even in the dim light he saw her eyes change.

“Just because he was using words instead of a knife, you can’t dismiss it, Saetan. He hurt you.”

“Of course he hurt me,” Saetan snapped. “Being accused of—” He closed his eyes and squeezed her hand. “I don’t tolerate fools, Jaenelle, but I also don’t kill them for being fools. I simply keep them out of my life.” He sat up and took her other hand. “I am your sword and your shield, Lady. You don’t have to kill.”

Witch studied him with her ancient, haunted sapphire eyes. “You’ll take the scars on your soul so that mine remains unmarked?”

“Everything has a price,” he said gently. “Those kinds of scars are part of being a Warlord Prince. You’re at a crossroads, witch-child. You can use your power to heal or to harm. It’s your choice.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“If the right woman comes into your life, you won’t let her go. I’m the last man who would tell you to compromise. Marry someone you can love and accept as she is, Lucivar. Marry someone who will love and accept you. Don’t settle for less.”

Lucivar lowered his arm. “Do you think the right man will come into Cat’s life?”

“He’ll come. If the Darkness is kind, he’ll come.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“Saetan paused. “Can you also appreciate that, in the thirteen years she’s lived here, Jaenelle has never been concerned enough about clothes to ask for my opinion about something she was wearing. And can you appreciate that she wasn’t asking for my opinion as her Steward or her father but as a man. And I admit that, considering the way that dress fit her, my opinion of it as a father would have differed considerably from my opinion as a man.” Daemon almost smiled. “She sees you as a man, Daemon. A man, not a male friend. For the first time in her life, she’s trying to deal with her own lust. So she’s running.”

“She’s not the only one trying to deal with it,” Daemon muttered, but the sleepy look had changed to sharp interest. “I am her Consort. She could just—”

Saetan shook his head. “Do you really think Jaenelle would demand that from you?”

“No.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“[Daemon's] arms tightened, drew her closer as his hand stroked up and down her back, just for the simple pleasure of it. She sighed. The tension in her muscles eased a bit, and she rested against him more fully.

He wasn’t thinking of seduction when his hands began to wander over her—or when her hands hesitantly stroked him.

He wasn’t thinking of seduction when his body delighted in how different the silky skin of her neck felt under his mouth compared to the robe beneath his hands.

He wasn’t thinking of sex when he opened his robe and then hers so that only that film of spidersilk separated skin from skin. Or when even the spidersilk no longer separated them.

He wasn’t thinking of sex when his mouth settled over hers and he sent them both sliding into dark, hot desire. And by the time he found himself in bed, listening to her purr with pleasure while he moved inside her, he wasn’t able to think at all.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“Some men die for lack of love…some die because of it. Think about it." - Daemon”
― Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

“He wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and massaged gently. “Listen to me, Cat, because I’ll only say this once. You’re the finest Lady I’ve ever met and the dearest friend I’ve ever had. Besides that, I love you like a brother, and any bastard who hurts my little sister is going to answer to me.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“Do you always ask me the same questions you ask him?"

"It depends on whether or not I get an answer.”
― Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

“Briarwood is the pretty poison. There is no cure for Briarwood.”
― Anne Bishop

“But the only time she’d mentioned Daemon, his name had sounded like a promise, like a caress.

Blinking back tears and leashing his guilt, Lucivar finished the whiskey and turned to go back inside.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“That is a list of the Territories that yielded to Ebon Askavi. They now stand within the shadow of the Keep. They are mine. Anyone who tries to settle in my Territory without my consent will be dealt with. Anyone who harms any of my people will be executed. There will be no excuses and no exceptions. I will say it simply so that the members of this Council and the intruders who thought to take land they had no right to claim can never say they misunderstood." Jaenelle's lips curled into a snarl. "STAY OUT OF MY TERRITORY!”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“I suppose [...] that the most convincing way to fool an enemy would be to fool a friend.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“Who do you have to find?”

“The boy. My son. Daemon.” Lucivar’s heart clogged his throat as he watched Jaenelle pale. “Daemon.” Jaenelle shuddered. “The gold key.”

“I have to find him.” Tersa’s voice rang with frustration and fear. “If the pain doesn’t end soon, it will destroy him.”

Jaenelle gave no sign of having heard or understood the words. “Daemon,” she whispered. “How could I have forgotten Daemon?”

“I must go back to Terreille. I must find him.”

“No,” Jaenelle said in her midnight voice. “I’ll find him.”

Tersa stopped her restless movements. “Yes,” she said slowly, as if trying hard to remember something. “He would trust you. He would follow you out of the Twisted Kingdom.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“Jaenelle looked thoughtful. “He seduced me. Well, seduced Witch. When we were in the abyss.”

“He what?” Lucivar asked with deadly calm.

“Don’t get snarly,” Jaenelle snapped. “It was a trick to make me heal the body. He didn’t really want me. Her. He didn’t…” Her voice trailed away. She waited a minute before continuing. “He said he’d been waiting for Witch all his life. That he’d been born to be her lover. But then he didn’t want to be her lover.”

“Hell’s fire, Cat,” Lucivar exploded. “You were a twelve-year-old who had recently been raped. What did you expect him to do?”

“I wasn’t twelve in the abyss.” Lucivar narrowed his eyes, wondering what she meant by that. “He lied to me,” she said in a small voice.

“No, he didn’t. He meant exactly what he said. If you had been eighteen and had offered him the Consort’s ring, you would have found that out quick enough.” Lucivar stared at the blurry garden. He cleared his throat. “Saetan loves you, Cat. And you love him. He did what he had to do to save his Queen. He did what any Warlord Prince would do. If you can’t forgive him, how will you ever be able to forgive me?”

“Oh, Lucivar.” Sobbing, Jaenelle threw her arms around him.”
― Anne Bishop, Heir to the Shadows

“Once, he’d been the Seducer, the Executioner, the High Priest of the Hourglass, the Prince of the Darkness, the High Lord of Hell.

Once, he’d been Consort to Cassandra, the great Black-Jeweled, Black Widow Queen, the last Witch to walk the Realms.

Once, he’d been the only Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince in the history of the Blood, feared for his temper and the power he wielded.

Once, he’d been the only male who was a Black Widow.

Once, he’d ruled the Dhemlan Territory in the Realm of Terreille and her sister Territory in Kaeleer, the Shadow Realm. He’d been the only male ever to rule without answering to a Queen and, except for Witch, the only member of the Blood to rule Territories in two Realms.

Once, he’d been married to Hekatah, an aristo Black Widow Priestess from one of Hayll’s Hundred Families.

Once, he’d raised two sons, Mephis and Peyton. He’d played games with them, told them stories, read to them, healed their skinned knees and broken hearts, taught them Craft and Blood Law, showered them with his love of the land as well as music, art, and literature, encouraged them to look with eager eyes upon all that the Realms had to offer—not to conquer but to learn. He’d taught them to dance for a social occasion and to dance for the glory of Witch. He’d taught them how to be Blood.

But that was a long, long time ago.”
― Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

“But that thread isn’t Andulvar. It should be, since he’s the Master of the Guard, but it’s someone else. Someone who isn’t here yet, someone who can guide me to the answers I need to walk that other path.”

*The thread not tell you its name?*

“It says the mirror is coming. What kind of answer is—” Tensing, Jaenelle scrambled to her knees. “Daemon,” she whispered. “Daemon.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“Not fault of teaching spider if little spider pay more attention to catching fly than doing lesson.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness

“She's magic, Cassandra. A single flower blooming in an endless desert.”
― Anne Bishop, Daughter of the Blood

“His voice shifted into a sexual purr. “I love you. And I’ve waited a lifetime to be your lover. But you were too young, Lady.”

She raised her head, her body stiff with dignity. “I wasn’t too young here, in the abyss.”

Slowly, he continued moving around the altar. “Your body had been violated. Your mind had shattered. But even if that hadn’t been the case, you were still too young—even here in the abyss.”
― Anne Bishop, Queen of the Darkness