Cassandra Hale > Cassandra's Quotes

“I want you to know my name,” he said. “The name I was given, not the title I took for myself. Will you have it, Alina?”
I could feel the weight of Nikolai’s ring in my palm back at the Spinning Wheel. I didn’t have to stand here in the Darkling’s arms. I could vanish from his grip, slide back into consciousness and the safety of a stone room hidden in a mountaintop. But I didn’t want to go. Despite everything, I wanted this whispered confidence.
“Yes,” I breathed.
After a long moment, he said, “Aleksander.”
A little laugh escaped me. He arched a brow, a smile tugging at his lips. “What?”
“It’s just so … common.” Such an ordinary name, held by kings and peasants alike. I’d known two Aleksanders at Keramzin alone, three in the First Army. One of them had died on the Fold.
His smile deepened and he cocked his head to the side. It almost hurt to see him this way. “Will you say it?” he asked.
I hesitated, feeling danger crowd in on me.
“Aleksander,” I whispered.
His grin faded, and his gray eyes seemed to flicker.
“Again,” he said.
“Aleksander.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“The problem with wanting," he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, "is that it makes us weak.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“He leaned against the window, and the gilded frame came into sharp focus. “Do you think it would be any different with your tracker beside you? With that Lantsov pup?”
“Yes,” I said simply.
“Because you would be the strong one?”
“Because they’re better men than you.”
“You might make me a better man.”
“And you might make me a monster.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“Why waste my anger on you when the fault is mine? I should have anticipated another betrayal from you, one more mad grasp at some kind of childish ideal. But I seem to be a victim of my own wishes where you are concerned.” His expression hardened. “What have you come here for, Alina?”

I answered him honestly. “I wanted to see you.”

I caught the briefest glimpse of surprise before his face shuttered again. “There are two thrones on that dais. You could see me any time you liked.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“It’s true,” I said softly. “You are stronger, wiser, infinite in experience.” I leaned forward and whispered, my lips brushing the shell of his ear. “But I am an apt pupil.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“He’d wanted me to believe in his ruthlessness.
Then I remembered his words from so long ago: Make me your villain.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“I’ve never understood this taste for otkazat’sya. Is it because you thought you were one of them for so long?”
“I had a taste for you, once.” His head snapped up. He hadn’t expected that. Saints, it was satisfying.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“I got used to seeing him waiting for me at the end of corridors, or sitting at the edge of my bed when I fell asleep at night. When he didn’t appear, I sometimes found myself looking for him or wondering why he hadn’t come, and that frightened me most of all.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“Don’t worry, tracker. You’ll know when our deal is up...I’ll be certain you hear it when I make her scream.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“Why did you go to her?

Because with her he was human again.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“I knew there was no bottom to the Darkling's pain. He would just keep falling and falling.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“He has served countless kings, faked countless deaths, bided his time, waiting for you.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“The darkling gently folded me in his arms. He pressed a kiss to the top of my hair 'I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but mine”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“You begged me for clemency once," he called over the dead reaches of the Fold, over the hungry shrieks of the horrors he had made. "Is this your idea of mercy?"

Another bullet hit the sand, only inches from us. Yes, I thought as the power rose up inside me, the mercy you taught me.”
― Leigh Bardugo

“The problem with wanting," he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, "is that it makes us weak." And then, at last, when I thought I couldn't bear it any longer, he brought his mouth down on mine.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“Like calls to like, Alina.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“Don't let me be alone.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Grisha Trilogy

“But there was something a little silly about eating “hearty peasant fare” off porcelain plates, beneath a dome inlaid with real gold.
Saints forbid we forget we’re real Ravkans.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“My name is Aleksander Morozova, but I have had a hundred names and I have committed a thousand crimes. I am not sorry. I do not repent!”
― Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves

“There are rumors that your Lantsov prince has been sighted.”
I drifted nearer, trying to keep my voice casual. “Where?”
He glanced up, his lips curling in a slight smile. “Do you like him?”
“Does it matter?”
“It’s harder when you like them. You mourn them more.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“I took another step. He stilled. [...] I reached up and and cupped his cheek with my hand. THis time the flash of confusion on his face was impossible to miss. He held himself frozen, his only movement the steady rise and fall of his chest. Then, as if in concession, he let his eyes close.

"It's true," I said softly. "You are stronger, wiser, infinite in experience." I leaned forward and whispered "But I am an apt pupil.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“He slumped back in his chair. "Fine," he said with a weary shrug. "Make me your villain.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“What if I'm no better than you? What if instead of stopping you, I'm just another avalanche?”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“We all have our secrets.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“I felt it then, the vibration along that invisible tether. I pushed away from it. I would not go to the Darkling now. I wouldn't go to him ever again. But still, I knew wherever he was, he was grieving.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“Will you say it?

"Aleksander"

His grin faded and his grey eyes seemed to flicker.

"Again."

"Aleksander”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“Fight me as long as you're able.
You will find I have far more practice with eternity”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

“There are rumors that your Lantsov prince has been sighted.”

I drifted nearer, trying to keep my voice casual. “Where?”

He glanced up, his lips curling in a slight smile. “Do you like him?”

“Does it matter?”

“It’s harder when you like them. You mourn them more.”

“Tell me, Alina,” said the Darkling. “Has he claimed you yet?”

“Claimed me? Like a peninsula?”

“No blushes. No averted eyes. How you’ve changed. What about your faithful tracker? Will he sleep curled at the foot of your throne?”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“His jaw tensed as the Corporalnik finished her work. When the skin had knitted together, the Darkling dismissed her with a wave. She hovered briefly, then slipped away, fading into nothing.

“There’s something I’ve been wondering,” he said. No greeting, no preamble.

I waited.

“The night that Baghra told you what I intended, the night you fled the Little Palace, did you hesitate?”

“Yes.”

“In the days after you left, did you ever think of coming back?”

“I did,” I admitted.

“But you chose not to.”

I knew I should go. I should at least have stayed silent, but I was so weary, and it felt so easy to be here with him. “It wasn’t just what Baghra said that night. You lied to me. You deceived me. You … drew me in.” Seduced me, made me want you, made me question my own heart.

“I needed your loyalty, Alina. I needed you bound to me by more than duty or fear.” His fingers tested the flesh where his wound had been”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“The Darkling smiled, but this time the turn of his lips was cold. He shoved off the table and stalked toward me.

“I will enter the Fold, Alina, and I will show West Ravka what I can do, even without the Sun Summoner. And when I have crushed Lantsov’s only ally, I will hunt you like an animal. You will find no sanctuary. You will have no peace.” He loomed over me, his gray eyes glinting. “Fly back home to your otkazat’sya,” he snarled. “Hold him tight. The rules of this game are about to change.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising