Captive Prince Quotes

“I lack," said Laurent, "the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with," you could see him pushing the words out, "a lover."
"You lack the easy mannerisms that are usually shared with anyone," said Damen.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up.

Never had he wanted something this badly, and held it in his hands knowing that tomorrow it would be gone, traded for the high cliffs of Ios, and the uncertain future across the border, the chance to stand before his brother, to ask him for all the answers that no longer seemed important. A kingdom, or this.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“A golden prince was easy to love if you did not have to watch him picking wings off flies.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince

“It was with a shock that he felt the touch of Laurent's fingers against the back of his wrist. [...] Laurent was shifting the fabric of his sleeve, sliding it back slightly to reveal the gold underneath, until the wrist cuff he had asked the blacksmith to leave on was exposed between them.
'Sentiment?' said Laurent.
'Something like that.'
Their eyes met and he could feel each beat of his heart. A few seconds of silence, a space that lengthened, until Laurent spoke.
'You should give me the other.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Damen felt Laurent start shaking against him, and realised that, silently, helplessly, he was laughing.
There came the sound of at least two more sets of footsteps striding into the room, greeted with: 'Here he is. We found him fucking this derelict, disguised as the tavern prostitute.'
'This is the tavern prostitute. You idiot, the Prince of Vere is so celibate I doubt he even touches himself once every ten years. You. We're looking for two men. One was a barbarian soldier, a giant animal. The other was blond. Not like this boy. Attractive.'
'There was a blond lord's pet downstairs,' said Volo. 'Brained like a pea and easy to hoodwink. I don't think he was the Prince.'
'I wouldn't call him blond. More like mousy. And he wasn't that attractive,' said the boy, sulkily.
The shaking, progressively, had worsened.
'Stop enjoying yourself,' Damen murmured. 'We're going to be killed, any minute.'
'Giant animal,' said Laurent.
'Stop it.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“That isn't why. She would have chosen him even if you'd had royal blood in your veins, even if you'd had the same blood as Kastor. You don't understand the way a mind like that thinks. I do. If I were Jokaste and a king maker, I'd have chosen Kastor over you too.'

'I suppose you are going to enjoy telling me why,' said Damen. He felt his hands curl into fists, heard the bitterness in his throat.

'Because a king maker would always choose the weaker man. The weaker the man, the easier he is to control.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“When laced into his clothing, Laurent's dangerous grace lent him an almost androgynous quality. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that it was rare to associate Laurent with a physical body at all: you were always dealing with a mind.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Let him come to Charcy, with his hithertos and his wherefores, and there he will find me, and with all the might of my kingdom I will scourge him from the field.

"And if you want a personal message," said Laurent, "You can tell my uncle boykiller that he can cut the head off every child from here to the capital. It won't make him into a king, it will simply mean he has no one left to fuck.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Laurent wasn't loved. Laurent wasn't liked. Even among his own men, who would follow him off a cliff, there was the unequivocal consensus that Laurent was, as Orlant had once described him, a cast iron bitch, that it was a very bad idea to get on his bad side, and that as for his good side, he didn't have one.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Damen's understanding of Laurent rearranged itself, in order that he might despise him more accurately.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince

“He's the captive Kastor sent you to train?' said Torveld, curiously. 'He's--safe?'

'He looks combative, but he's really very docile and adoring,' said Laurent, 'like a puppy.'

'A puppy,' said Torveld.

To demonstrate, Laurent picked up a confection of crushed nuts and honey and held it out to Damen as he had at the ring, between thumb and forefinger.

'Sweetmeat?' said Laurent.

In the stretched-out moment that followed, Damen thought explicitly about killing him.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince

“He said, 'Damianos.'

Before Damen could tell him to rise, he heard it again, echoed in another voice, and then another. It was passing over the gathered men in the courtyard, his name in tones of shock and of awe. The steward beside Nikandros was kneeling. And then four of the men in the front ranks. And then more, dozens of men, rank after rank of soldiers.

And as Damen looked out, the army was dropping to its knees, until the courtyard was a sea of bowed heads, and silence replaced the murmur of voices, the words spoken over and over again.

'He lives. The King's son lives. Damianos.'”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“She was intelligent, accomplished, beautiful. She was everything I could have asked for in a woman. But she was a king maker. She wanted power. She must have thought her only path to the throne was through Kastor.'

'My honourable barbarian. I wouldn't have picked that as your type.'

'Type?'

'A pretty face, a devious mind and a ruthless nature.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“He didn't reprimand Damen. He didn't seem particularly displeased with barbaric behavior, as long as it was directed outward. Like a man who enjoys owning an animal who will rake others with its claws but eat peacefully from his own hand, he was giving his pet a great deal of license.

As a result, courtiers kept one eye on Damen, giving him a wide berth. Laurent used that to his advantage, using the propensity of courtiers to fall back in reaction to Damen's presence as a means of extricating himself smoothly from conversation.

The third time this happened Damen said, 'Shall I make a face at the ones you don't like, or is it enough to just look like a barbarian?”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince

“I'm twenty years old,' said Laurent, 'and I've been the recipient of offers almost as long as I can remember.'

'Is that an answer?' said Damen.

'I'm not a virgin,' said Laurent.

'I wondered,' Damen said, carefully, 'if you reserved your love for women.'

'No, I--' Laurent sounded surprised. Then he seemed to realise that his surprise gave something fundamental away, and he looked away with a muttered breath; when he looked back at Damen there was a wry smile on his lips, but he said, steadily, 'No.'

'Have I said something to offend you? I didn't mean--'

'No. A plausible, benign and uncomplicated theory. Trust you to come up with it.'

'It's not my fault that no one in your country can think in a straight line,' said Damen, frowning a touch defensively.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“The next night, alone in the tent, Laurent said: 'As we draw closer to the border, I think it would be safer--more private--to hold our discussions in your language rather than mine.'

He said it in carefully pronounced Akielon.

Damen stared at him, feeling as though the world had just been rearranged.

'What is it?' said Laurent.

'Nice accent,' said Damen, because despite everything, the corner of his mouth was beginning helplessly to curve up.

[...]

It was of course no surprise to find that Laurent had a well-stocked armoury of elegant phrases and bitchy remarks, but could not talk in detail about anything sensible.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“ They are surely gods who speak to him With steady voices  
A glance from him drives men to their knees
His sigh brings cities to ruin  
I wonder if he dreams of surrender
On a bed of white flowers  
Or is that the mistaken hope
Of every would-be conqueror?
The world was not made for beauty like his ”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Laurent stopped. Damen could see the moment when Laurent decided to continue. It was deliberate, his eyes meeting Damen's, his tone subtly changed.

'Damianos of Akielos was commanding troops at seventeen. At nineteen, he rode onto the field, cut a path through our finest men, and took my brother's life. They say--they said--he was the best fighter in Akielos. I thought, if I was going to kill someone like that, I would have to be very, very good.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Stay back, old man. It isn't your business. This is the Prince of Vere.'

'But---I only paid three coppers for him,' said Volo, sounding confused.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“I don't have sleeves to carry handkerchiefs in,' said Damen. 'I wouldn't mind being given a knife.' 'Or a fork?' said Laurent.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince

“To Laurent, in the same voice, he said, 'Calm down.'

Laurent said, 'I wasn't finished.'

'Finished what?' Reducing every man in the room? Jord isn't any kind of match for you in this mood, and you know it. Calm down.'

Laurent gave him the kind of look a swordsman gives as he decides whether or not to slice his unarmed enemy in half.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Talik said, 'His contract with Lord Berenger ends soon. Ancel will seek a new contract, a high bidder. He wants money, status. He is foolish. Lord Berenger may offer less money, but he is kind, and never puts pets in the ring. Ancel has made many enemies. In the ring, someone will scratch his green eyes out, an "accident."'

Damen was drawn in against his will. 'That's why he's chasing royal attention? He wants the Prince to--' He tried out the unfamiliar vocabulary. '--offer for his contract?'

'The Prince?' said Talik, scornfully. 'Everyone knows the Prince does not keep pets.'

'None at all?' said Damen.

She said, 'You.' She looked him up and down. 'Perhaps the Prince has a taste for men, not these painted Veretian boys who squeal if you pinch them.' Her tone suggested that she approved of this on general principle.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince

“Contrary, aren’t you,’ said Damen softly, thumbing over Laurent’s cheek.
‘Fuck me,’ said Laurent.
‘I want to,’ said Damen. ‘Can you let me?”
― S. U. Pacat

“How can you trust me, after what your own brother did to you?'

'Because he was false,' said Damen. 'and you are true. I think if I gave you my heart, you would treat it tenderly.”
― C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“It was like watching a boar try to take on the endless blue of the sky. Damen remembered how it felt to be coerced to Laurent's will. Laurent had never needed to use force to make men obey him, just as he had never needed men to like him in order to get his way. Laurent got his way because when men tried to resist him, they found, sweetly outmanoeuvred, that they couldn’t.”
― C.S. Pacat, Kings Rising

“All right. Give me some coin. I want to play that man at cards.’
Laurent rose, leaning his weight against the table. Damen reached for the purse, then paused.
‘Aren’t you supposed to earn gifts with service?’
Laurent said, ‘Is there something you want?’
His voice was sinuous with promise; his gaze was steady as a cat’s.”
― C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“The Akielon march into the fort was the flow of a single red stream, except that whereas water swirled and swelled, it was straight and unyielding.

Their arms and legs were crudely bare, as if war was an act of flesh impacting on flesh. Their weapons were unadorned, as if they had brought only the essentials required for killing. Rows and rows of them, laid out with mathematical precision. The discipline of feet marching in unison was a display of power, and violence, and strength.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Damen felt it then, the first dizzy edge of new emotion, and he let go his hold of Laurent like a man fearing a precipice; and yet was helpless.”
― C. S. Pacat

“To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up”
― C. S. Pacat

“If you ask me to rescue a kitten from a tree, I’m going to refuse.”
― C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince