Cardan Greenbriar Quotes

“By you, I am forever undone.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Mock me all you like. Whatever I imagined then, now it is I who would beg and grovel for a kind word from your lips." His eyes are black with desire. "By you, I am forever undone.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Yes, my great villan, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“I wasn't kind, Jude. Not to many people. Not to you. I wasn't sure if I wanted you or if I wanted you gone from my sight so that I would stop feeling as I did, which made me even more unkind. But when you were gone—truly gone beneath the waves—I hated myself as I never have before.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“I raise a plastic glass. “To family.”
“And Faerieland,” says Taryn, raising hers.
“And pizza,” says Oak.
“And stories,” says Heather.
“And new beginnings,” says Vivi.
Cardan smiles, his gaze on me. “And scheming great schemes.”
To family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes. I can toast to that.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“The disturbing thing about Cardan is how well he plays the fool to disguise his own cleverness.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“You don’t think monster girls and wicked boys deserve love?”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“I recall that your hands were on her, but her eyes were on me,' Cardan returns.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Go ahead. Insult me.”
His eyebrows go up. “I don’t take commands from mortals,” he says with his customary cruel smile.
“So you’re going to say something nice? I don’t think so. Faeries can’t lie.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You didn’t hear the story I told,” he goes on. “A shame. It featured a handsome boy with a heart of stone and a natural aptitude for villainy. Everything you could like.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Vivi blows a noisemaker. “Here,” she says, passing out paper crowns for us to wear.

“This is ridiculous,” I complain, but put mine on.

Cardan looks at his reflection in the door of the microwave and adjusts his crown so it’s at an angle.

I roll my eyes, and he gives me a quick grin.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“You didn’t get what you deserved, but you don’t have to live inside that one story forever. No one’s heart has to remain stone.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Cardan is lying on the bed, bandaged and sulking, in a magnificent dressing gown. “I hate being unwell,” he says.

“You’re not sick,” Jude tells him. “You are recovering from being stabbed—or rather, throwing yourself on a knife.”

“You would have done the same for me,” he says airily.

“I would not,” Jude snaps.

“Liar,” Cardan says fondly.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?' Cardan asks, leaning back in the elaborately carved chair, the warmth of his words turning the question in to something like a compliment.

'No,' I say, glad to be annoyed back in to the present. 'Tell me.'

'I cannot,' he says, then frowns.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Cardan gazes at a rosebush with petals so black and glossy they look like patent leather. ¨It was terrifying,¨ he says, ¨watching you fall. I mean, you´re generally terrifying, but I am unused to fearing for you. And then I was furious. I am not sure I have ever been that angry before.¨ ¨Mortals are fragile,¨ I say. ¨Not you,¨ he says in a way that sounds a little like a lament. ¨You never break.¨
Page 159”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“It turned out that Cardan didn't have a heart of stone after all. As he removed his shirt and sank to his knees, as he fisted his hands and tried not to cry out when the strap fell, he burned with hatred. Hatred for Dain; for his father; for all his siblings who didn't take him on and the one who did; for his mother, who spat at his feet as she was led away; for stupid, disgusting mortals; for all of Elfhame and everyone in it. Hate that was so bright and hot that it was the first thing that truly warmed him. Hate that felt so good that he welcomed being consumed by it. Not a heart of stone, but a heart of fire.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Have I ever told you how much you sound like Madoc when you talk about murder?” Cardan said, opening one eye. “Because you do.”

Oak expected his sister to be angry, but she only laughed. “That must be what you like about me.”

“That you’re terrifying?” he asked, his drawl becoming exaggeratedly languorous, almost a purr. “I adore it.”

She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes. The king’s arms came around her, and she shivered once, as though letting something fall away.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“It's you I love," he says. "I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn't have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Tell me again what you said at the revel," he says, climbing over me, his body against mine.

"What?" I can barely think.

"That you hate me," he says, his voice hoarse. "Tell me that you hate me."

"I hate you," I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. A litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you."

He kisses me harder.

"I hate you," I breathe into his mouth. "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“I missed you," I whisper against his skin and feel dizzy with the intimacy of the admission, feel more naked than when he could see every inch of me. "In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you."

"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned." He pulls my body against his, cradling my head against his chest. We are still lying on the floor, although a perfectly good bed is right next to us.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“What I want is him back, him standing beside me, him laughing at all this. I would settle for even his worst self, his cruellest trickster self, if only he could be here.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I hate you," I whisper before he can speak.

He tilts my face to his.

"Say it again," he says as the imps comb my hair and place the ugly, stinking crown on my head. His voice is low. The words are for me alone.

I pull out of his grip, but not before I see his expression. He looks as he did when he was forced to answer my questions, when he admitted his desire for me. He looks as though he's confessing.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“What was it like?" I ask. "Being a serpent."

He hesitates. "It was like being trapped in the dark," he says. "I was alone, and my instinct was to lash out. I was perhaps not entirely an animal, but neither was I myself. I could not reason. There was only feelings--hatred and terror and the desire to destroy."

I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. "And you." He looks at me, his lips curving in something that's not quite a smile; it's more and less than that. "I knew little else, but I always knew you."

And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“You didn't hear the story I told," he goes on. "A shame. It featured a handsome boy with a heart of stone and a natural aptitude for villainy. Everything you could like."

She laughs. "You really are terrible, you know that? I don't even understand why the things you say make me smile."

He lets himself lean against her, lets himself hear the warmth in her voice. "There is one thing I did like about playing the hero. The only good bit. And that was not having to be terrified for you."

"The next time you want to make a point," Jude says, "I beg you not to make it so dramatically."

His shoulder hurts, and she may be right about the iron poisoning. He certainly feels as though his head is swimming. But he smiles up at the trees, the looping electrical lines, the streaks of clouds.

"So long as you're begging," he says.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Though I would not delight to see the straps sink into your skin, neither would I mourn.'

'Enough blustering,' he says. 'You've already won. Look.'

He takes me by the shoulders and turns me so that I can see where the great body of the serpent lies. A jolt of horror goes through me, and I try to wrench out of his grip. And then I notice the fighting has ebbed, the Folk are staring. From within the body of the creature emanates a glow.

And then, through that, Cardan steps out. Cardan, naked and covered in blood.

Alive.

Only out of his spilled blood can a great ruler rise.
...
Cardan takes a step forward and little cracks appear from his footfalls. Fissures in the very earth. He speaks with a boom that echoes through everyone gathered there. 'The curse is broken. The king is returned.'

He's every bit as terrifying as any serpent.

I don't care. I run into his arms.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“That´s one reason I didnt want to believe you´d joined up with Madoc. The other is that i want you here by my side, as my queen.
Page 163”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“It's ridiculous the way everyone acts like killing a king is going to make someone better at being one," Vivi says. "Imagine if, in the mortal world, a lawyer passed the bar by killing another lawyer.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“And I decided to play the hero. See how it felt. To try."

"And?" she asks.

"I didn't like it," he admits. "Henceforth, I think we should consider our roles as monarchs to be largely decorative. It would be better for the low Courts and the solitary Folk to work things out on their own."

"I think you have iron poisoning," she tells him, which could possibly be true but is still a hurtful thing to say when he is making perfect sense.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories