Dark Hero Quotes

“The faeries took no notice of my cry. No doubt they were used to lost travelers screaming for help. One of them grabbed me by my cloak and wrenched me painfully back and forth, like an animal wishing to drag me to the ground. But I did not need to call for Wendell again.
He stepped out from behind a tree---or perhaps from the tree; I didn't see. He reached a hand out and snapped the neck of the faerie gripping me, which I had not expected, and I staggered back from both him and the crumpling body. He saw the mark on my neck, and his entire face darkened with something that seemed to go beyond fury and made him look like some feral creature. The faeries scattered like leaves, though they were too intrigued and too stupid to run.
"Are you hurt?"
"No." I don't know how I made myself speak. I have seen Wendell angry before, but this was something that seemed to surge through him like lightning, threatening to burn everything in its path.
He moved his hand, and a hideous tree rose up from the snow, dark and terrifying, all thorns and knife-sharp branches. The boughs darted out, and he skewered the faeries on them. Once they were all immobilized, held squirming and screaming above the ground, he moved from one to the other, tearing them apart with perfect, calm brutality. Limbs, hearts, other organs I did not recognize scattered the snow. He did not rush, but killed them methodically while the others howled and writhed.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

“Wendell marched down a winding path in the mountainside--- he must have conjured it himself--- to engage the elder horsemen in a square of meadow tucked between two crags. I don't know if it was some inane faerie custom or simply the custom of the horsemen, but the one who appeared to be their leader--- judging by the size of his horse and the number of scars he bore--- stepped forward as if to challenge Wendell to single combat. Wendell, still with that calm detachment, somehow cut out the beast's heart in two sharp movements and hurled it at the rider in a stomach-churning spray of blood, knocking him from his saddle.
At that point, the remaining horsemen decided to abandon honor and charge him together, but their horses were, wisely, terrified of Wendell by this point, and shied away when he neared, some throwing their riders off, which Wendell dispatched in various appalling ways, sometimes appearing to forget about his sword entirely. Rose stood there the whole time, aghast, but I was familiar with Wendell's murderous moods and turned away after the third or fourth death, drawing Ariadne with me to the fireside. I was still shaking with fury. So he would risk killing himself rather than pausing to think our way out of things, would he?”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands

“Ravyn, but the one you have met tonight is Dark Bird…” I kick his chest, the metal resounding. “Have fun.”
― Tiano Mattherson, Dusk: Knytehood

“You're not dying today, Freckles," he said with a grunt. When they were on the ledge, he thumbed the dip in her waist. "If he won't save you, I will.”
― Ruth McKell, Honey in Her Veins

“"Eva?" the monster whispered, feathering a panicked touch to her cheek. Her color was fading, a deathly pallor swallowing the rosy hue of sun-touched skin. "Wake up," it pleaded weakly, cradling the back of her neck to prevent her head from lolling. Salt burned the corners of its eyes. Strange, how tears could hurt sometimes.
With a little sob, the monster repositioned Eva on the grass and pressed both palms to the wound in her side. The gentle pressure made Eva convulse, her eyes slitting open.
She moaned.
"I’m sorry." The monster couldn’t tell where its panic ended and Arthur’s began. The level of terror coursing through their shared being was so violent it made the monster nauseous. "I’m so sorry. But you’ve got to stay awake for me.” It scrubbed under its eyes, clearing the blurriness away, tasting salt. "You have to stay.”
Eva’s lips parted, but no sound came out. The monster stripped off Arthur’s shirt and balled it up, then pressed it to her wound. "Come on, Freckles,” it choked out.
The monster had never prayed before. What was a creature like it supposed to do with God, anyway? But it firmly believed that if anyone should curry divine favor, it was Arthur’s bee girl.”
― Ruth McKell, Honey in Her Veins