The Return Quotes

“He shot forward, clasping my cheeks. “Say it again.”
“Say what?” I replied, gripping his wrists. “I said a lot of things. Help me out here.”
"Say that I'm not just the Apollyon," he whispered, his voice harsh.
Tears built in my throat. "You're not just the Apollyon, Seth."
His eyes drifted shut, his face tensed as his fingers splayed across my cheeks. "I don't even know who I am anymore. Or what I ever was."
Oh goodness, that ripped right through my chest. "You're just...you're just Seth."
A tremor moved through his arms. "And you...you're just my salvation.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Guess what?”
“What?”
Meeting his amber-colored eyes, I admitted what probably wasn’t a secret, but what I felt like I needed to put into words. “I like you, Seth.”
He stopped his hand over mine, staying there, as he gave me a lopsided smile. “Guess what?”
“What?” I whispered.
Seth shifted so that his lips brushed mine as he spoke. “I like you too, Josie.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“Pulling my hand away, he rose, slanting his head to kiss me deeply as he pushed me onto my back, with his weight draped over me. “I’ve never had anything that was my own,” he said against my mouth. “Nothing that was ever for just me and no one else. I’ve never been anyone’s first.” He kissed me and then lifted his head. I stared into his eyes. “I’ve never been anyone’s only.”
That made my heart ache for him as I raised my hand, pressing my palm against his cheek. “You’re my first,” I whispered. “You’re…you’re my only.”
His lips parted. “You can’t say that and not mean it.”
I held his gaze as my chest swelled. “I mean it.”
He smoothed his thumb over my lip. “I really am a lucky son of a bitch.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“He seemed to be staring at the chain hanging from the ceiling fan. Seconds later, he confirmed this by reaching out and tugging the chain.
Light clicked on.
He tugged the chain again.
Light went off.
Oh for gods' sake, he had a mean case of ADD sometimes. "Apollo," I snapped.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“You’re a demigod,” he said hoarsely.
It was the first thing he said.
“Yeah,” I replied, my voice breathy. “Is that…um, okay with you?”
His gaze flicked up to mine, and he arched a brow. “Do I need to kiss you again?”
My lips twitched. “Maybe.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“In the end, people generally regret the things they didn't do, not the things they did.

(p. 96, Trevor Benson)”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Return

“They wound their way through a labyrinth of streets, partly following their noses, partly the orientation of the map. Jardines, Mirasol, Cruz, Puentezuelas, Capuchinas...
Each word held its magic. They were like brushstrokes painting the landscape of the city, each one helping to build up a picture of the whole.”
― Victoria Hislop, The Return

“Does love survive? Yes, I thought, somewhere in some place it is saved and made sacred.”
― Christopher Pike, The Return

“You’re…you’re mentally unstable.”

“I wish I were. It would make things so much more fun. Sadly, I’m not. At least, not yet.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“I want to spread this moment on a cracker and eat it.”
― Rachel Harrison, The Return

“The twisting motion stopped, because my stomach bottomed out. “South Dakota? I’m not even sure I can point out where South Dakota is on a map.”

The slight curve of his lips appeared again. “It’s between nothing-there-interests-me and land-of-the-great-nothing.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“Before I could respond, he snapped his fingers, and I was suddenly standing outside the mansion, my booted feet in the sand, the smell of salt overwhelming my senses, and the rolling ocean at my back.

A growl of anger rose in my throat. “I hate it when you do that.”

The smile on his face increased. “I know.”

I absolutely loathed it, and the bastard did it every chance he got—usually about every five minutes whenever I was in his presence and mostly without any purpose. Sometimes he would just pop me from room to room for the hell of it. The last year or so of my life had been a real test of my short patience.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“Apollo watched me closely, intently. “No.”

My eyes narrowed. “No to what?”

“I’m not sending you after them. Not yet,” he said, surprising me into silence—a rarity. “I have another task for you. You need to leave for southern Virginia immediately. I’d snap your sunshine-and-rainbows ass there, but now that you’ve annoyed me, you’ll drive the twenty or so hours to get there.”

Okay. That was irritating, but I kind of liked road trips, so whatever. “What’s in southern Virginia?”

“Radford University.”

I waited.

I waited some more, and then sighed. “Okay. You want me to enroll in college?” I asked, and Apollo tipped back his head and laughed so loudly, he actually whooped. I frowned. “What the hell is so funny about that idea?”

“You. College. Using your head. That’s what’s funny.”

I was seconds away from blasting him with akasha.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“One thing for sure; whoever I was supposed to keep safe really got the shittier end of the deal, considering the last person I’d been tasked with protecting had ended up with a titanium bullet in his forehead.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“She laughed, and I noted how different she was from the first night I'd met her. It was almost as though her uniform had the ability to transform her personality. But then I realized that the same was true about me. In a lab coat or scrubs, I was one person; dressed like a yachtsman, I was someone different.

(p. 97, Trevor Benson)”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Return

“I wanted easy banter and deep communication and long periods when neither of us felt the need to say anything at all.

(p. 168, Trevor Benson)”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Return

“I mean it, I said, and all at once, I knew: This is what I wanted; I wanted Natalie, not just for tonight, but for a lifetime of days and nights like the one we were having right now.

(p. 169, Trevor Benson)”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Return

“A tiny bit of guilt pricked at me for leaving Josie alone with Luke and Deacon. One of them alone could be a lot to deal with, but two of them were something else, something overwhelming.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“I just saw someone get lit on fire, and you’re acting like it’s really not that big of a deal. People just get burned alive all the time around here, apparently. And I saw someone get told to jump out of a window and that person was seriously going to do it! That’s crazy.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“Seth joined the group of very stern-looking men, and they immediately started talking, their voices too low for me to hear, but it didn’t stop me from trying. I learned fairly quickly that I sucked at reading lips. Everything looked like they were saying “tomatoes” or “I love you” and I doubted that was what was being said.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“Luke sent me a look, but wisely kept his mouth shut, and he pulled out a slim cellphone. “I’ll text and let him know.”

“Make sure he says who he is and that he comes in peace or some shit, because I left her with one of my daggers and instructions to stab anything that comes through that door.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“I stared at him for a moment, and then I exploded. “You threw a knife at me!”

“I did,” he replied calmly.

“You hit me with the knife!”

“I did.” He leaned forward, dropping his foot onto the floor. “As I told Seth, unbinding you myself would not be easy. I wish I hadn’t had to do it that way. The last thing I wanted was to cause you pain. I didn’t enjoy any part of that—well, besides the look on Hyperion’s face—but the only way for me to finish unbinding you was to pass you through a mortal death.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“Irritation pricked at my skin, causing the glyphs to agitate restlessly across it. Apollo and I had a history—a very bad history. He couldn’t kill me. I wasn’t sure how any of the Olympian gods could kill me, but I knew they would, eventually. Just not yet— they still needed me. “What do you want?”

He tilted his head to the side. “One of these days you will speak to me with respect, Apollyon.”

“One of these days you will realize I don’t respect you.”

A tight smile appeared on the god’s lips, a hide-your-kids-and-loved-ones kind of smile, but since I had neither of those things, I wasn’t intimidated. “We need to chat.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“What do we need to talk about?” I ground out, folding my arms to keep myself from hitting him with a blast of akasha, the fifth and most powerful element only the gods and the Apollyon could wield. It wouldn’t kill him, but sure as hell would sting like a bitch.

Apollo shifted his gaze to the dark ocean. “Do you have to always be so messy?”

My brows rose. “Huh?”

“Back there,” he said, jerking his chin to where the lights from the mansion twinkled in the distance. “Do you always have to be so messy when you dispatch those who betrayed us?”

“Do I have to? No.”

“Then why?” He looked at me.

Killing them the way I did was unnecessary. I could just blast them into nothing, make it quick, neat, and painless, but that’s not how I rolled. Maybe in the beginning I’d been less…violent, but not anymore. Not when my sole purpose of existence was carrying out the gods’ dirty work. Because every time I saw one of their faces, I thought of my own major screw-ups, and they were plentiful, and that made me think of— I cut that thought off. I was so not going down that road tonight without a bottle of whiskey.

“You all turned me into the Terminator. What did you expect?” I shrugged. “Is this what you wanted to talk to me about? My method of carrying out your orders? I’d think you’d have better things to do than pop up just to bitch at me because I made a mess.”

“It’s not just making a mess, Seth, and you know that. It’s you.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“Your sarcasm and general assholeness are not necessary,” Apollo remarked casually.

I grinned at him. “I don’t think ‘assholeness’ is a word.”

“It is if I say it is.” Apollo drew in a deep breath, a sure sign his temper was reaching its knock-Seth-into-the-nearby-ocean point.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“I couldn’t say I was surprised that Apollo hadn’t given me a lot to work on. The jerk was known for delivering little to no information, or handing out what he did know in doses at the most inopportune moments, usually after the information would’ve been helpful.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“I reached down, turned the knob, and found it locked. Not a problem. The energy of the fire element rolled down my arm, and heat wrapped around my palm, searing the knob and melting the insides of the lock.

Lock be gone.

Ha.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“No. No way. I’m not flying. I’m not getting in a tin can that could fall out of the sky at any moment. Screw that. Have you ever thought about how they get planes in the sky and how they stay in the sky? No? I have. It’s a lot of science I don’t understand.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, The Return

“I want to spread this moment on a cracker and eat it’s”
― Rachel Harrison, The Return

“But I don't know his hobbies, or the kind of house he lives in, the food he likes, or any books or movies that he may have enjoyed. In other words, we're friends, but really, we're not.

(p. 119, Trevor Benson)”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Return