Ash

“But I had been a fool not to understand. Little wonder my father had wasted away, considering what had been taken from him. I understood that now. If I caught light as he once had, if I burnt and then faded; if I became ashes and soot, the dust in the air; then certainly, I would be as he was. I would be the dirt beneath another's boot. It was only natural to fear such a fate. But I was wrong to think I could ever avoid it, once Richard came.”
― Natasha Siegel, Solomon's Crown

“I love you," I said to him.
"And I you," Philip replied. "But that does not matter. It never has.”
― Natasha Siegel, Solomon's Crown

“Was it worth the trouble?" I asked.
"Certainly. To think, I had feared you might be dull." His eyes trailed languidly over my face, from my hairline to my jaw; a cataloguing, exploratory sort of gaze, one that felt almost violating. "I thought you might be tedious, as your father was. But you are not."
"What am I then? If not dull?"
"I do not know, he replied. "A contradiction. An enemy, an ally. A question and an answer.”
― Natasha Siegel, Solomon's Crown

“I am a king," I said. "What could possibly be more important than that?"
She laughed, and she picked up her fork once more. "Anything Philip," she said. "Almost anything else.”
― Natasha Siegel, Solomon's Crown