જ⁀➴ Amanda ✿ ≽^• ˕ •^≼ ✿

“I did not want to step from one ruler's fetter into the next. The responsibility of honoring, and kowtowing to, and obeying another man who would not do the same for me in turn. And yet it was the way of things.”
― Kalie Cassidy, In the Veins of the Drowning

“Is it so hard for you to imagine?" he asked, as he set the folder within a polished wooden box and locked it with a silver key. "To fulfill one's duty and be satisfied by it? I don't need a charming or beautiful wife. I don't need her to be a friend. None of that will benefit my kingdom."
"And you are you kingdom? There's nothing you need that it doesn't?"
He perched on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms. He beheld me with one of those frustratingly unreadable looks of his. "Like what, my lady?"
"Like..." Like passion or humor or friendship, but I couldn't bring myself to speak it.”
― Kalie Cassidy, In the Veins of the Drowning

“A braid of shame and pride twined through me like a second spine at what I'd done to Evander. As I descended the stairs and passed Nemea's throne room, I thought of the inscription upon its wall. The monster is always slain. I thought of Evander's blank, blue-lipped face, and a pang of uncertainty struck me. Perhaps I was just as monstrous as he had been. Perhaps my own slaying was yet to come.”
― Kalie Cassidy, In the Veins of the Drowning

“I have no desire to be like you -" I jabbed a finger against his chest. "To scrape myself empty for others and call it noble.”
― Kalie Cassidy, In the Veins of the Drowning