Cassie Bendix > Recent Status Updates

“I cannot forget, when it is in my nature to be concerned for things which are broken.”

“You are exceptionally combative when someone questions your intent…”

“How can someone be so rudely passionate yet gentle. It’s such an odd combination.”

Relatable 😏

“Power sundered is power lost.”

“Loving you is not the end, it’s the beginning of everything.”

“Let her be a reminder of your treachery, of your abject powerlessness, of your deficit.”

😭😭😭

Poor Halla

Sisters

I would want him endlessly. Always.

“One last journey to the gates of hell, then. Let’s see if they open for us this time.”

“This is precisely how one should be loved. Boldly, madly, should to shoulder against the world and all its dangers.”

YESSS 🙌🙌🙌

“We tried to sever this. We’ve tried to do what is right and honor our crown and I have not pulled in a painless breath since…this cannot be my fate - to miss you for the rest of my miserably long life. Give me the hope of some Godsdamned relief.”

💔💔💔

I will fucking riot if Halla & Theo consummate this marriage.

Each Mage Seer has been both incredibly interesting and disgusting. That is all.

“Shhhh, I brought you here to read.”

This is melting my face off!!!

“More soon.” 🫠🫠🫠

😭🥺😩

Imogen describes her vision of Halla as a baby…

“That is who you have chosen to be loyal to, Halla. A mother who thinks you are expendable and a monster who thinks you are worthless.”

Oh my heart BREAKS 💔

“So instead of walking into hell alone, you will take me with you.”

For the love…these private scenes between Imogen and Theo are fucking killer. I am a puddle. Melted.

“I don’t know how you make me feel like a starving supplicant. How you’ve made everyhting that is not you taste like ash. I’m certain nothing truly good existed before you.”

Imogen & Halla - similar experiences but their responses to them are so different. Both understandable. Halla’s have me feeling sad.

“And you’re surprised?” ~ …I was. It had been naive of me…I had seen the scars on her body. I knew the pain of such offerings. I’d also experienced the devastation of having no autonomy, of living only to be used…it did surprise me, deeply, that Halla might not be as furious as I was. That she did not wish to shatter every bond that had held her in place, by any means necessary, and relish doing so.

“Did he? And here I thought the king abhorred magic.”

“Oh, the king does. But I’ve learned a new lesson and it’s that sometimes I must do things I abhor if I am to ever get what I want.”

Feeling bad for Halla - the story of her as a brand new baby made my heart hurt. Her mother is evil. She’s been fed lies her whole life but those lies are unfurling and the truths are being revealed…the girl is angry…oh what will she do…

“I’ll go where the danger is, because that’s where I’ll find you.”

UGHHHH!!! Theo was such a dick in book 1 but book 2…this guy is down bad for Imogen and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t eating this shit up.

“There was a terrible pain in giving my needs a shape and a name — it meant I would have something real to mourn when I failed to claim them.”

“Magic almost killed you, Immy.”

“It saved me, Theo.”

“No. I did.” I saw everything in his face then — fury, heat, longing, fear. “And Gods damn you, I’ll do it again and again if I must.”

Omfg, I’m a goner. Arrow to the heart. Down for the count. THUNK.

“You think that I’ve missed something. That I cannot possibly love you when you are made up of unknown dangers and lurking threats. But I don’t see you the way you see yourself. Looking at you is like looking at the turquoise sea on a clear day. I can see through it in places. It’s full of beauty and shadows, and though I cannot know the whole of what it contains, I would happily spend my life trying.” 🫠

“I still feel you. Not your blood, not our bond, but something more…beguiling. More devastating. I don’t know what godsdamned spell you cast , or how, but you left a mark on every part of me. You are a spirit I cannot banish. A ghost that wails the word mine as you haunt me. If you never wish to return to me, then be merciful, and tell me now.”

“The effects of spell work were like nothing I’d ever known. It was a drink as it took you from elation to illness. It was a rich feast dragging you from satisfaction to engorgement. It was a lover, attentive to the point of inducing pain.”

“That same bone-deep hunger I’d felt after performing my first spell ripped through me. That wonderful, terrible want. Sweet longing and pain. My scalp burned like it had been set aflame, my whole body stung like it was being lashed with blades, and still I could not ignore how inexplicably intoxicating it felt. I wanted more and more and more.”

SEE WHAT IM SAYING?!? 😭😩😖

“You seem rather eager to help me locate the empress.”
“Curious, isn’t it?” She said, smiling. 😈

Sheesh, I need to highlight this whole chapter apparently lol

“What fun you are. It has been so long since I’ve played a game. And longer still since I’ve taught.”

Eusia and this game of cat and mouse. Sometimes I can’t understand why she helps her. I feel like the reveal of this twisty turny game is going to knock the air out of my lungs.

“When you performed your spell, did it drain you like it did your mother, or feed you like it does me?”

“It fed me.”

“That is because you want, dearest. Desperation is power. Ligea never knew that sort of hopelessness. It feeds magic the way air feeds fire.”

🥺😭😮‍💨

“What did you see?”
“How did you do that?”
“Oh, I cannot give you visions, dearest. Tell me now. What did you see?”

I was so shaken, so disturbed at the mention of visions, at the thought of being a proper Mage Seer and not just a lost woman playing at one.