Amanda Bouchet Quotes

I've known all sorts of fear - fear of pain, fear of discovery, fear of capture. This is new. This is the kind of fear that teaches me the difference between trying to stay alive, and wanting to live.

We do eventually get dressed and look for food, although we only make it to the dining room in time for lunch. Egeria accepts her ousting as Alpha Sinta without a hint of anger or regret. Clearly, it's what she was expecting all along. Piers is away on a recruitment trip, but the rest of the family is here and overjoyed by our wedding announcement. Jocasta decrees that we have to go shopping, now, and Kaia bounces in her seat, beyond excited about any outing that will actually get her on the other side of the castle gate.

Shopping requires money, so I dig around in Griffin's pocket under the table, letting my fingers wander enough for him to nearly choke on his stew. I find four gold coins and hold on to them. "You never pay me."

He looks aghast. "I can't pay you anymore."

"We're about to get married. No one's going to confuse me with a prostitute."

Kaia spits out a grape. It bounces across the table and then lands in her mother's lap. Kaia slaps her hand over her mouth, her blue-gray eyes huge, and Nerissa gives her a quelling look. The look finishes on me, and I might have felt a little quelled myself if Carver hadn't suddenly made a noise like a donkey, finally belting out the laugh he'd been holding back.

Anatole bangs his hand down on the table and bursts out laughing. He sounds like a donkey, too. It's contagious, and the whole table erupts, snorting and braying until most of us are wiping tears from our eyes. I sha

PANOTII LOOKS PUT OUT ABOUT BEING LEFT BEHIND AND dogs my steps as I stow his tack under the deep overhang on the south side of the wizard's hovel. There's plenty of grass here, water at the lake, and it's not that cold yet, despite the shift in seasons. If the rains start before we get back, the horses can take shelter under the overhang. I'm not worried about them wandering off. Not one of them has stepped outside of the large makeshift corral of God Bolt pits since we got here.

"You can't come with us," I tell him. "It'll be cold and slippery. And big monsters will want to eat you." He tosses his head, snorting. "Really big monsters. There might be Dragons. And the Hydra. And I can't vouch for the friendliness of the Ipotane toward regular horses." I blow gently into his nose. Panotii chuffs back. "You'll be safe here, and if anyone tries to steal you, Grandpa Zeus will throw down a thunderbolt. Boom! No more horse thief."

"Zeus may have better things to do than babysit our horses," Flynn says, stowing his own equine gear next to mine.

I glance northward toward the Gods' mountain home and speak loudly. "In that case, I'm announcing right now that I'll make an Olympian stink if anything happens to my horse." Flynn looks nervous and moves away from me like he's expecting a God Bolt to come thundering down.

"She's not kidding." Sunlight glints off Griffin's windblown hair. Thick black stubble darkens his jaw. He flashes me a smi

I turn back to Griffin. His expression is stony and unreadable, although if I had to take a wild guess, I'd say it was tending toward ominous.

Awesome date, Shade. You took me to murder highway."
He shrugged. "Predators. Prey. It's just the natural way of things.

I roll my eyes. "Oh, the woe of being adored."
Beta Sinta grins. "It's a hard life.

I guess it all just boiled up a minute ago, like some messed-up accusation soup spiced with… I don't know…" She shook her head, "Lust and rage?"
"The rage is justified." I slid her a slow smile. "I can work with lust.

Don't you get it Cat? You're the key. I knew it the day I laid eyes on you.

I thought you of all people would understand."
"Understand what? Being an idiot?"
That seems to surprise him enough to add something new to his countenance. A trace of humor softens the stark lines of his face. "No." A wry smile just barely curves his lips. "Maybe."
"I am an expert idiot," I say. "I practice all the time.

I will never let you go, and I will never leave you. I would defy creatures, and Gods, and terrible, brutal queens to keep you safe and by my side. I would move Mount Olympus itself to hold you in my arms and feel your heart beat against mine. You are my soul, and yes, I will fight for you and protect you until my dying breath.

I love you like a man insane.

It's just you always…"
"Run," I finish for him…
I gaze up at him. Soft light plays over his striking features – the hard planes of his cheekbones, his strong jaw, the slight hook in his nose. "I'll still run, Griffin. The difference now is that I'll run to you."
He looks at me for a long time, his gray eyes inscrutable. "You'd better."
I arch an eyebrow. "Or you'll spank me?

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We will all suffer before we win these Games, but no team here will break us. For what is Hope if not unbreakable? And what is Hope if not the natural extension of suffering, that which eventually overcomes?

The warlord pierces me with a hard stare. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way."
"Or no way, " I retort.

I'll show these people how a curtsy is done, even if I am wearing soggy boots and a bloody pair of pants. Literally. There's blood on them, and I can't get it out, no matter how hard I scrub. At least it's not mine.

Do you know what I have in my heart? I have hope. And I'll share it with the world.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Griffin asked me to take a chance. On him. On trust. On love. I did, and look where it got me. That my misery is my own damn fault doesn't escape me. It just makes it worse.

How can people be so blind?" I shrug. "Don't overestimate the masses. They love you until they hate you. They hate you until they love you.

The ice inside me melts. Suddenly, I'm burning up and terrified, scared I'll be too weak to resist.

Scratch that - I'm petrified I've already given in.

Happiness is a strange, frightening, fragile feeling when you're not used to it.

Kato looks ill. "I… It… Me…" He stares at the massive snake. "Big."
I squeeze his arm. "Don't worry. You'll speak in complete sentences again soon.

It takes a certain dimension of balls to threaten Selena. She can be really scary in a mother-hen-meets-warrior-queen kind of way

There are multiple roads. You alone choose the ones you take. Some lead to the same destination via different pathways. Others lead to similar or dissimilar outcomes, depending on where you turn.

Kato's expression shifts into something I could almost call a smile for the first time since I found him. He plucks the chordsagain in the beginnings of a tune I recognize, a ballad popular in southern Sinta. His fingers move with skill and subtlety over the strings. I had no idea he was musical.

"Maybe we're not meant to kill it." He keeps playing. "Doesn't music soothe the beast? I'll play, you sing."

"I sound like a strangled Satyr when I sing."

He smiles. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"There's no need for mudslinging," I say with a huff.

He chuckles softly. "I can carry a tune."

"Great!" I pat his arm. "That'll be your job. I'll stand back - waaaaay back - while you calm the beast. I'm confident you'll sound as good as you look."

His chest puffs out. "How do I look?"

"Terrible." I grin. "You needed a bath, a shave, and a comb before we even set foot on the Ice Plains. Now, I can just barely make out your eyes and your nose. The rest is all" - I flap my hands around - "hair."

His chest deflates. He eyes me wryly. "I could say the same about you."

I gasp. "I grew a beard? Do you think Griffin will like it? I've been trying to keep it neat, but I may have picked up an eel."

Kato laughs outright, and he really is unbearably handsome. Some of the grimness evaporates from his eyes. "I was talking about this." He gives one of my tousled waves a light tug

I want to do this every day," I said.

"Baby, we can do this ten times a day, upside down, tangled up, and hanging from the ceiling if you want.

I shortened my name to Cat for a reason – as in Cataclysm.

You're impatient," he says. "I like it.

I make a show of smoothing down my hair – a lost cause at this point. "Ah, that. It's getting to the stage where it deserved a name. The Knotted Nest? The Twisted Tresses?"
"What about the Terrible Tangle?"
I nod. "That has serious possibilities."
"The Matted Mess?" he suggests.

I dread this power he has over me. It makes me want to tell him all my secrets and see if he still wants me.

Have I cheated death again? Hades must be allergic to me.

I don't have a bathing suit," I hedged.
"Jungle swimming is always naked.

Who are you to decide what needs to be done? That's subjective by nature. No two people think alike."

"Someone has to decide. Without, rulers, there's chaos.

Men don't understand discretion. My goal is to survive on my weakest abilities. That saves other talents for when I really need them and doesn't reveal important skills to any idiot who might be watching.

Let's go inside before a Sector-hopping horde of hungry flervers smells your fear and zeroes in on us from across the galaxy."
"Don't make fun of me."
I put my hand over my heart. "I would never."
Tess's scowl didn't fool me. The humor in her eyes told the real story. "They'll eat you first. More muscle."
"If it keeps you alive, I'm happy to sacrifice my biceps.

That's what it comes down to for everyone. How much use we can be.

The door opens, and I turn my head, my heart thudding at the sight of Griffin. Tall, broad, muscular but sleek, he stalks into the room like a predator, his gait balanced and sure, his glittering, gray eyes focused entirely on me. Inky hair, a hawkish nose, that stubborn jaw, and thick, black stubble make him look hard and intimidating. With his sword strapped on and his dark brows lowered, he's a warlord on the prowl.
I shiver. I couldn't want him more.

Unless they're utterly heartless, people put a certain value on human life. It keeps us from killing each other off for no reason. But for leaders like you and me, a moral high ground is too absolute. There are choices to be made.

His burning gaze snags on my braid, following it across my shoulder and over the swell of my breast. As his eyes dip, his lips part, and his fingers twitch on his thigh. My

Hades, Hera, and Hestia!" Flynn curses, pointing up.
"What in the Underworld is that?"
"A She-Dragon." Everyone turns to me, and as much as I love having four handsome men gape at me in stupefaction, right now, I could do without.

Griffin's eyes capture mine. He holds my face in his hands. "You. Belong. With. Me.

Jungle sex," I panted.
"Let's go swimming," Shade said at the same time.
We stared at each other. He grinned like a loon. I blinked and then grinned also.
"I like the way you thing, starshine.

"Let's" title="Amanda Bouchet Quotes: Jungle sex," I panted.
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And you chose Quintessa over the two million units?" Bridgebane asked. "Over the huge bonus you could have had?"
"Yeah." Shade cocked his head. "I guess I made a better choice than you did.

We were friends before." Sort of. We never tried to kill each other.

Unfortunately, ambition isn't limited to the noble and sane. "No

I didn't want to get caught. But I also wouldn't stop doing what I needed to do just because I feared the possible consequences. Fear was something I could accept. Abandoning the galaxy to a group of despots was not.

His gaze hits mine with the force of a battering ram. He looks… appalled. "I-I won't do this. I can't… be with you.

For some reason, the strength and deadliness he keeps so easily leashed make him the most compelling man I've ever met. I envy his self-control.

I shake my head. Scoffing, I look down. "It's over."

Griffin pinches my chin and forces my head back up. "You're the leader. You don't get to look down. You look straight ahead and acknowledge the damage you cause.

I'm… " I stop, at a loss.
Griffin lifts his eyebrows. "Inarticulate at the moment?"
Scowling, I thwack him in the chest.
"Overwrought?" he supplies, his mouth quirking up.
I thwack him again.
"Highly emotional?"
Thwack. Thwack.
"Apparently weak, because none of that hurt at all.

You're the shield, and I'm the sword.

I conquered a kingdom and found a treasure." His voice turns gravelly, low. "I won't let you go. Not now. Not ever.

I want him everywhere. I burn for him in places he hasn't even touched.

Thrilled, I leap on him like an octopus, clinging to him with arms and legs. So more like a quadropus. Does that even exist?

I want you. I need you. For as many hours as possible, I don't want to think about anything but you.

I've always been good at denial. I didn't know I'm such an expert that I can crawl into an abandoned room and put myself into a coma. "All

Sometimes, I think about it – us, together – and everything gets so tight and hot and wound up inside me that I can't breathe anymore.

Words wouldn't come, so I used my body to show her. And if she didn't understand that I loved her, then I'd show her again tomorrow.

I huff. Sort of. "Well, would Your Logicalness care to take me to breakfast and tell me about his plans?"
… "Would your Nakedness care to get dressed first?" he asks.

Character, past, and environment all affect the choices we make. The trick is choosing a path and following it. Make a decision, and don't turn back.

Griffin leans closer, his voice dropping to a low, suggestive rumble only I can hear. "There are things I could boast about, but I'd rather show than tell.