Rachel E. Carter Quotes

My apprenticeship is more important than strangling Master Byron. I repeated the motto over and over again. If I said it enough times it would become true, or so I hoped.

Too often we allow sigh and pain to dictate our actions.

Isn't the best bit of truth always woven in with a lie?

The irony was that my real enemy had been there all along right in front of me. Smiling crookedly and convincing me we were friends. Trying to seduce me for the thrill of the chase. Chastising me for not trusting him that first year in the tower stairs at the Academy… Telling me he loved me. And then tossing me aside the second I jeopardized his dreams. I wasn't what he had wanted all these years. I'd merely been a diversion in his pursuit of the crown.
I never should have trusted a prince.

People make mistakes all the time –some of us just are in more of a position to leave an impact when we do." Impact. Influence. Somehow along the way I had joined the circle of people whose actions dictated change, and it scared me how easy it would be to make the wrong one.

You should never trust a wolf in sheep's clothing. Because the only thing the wolf will ever want to do is break you.

If he chooses combat I'll wipe that arrogant sneer off his face the first chance I get.

So, what do you think? Better than four years with Byron?"

"Are you kidding?" I kept a straight face. "Those were the best days of life.

If I weren't struggling, if I weren't keeled over in agony, if my muscles weren't screaming at the end of a long day...then I wasn't trying hard enough.

That somehow, this insufferable girl would become the one person I am forever, hopelessly, madly drawn to against my will and possibly even my better judgment.

He kept me up against the wall, kissing me like he couldn't fight any longer. Like he was me, fighting himself and losing to a fervor that would burn him alive.

You can't avoid them forever, Ry.
You have to make a decision soon. It isn't fair what you are doing to either of them.

I know.
I'm just afraid of making the wrong one.

You aren't afraid of making the wrong one, Ry, it's the fact that you want to make the wrong one.

Well, future apprentice or not, no one is going to sway me but me.

I'm not that pitiful little girl you bullied last year.

We couldn't be friends. We couldn't be enemies.
So what were we?

Love Darren? Of course not. Love is for fools not smart enough to see the path in front of them. That's the difference between you and I, Ryiah. I see the truth and accept Darren for what he is. You just see what you want to see. It's why I will wear the crown and bear his children while you are left wondering why you were never good enough.

My victory had come at the cost of a friendship. I swore I would never make the same twice.

I told you not to trust a wolf," he continued. His words dripped like honeyed venom. "Because it would only ever want to break you." Darren let out a small, harsh laugh. "Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm the wolf, Ryiah. I guess what I really should have told you was to never trust a prince, but that's not quite as memorable.

I'm not sure exactly how...but instead of darkness I saw light.

I don't want to choose him. I know a future with him would never be what I want it to be.

The people that tell you what you want to hear are the most dangerous enemies you'll ever meet.

You can be a great man and still be a fool. Many of our country's leaders can attest to that. Were they still living.

No one is going to sway me but me.

Sight can only invoke fear, not pain.

All of sudden I cared what someone thought of me. Because we are friends. And making you miserable and angry makes me miserable and angry. I don't want to be the person to make you mad or cry, Ryiah. I want to make you laugh. I want you to make me laugh, because gods know you are the only one who can. So, yes, I am sorry, I am sorry because even if I was right, I was also wrong. And I'd rather lose a silly battle than your friendship.

I'd seen fire when he touched me, and he had made me want to burn.

It had been an assault of everything wrong and right, right and wrong, wrong and right.

So how did you do it? What makes the cold-hearted princeling mortal like the rest of us?

It's an easy thing to want someone, it's another to love them.

My magic was a wild stallion raging within, rearing up against its prison of ember.

There was a steady burn rising in me that I couldn't ignore. My whole body was in flames. I was losing myself in what it felt like to be near him. This was what I had wanted. This is what I was missing. This was what I needed.

I was tired of my traitorous heart wanting things that were taken. Or, more importantly, people that I didn't want to want.

Pain will come and go, and you need to learn to push past it. If you are overwhelmed you won't be able to do what needs to be done.

Loyalty is never built upon honor, brother. It is built upon blood.

"Darren wasn't darkness, and I wasn't his light.
I needed to show him he was fire. My fire. Something filled with light. Something good. Something just like my but wrapped up so tightly in his own barrier of darkness it could burn. Unless you knew how to unravel him.
Pressing my lips to his I shut my eyes and channelled my one single promise.
I will never give up on you."

I wanted to dance. I wanted to be swept up in the long desert night, sending a farewell to the fallen and embracing the living.

Perhaps the gods will surprise us and it will be neither."
"A true tragedy."
"Of epic proportions."
"Two longstanding rivals."
"And only one robe to bear."
"Who will win?" Darren's tone was wry. "The handsome prince?"
I grinned. "Or his valiant betrothed?

This wasn't supposed to be how our story went. In fairy tales, the prince saved the girl. In mine, the princess destroyed him.

You, you are a cockroach. No matter how many times we tried to get rid of you, you kept finding a way to scuttle your way back. And as much as I don't like you, well, you are persistent. And even I can admire you that.

They are brothers," Benny repeated softly. "That is a bond you cannot break.

You are not exactly my first pick either.

He was a prince. He was fickle. He was rude. He was arrogant. I knew better. I was lowborn. He was WRONG. I didn't even like him.

He was a prince. There was no hope in saying yes to the boy with the garnet eyes who left me reckless and confused at every turn. There was no future with him. None. Darren had duty. To the Crown. Gods only knew Priscilla and Blayne had spent enough time reminding me of that.