Aric Quotes

In our first meeting; you skewered me with your sword. In other words: you started it. ~ Kresley Cole

stories can be hard to find when you go looking for one, rather then letting one find you. ~ Aric Davis

I've kept alot of secrets from a lot of people that i never should have, but the ones I kept from myself stung a lot worse than any of those ~ Aric Davis

I couldn't feel guilty any longer for misdeeds committed by another incarnation. I wouldn't. "I'm sorry for your past, Aric. I wish it had been different. I wish I had been. But I refuse to keep paying for what I did in past games.""Do you, then?"
"In our first meeting, you skewered me with your sword. In other words: you started it. You didn't ask me to marry you, just ordered it. I played the hand I was dealt."
"I take your point."
"Let's begin anew, Empress." (He expects her to 'forgive/forget' for him but not Jack?) "The mortal can't provide for you like I can. I offer you a home. Defensive, I said, "Jack plans to rebuild Haven House for me."
Anger flashed across Aric's face. He schooled his reactions as quickly as he did everything else, leaving his emotions to seethe beneath the surface. "If you desire something, all you have to do is tell me. It will shortly be yours. You'll see soon enough." (Bribery for her to favor him?)
What if Aric could straight-up end the game? Blow up the machine?
"Deveaux will never understand you as I do. As only another Arcana can." "Maybe not. But we have other ties." I thought of the ribbon he'd kept all this time, the one now in my pocket.
"As do we. We are wed." (after Aric ordered her to do so.) "I think of you as mine.
"When I recognized that you weren't over your infatuation with the mortal, I might have been . . . testing you." He'd tested me the other night as well! "What if I'd surrendered?" ~ Kresley Cole

Aric told me I should give my blessing to you and Jack."

She snorted. "You can bless us all you want, but it's not happening."

I frowned at her. "You told me things had changed between you two."

"Yeah. As in, I made peace with the fact that I'll never be with him. It was a done thing between you two before I ever came into the picture."

"Why are you so sure?"

"After he heard you didn't want to have anything to do with him, J.D. took it bad - like head in his hands, pulling out his hair. So we got wasted together. I told him how I felt about him, and I tried to kiss him."

Jealousy scored me.

"And do you know what he did?"

I held my breath.

"He pushed me away, telling me that the people of his mother's blood fall in love once. They pray they get it right - because it can't be changed. He told me his mother loved his father, unrequited, and nineteen years of misery couldn't shake it. ~ Kresley Cole

Gray rested his hand on Aric's knee. "Sacrificed yourself, j-just like the giants."
"But I didn't mean to! It's only ... the prince fell over the cliff, and I didn't think at all, I just moved. I was the tallest and the strongest. I don't think anyone else could have reached him in time. He was injured pretty badly. But I wasn't a hero. I saw something that needed to be done, and I did it."
With a low chuckle, Gray squeezed his knee. "Th-that's what heroes do, Aric."
"But I'm not - "
"You s-saved me."
Aric shook his head and then gave a little tug on the chain that attached Gray's collar to the floor. "You're still a prisoner."
"You saved me," Gray repeated firmly to Aric. And then he kissed him. ~ Kim Fielding

You want this?'
I raised my gaze, gasping at the dark hunger in his expression. My mind blanked. Want his body? How could I not? He was pure temptation.
'I meant this,' he held up my bag, 'but I could easily be persuaded to share anything else my wife might desire. ~ Kresley Cole

Cars in the driveway that run on prayers instead of gasoline. The American Dream in the darkest light possible. ~ Aric Davis

How come you can call him, but I can't talk to Gabe?" Joules probably missed him as much as I missed Aric. Or, rather, the old Aric.
"Because you have a temper that Gabriel will know how to needle. He could get you to spill our plans."
"I don't have a bloody feckin' temper! ~ Kresley Cole

Accept that cars aren't necessary and that some meals take hours, that we can now fly to space, that there's nothing wrong with crashing on couches if you're on an adventure, that three outfits are enough, that sunrises are free, that the first time you see Machu Picchu it will break your heart, that being alone in a country with no money and no return ticket will teach you more about yourself than any therapist ever could. ~ Aric S. Queen

Further, any way of life based on the importation of resources is also functionally based on violence, because if your way of life requires the importation of resources, trade will never be sufficiently reliable: if people in the next watershed over won't trade you for some necessary resource, you will take it, because you need it. So, to bring this to the present, we could all become enlightened, and the US military would still have to be huge: how else will they get access to the oil they need to run the economy, oil that just happens to lie under someone else's land? The point is that no matter what we think of the irredeemability of this culture's mass psychology or system of rewards, this culture–civilization–is also irredeemable on a purely functional level. ~ Aric McBay

Humans are only one species of millions. To kill millions of species for the benefit of one is insane, just as killing millions of people for the benefit of one person would be insane. And since unimpeded ecological collapse would kill off humans anyway, those species will ultimately have died for nothing, and the planet will take millions of years to recover. Rapid collapse is ultimately good for humans because at least some people survive. And remember, the people who need the system to come down the most are the rural poor in the majority of the world: the faster the actionists can bring down industrial civilization, the better the prospects for those people and their landbases. Regardless, without immediate action, everyone dies. ~ Aric McBay

If you give me the name of the contraceptive shot you had, I will source for more of them. I am keen that nothing interrupts our enjoyment of each other." His tone indicated the understatement of the millennium.
"It's called Depo-Provera. It's supposed to last three months or so, and Paul has a few more doses." When he'd injected me, I'd said, "The idea of living another three months feels far-fetched right now." He'd replied, "Better safe than sorry, huh?"

Aric nodded. "I will be on the lookout for it."


Aric raised a brow at that. Then, seeming to make a decision, he eased me aside to get out of the bed. "I have something for you." As he strode to our closet, I gawked at the sight of his flawless body.

The return view was even more rewarding.

He sat beside me and handed me a small jewelry box. "I want you to have this."

I opened the box, finding a gorgeous gold ring, engraved with runes that called to mind his tattoos. An oval of amber adorned the band. Beautiful. The warm color reminded me of his eyes whenever he was pleased.

"My homeland was famous for amber - from pine." He slipped the ring on my finger, and it fit perfectly. Holding my gaze, he said, "We are wed now."

First priest I find, I'm goan to marry you. Jack's words. I recalled the love blazing from his gray gaze before I stifled the memory. "Aric, th-this is so beautiful. Thank you."

The symbol of his parents' marr ~ Kresley Cole

She'd told me an Empress could fashion wood into whatever shapes she liked; in my pocket was a wedding ring for Aric that I'd painstakingly crafted.

I'd figured the band would need to be as resilient as metal, so I'd chosen one of the strongest trees in the world: lignum vitae. Latin for wood of life. ~ Kresley Cole

I shook my head. "Um, the Bagmen are directing us. I think Sol is using them to help us."

Aric did a double take.

"Jaysus! The Empress has gone mental. As can happen when you're diddlin' Death. ~ Kresley Cole

Art wasn't war at all - it was beauty and love and death. Art was everything, and it was eternal. ~ Aric Davis

My relationship with Jackson had felt fated. Whatever I had with Aric felt . . . endless. ~ Kresley Cole

Maybe I . . . shouldn't tell him what I thought I'd heard. Not until I knew more. How exactly would I put the revelation anyway? Jack's alive, but apparently he kept that little detail secret. Ah, but Matthew spilled the beans! Buying myself time, I waved Aric on.

I was scarcely listening as he began talking about Paul, of all people. How the EMT had grown worried when I'd been shut in with my grandmother for so long. How I had lost weight and become listless. The man had pleaded with me to get a checkup, even offering to source contraception after Aric and I had started sleeping together.

Wait. I glanced up. "After?"

Aric nodded. "He said you told him you had no need of contraception."

The hell? "I went to him and got a shot prior to us getting together. I told you about it."

"As I told him in turn, but he swears that never happened."

Real? Unreal? Had I . . . imagined my meeting with Paul? I'd already feared gaps in my memory; Gran had told me things that I'd had no recollection of. Was I now inventing memories?

Had I invented Jack's return?

In a soothing voice, Aric said, "I'm not angry, love. Just talk to me." He wasn't the first person to look at me as if I'd gone insane, like I was trouble with the possibility of rubble.

Won't be the last.

No. I refused this. I had heard Jack, and I had gotten that shot. "It did happen, which means Paul's a liar." But why would ~ Kresley Cole

Your mortal's storming the slaver den." Aric's tone was half-amused, half-approving. "I'm hereby inviting myself on his incursion. ~ Kresley Cole

Empress. -

I tensed. Was that . . . Matthew's voice? Why would he be in my head after all these months? How dare he contact me now! Leave me alone! A buzz in my ears grew louder and louder, like white-noise on steroids.

- Have a secret. He doesn't want me to tell you. -

His eerie tone gave me chills.

Aric hurried around the truck, snatching open my door. He leaned in, cradling my face in his shaking palms. He was speaking to me with dread in his eyes, but I couldn't hear a word.

Get out of my head, Fool!

- Listen. - A different voice carried into my mind: - "What kind of danger is she in? Damn it, tell me! What's coming, coo-yôn?" -

I whimpered. Jack??? Is that you? He sounded so close.

Blood kept pouring. My breaths shallowed till I was hyperventilating, on the verge of blacking out. But I was desperate to hear more of his voice. Jack, please answer me! ~ Kresley Cole

What are the Hanged Man's powers?" I tried to remember more about that player.

"I don't know," Aric admitted. "I've never faced him, nor seen him mentioned in any chronicles I've read. The Star had his icon in the last game. But did the Arcane Navigator take it himself, or harvest it from another?" Aric rotated his shot glass on his desk blotter. "The Hanged Man remains a mystery. That is why he's called uncanny. In this game, all have been accounted for, but for him."

"Then he's the inactivated card?" One Arcana was dormant - until he or she killed another player. "Matthew told me to beware of that player but wouldn't reveal an identity. ~ Kresley Cole

I take no actions that I wouldn't publicly recount. If you can't speak your deeds, then don't do them. ~ Kresley Cole

When he was this close to me, I could feel his palpable yearning. I could sense that gut-wrenching loneliness he'd suffered. ~ Kresley Cole

Then he was striding toward me. His mesmerizing gaze pinned me in place as he cupped my face. When his lips covered mine, I gasped. He took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, groaning into the contact. His hands tightened on my face. His sexy groans made my toes curl, muddling my thoughts.
Block that out! I was Aric's wife. I'd wronged him in the past, had consigned him to misery for hundreds - no, thousands - of years. I needed to make this right. Like penance.
There was something vaguely threatening about his words. Misgivings about this arose. Too fast.
"If you have feelings for him, fight them," Aric commanded me. "By going to him, you'd be stoking them once more. Don't you understand? He can find another woman - I cannot. If you choose him, you'll be consigning me to a hellish fate. As you've done again and again. No, this will be even worse, because I've had a greater glimpse of what I'll be missing."

"I just want to talk to him. I'm leaving this weekend," I said in an unwavering voice.

"No, you will not." His arrogant demeanor back in place, he said, "Understand me, I'm not surrendering the one woman who was born for me alone. Not to a human, not to anyone."

"You can't keep me here against my will any longer. What are you going to do? Put that cuff back on me?"
I held up my hand to stop him. "I understand why you did it. But I won't be a prisoner anymore."

He snatched up his shirt, threading his arms into ~ Kresley Cole

This game is a hell we've all been damned into. It's designed to madden us. The most intelligent Arcana ever to play is called the Fool. The one who least wanted to kill was named Death. And you, Empress, rule over nothing! ~ Kresley Cole

Accept this: your mortal is doomed."
"Please, Aric. I'm begging you!"
He whirled around, fury in his expression. "You refused - twice - to beg me for your own life, but you'd beg for his?"
I whispered, "Yes. ~ Kresley Cole

He took my hand in his, and that easy compatibility flowed between us. God, how I'd missed this.
It shouldn't feel this right. I was married. In a way. I loved Aric. Yes, my husband wanted me dead and had decapitated me twice, but all relationships had issues, right? ~ Kresley Cole

The two of them were acting like such ... guys. I wanted to strangle them. ~ Kresley Cole

Humans aren't going to do anything in time to prevent the planet from being destroyed wholesale. Poor people are too preoccupied by primary emergencies, rich people benefit from the status quo, and the middle class are too obsessed with their own entitlement and the technological spectacle to do anything. The risk of runaway global warming is immediate. A drop in the human population is inevitable, and fewer people will die if collapse happens sooner. ~ Aric McBay

The dominant culture eats entire biomes. No, that is too generous, because eating implies a natural biological relationship. This culture doesn't just consume ecosystems, it obliterates them, it murders them, one after another. This culture is an ecological serial killer, and it's long past time for us to recognize the pattern. ~ Aric McBay

So . . . gods are real?" Aric nodded. "That's how the game came about. They grew bored. ~ Kresley Cole

No successes we might have are guaranteed to last as long as industrial civilization stands. Conversely, most of our losses are effectively permanent. Extinct species cannot be resurrected. Overdrawn aquifers or clear-cut forests will not return to their original states on timescales meaningful to humans. The destruction of land-based cultures, and the deliberate impoverishment of much of humanity, results in major loss and long-­term social trauma. With sufficient action, it's possible to solve many of the problems we face, but if that action doesn't materialize in time, the effects are irreversible. ~ Aric McBay

Afterward, we lay on our sides facing each other. I murmured, "I know it couldn't possibly be worth the wait for you, but was it-"
"By all gods, it was worth the wait." He cupped my face, had to clear his throat before he could say, "Do you understand how precious you are to me? Not because I can touch you - that merely allowed me to recognize you." I laid my hand over his heart. For two thousand years, it'd been one way. Now it was changed. His brows drew together, as if he was trying to sort through chaotic thoughts. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, then tried again: "That wild storm was a tiny fraction of what was going on inside of me. I look at you...and I soar. I make love to you, and everything is new; I feel...so much. I'm certain my chest will explode from it...Gods, I make no sense, do I?" Color tinged his broad cheekbones. "Tonight has boggled my mind. You have boggled my mind." He held my gaze with his own. "Sieva, I am a planet off its axis." I lost myself in his eyes. "I love you too, Aric." The corner of his lips curled. ~ Kresley Cole