Iliescu Radu Quotes

Today, he saw the true cost of two men's immovable wills. He saw what happened when men were forced to fight each other for months on end. It was not merely sickness of the body that plagued sieges, but sickness of the soul that turned men into monsters. ~ Kiersten White

Radu and Mehmed had both given her something she could not give herself, had seen her in a way no one else had and no one else ever would. They looked at her, ugly Lada, vicious Lada, and saw something precious. And she looked at them and saw Radu, her brother, her blood, her responsibility, and Mehmed, her equal, the only man great enough to be worthy of her love. ~ Kiersten White

awesome "Impaler Prince," even as a captive, had the power of sending shivers down the spines of the Turkish delegates. ~ Radu Florescu

Radu wondered if Kumal was capable of cruelty. He hoped so, actually. It gave him hope to think that men like Kumal were the same as everyone else - they simply chose to be better. ~ Kiersten White

All I want to know is why a party of Fey wanted to kill me," I said
heatedly.
The beetle's lips twisted enough to show fang. "Doesn't everyone?"
Radu hustled me out the door before I could find out if the vamp's plump
little carcass would fit into his overstuffed desk. ~ Karen Chance

To Radu, my brother, I do not acknowledge your new title, nor Mehmed's. Tell the lying coward I send no congratulations. He sent none to me when I took my throne in spite of him. You did not choose right. Tell Mehmed Wallachia is mine. With all defiance, Lada Dracul, Prince of Wallachia ~ Kiersten White

I like him," Nazira said, and it sounded like a eulogy.
"Me too," Radu echoed. ~ Kiersten White

What is wrong with you?" Radu sounded on the verge of tears. "Why do you have to destroy everything good we have here?"
"Because," Lada said, voice flat with the sudden wave of exhaustion pulling her heavily to the ground. "We have nothing. Can you not see that?"
"We have Mehmed!"
Lada looked up. The stars were static, still and cold in the night, all the fire gone from the sky. "It is not enough," she said. ~ Kiersten White

Being a Dracul had cost him so much. He had thought he was done paying for the blood that ran through his veins. But he would never be done. The price of being in his family was everything he held dear, taken from him over and over again. They were the dragons. The devils. There was no mercy in them or for them. ~ Kiersten White

Yes, but knee pants are so much more flattering. You can see my legs."
You want people to see your legs?"
I have very nice legs!" We both paused to admire them for a moment. ~ Karen Chance

If Lada was the spiky green weed that sprouted in the midst of a drought-cracked riverbed, Radu was the delicate, sweet rose that wilted in anything less that the perfect conditions. ~ Kiersten White

Every time Radu thought he had found a place in the world, the world changed around him, and once again he was left alone. ~ Kiersten White

It was wrong, this weighing and measuring lives as though they were coins that could be spent or saved. He longed to be free of it all, to live among men seeing everyone as his brother, to view no one as his enemy. ~ Kiersten White

Did you do this?"
"There are other ways to beat someone than with fists." Radu poked her in the side with a finger.
She surprised him by laughing. He stood up straighter, a proud grin at having surprised and delighted Lada bursting across his face. She never laughed unless she was laughing at him. He had done something right!
Then the lashings began.
Radu's smile wilted and died. He looked away. He was safe now. And Lada was proud of him, which had never happened before. He focused on that to ignore the sick feelings twisting his stomach as Aron and Andrei cried out in pain. He wanted his nurse - wanted her to hold and comfort him - and this, too, made him feel ashamed.
Lada watched the whip with a calculating look. "Still," she said. "Fists are faster. ~ Kiersten White

No!" Lada shook her head, eyes still wild. "I cannot go in there! If a woman enters the harem complex, she belongs to the sultan!"
Mehmed peered out the window they had climbed through, to make sure their path was clear. "I would not hold you to that, Lada, and - "
"It would not matter! Everyone would know, I would be labeled your concubine, and - "
Radu took her hand, which still hung in the air pointing accusingly at Mehmed, and squeezed it in his own. "And you would be unmarriageable? What a tragedy. I know how dearly you treasured the hope of marrying some minor Ottoman noble, dear sister."
She finally met his eyes, hers still feverish and frenzied. "But I would be his."
"I think our Mehmed is smart enough to know he could never claim you. Right?"
Radu's tone was light, and he turned to Mehmed with a playful smile. Perhaps it was the dimness of the room, or the stress of the night, but Mehmed's face was clouded with…disappointment? Hurt? Then a tight, false smile took its place, and he nodded. Radu's own chest felt equally tight with anxiety and fear and a twisting, bitter sense of jealousy. ~ Kiersten White

Though Radu did not like the intense heat of the foundry, he visited as often as he could. And it was a good thing he had come back when he did. Urbana was screaming in Hungarian at several confused workers. Radu jumped in as a translator, though he left out most of what she said. He did not think telling the workers that they were "more useless than the rotting carcasses of a thousand dead dogs" would help morale. ~ Kiersten White

Things happen; people have different experiences that change the way they look at the world. Sometimes you just have to accept that there's nothing you can do. Sometimes friendships just naturally come to an end.' Radu ~ Lisa Hall

Radu had practiced the poem so often he could recite it in his sleep. He had stolen shiny bits from famous Arabic poems, gathering them like a raven to line his own nest. The language was dense and flowery, hyperbolic in the extreme. Murad listened, enraptured, as his reign was likened to the ocean and his posterity a mighty river. ~ Kiersten White

We always stand to gain, whether it be an influential politician to further our interests - which is the most frequent and almost easiest case to fabricate - or a great businessman, most of whose money we administer through our own networks. It is therefore our interest to create as many such 'vicious circles' as possible. And it is on this foundation that we have built modern society and the so-called 'cell of society,' that is, the family which we have chained to an infinite set of dependences: jobs, houses, comfort, cars, bank loans, and long-term contractual obligations that sometimes extend over one or two generations of the respective family. The role of a 'vicious circle' is to make people dependent because, when this happens, they are no longer free. ~ Radu Cinamar

None of them are real to me." He paused again, placing a hand flat against the door. "You are the only real thing in my life."
Radu gasped with the sheer physical pain the words sent through him. But the sound of his agony was covered by that of the door opening. Mehmed reached in and pulled Lada out to him, and then his mouth was on hers and his hands were in her hair and he was holding her so tightly, so tightly, and they stumbled back into Lada's room and closed the door.
Radu tripped forward, feet dragging, until he stood outside the room. He wanted to be inside it. He wanted to be the only real thing to Mehmed, just as Mehmed was the only real thing to him.
He wanted -
No, please, no.
Yes.
He wanted Mehmed to look at him the way he had looked at Lada.
He wanted Mehmed to kiss him the way he had kissed Lada.
He wanted to be Lada.
No, he did not. He wanted to be himself, and he wanted Mehmed to love him for being himself. His question, the question of Mehmed, was finally answered, piercing him and leaving him shaking, silent, on the floor.
He did not want this answer. ~ Kiersten White

Where are you idiots taking me?"
"Patience, Lada," Mehmed said.
"I am going to start sleeping with a knife."
"If you had had a knife, you would have killed me!"
"Yes, exactly. And then I could have gone back to sleep."
Radu snorted. "Nothing like cuddling a corpse to give you sweet dreams. ~ Kiersten White

You once told me some lives are worth more than others. How many deaths before the scales tip
out of our favor?"
She had no answer. ~ Kiersten White

The more Radu knew the women around him, the more he wondered if any of them were not secretly terrifying. ~ Kiersten White

F anyone is going to kill you, it will be me. Understand?"
Radu nodded, snuggling into her shoulder. "Will you protect me?
"Until the day I kill you." She jabbed a finger into his side, where he was most ticklish, and he squealed with pained laughter. ~ Kiersten White

He knew Mehmed would build something truly amazing. He knew that Constantinople needed to fall for Mehmed to hold on to his empire. He knew that Mehmed was the greatest sultan his people had ever known. But, like his love for Mehmed, it was no longer simple.
Radu had seen what it took to be great, and he never again wanted to be part of something bigger than himself. ~ Kiersten White

I glanced at Radu. "What, exactly is Louis-Cesare's problem?'. [..]
Suddenly a speculative gleam lit his eyes. It made me nervous. 'He tends to be very protective of women,"he said thoughtfully. "You're a woman Dory."
"Thank you for pointing that out. But I didn't think dhampirs qualified."
Radu smirked. "It appears you've been upgraded. ~ Karen Chance

I have tried so hard to escape this, but my path was always leading here. I took every turn I could. I found faith and God. I found a new home and country, even new tongues and a new name. But I cannot escape becoming a Dracul. The cruelty, the willingness to destroy everything else in pursuit of a goal. I know what she would do. I know what I need to do. But I do not want to do it. ~ Kiersten White

Perhaps, looking out over it, Mehmed saw what the beginning of his legacy would eventually lead to. Whatever Mehmed did, whatever he built, the greatest city in the world was irrefutable evidence that all things died. ~ Kiersten White

Everything had changed. And nothing had. She was still choosing Wallachia over them. Radu was still supporting Mehmed. And Mehmed was still demanding they both be his. The stakes had just gotten higher. ~ Kiersten White