Rowan Whitethorn Quotes

Rowan just asked, "Did you have a favorite form?"
Lysandra's grin was nothing short of wicked. "I liked anything with claws and big, big fangs. ~ Sarah J. Maas

No flicker of amusement, no hint of fear. The woman could give Rowan a run for his money for sheer iciness. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Rowan's head was still angled as he asked, "Your mothers were cousins, Prince, but who sired
you?"
Aedion lounged in his chair. "Does it matter?"
"Do you know?" Rowan pressed.
Aedion shrugged. "She never told me - or anyone."
"I'm guessing you have some idea?" Aelin asked.
Rowan said, "He doesn't look familiar to you?"
"He looks like me."
"Yes, but - " He sighed. "You met his father. A few weeks ago. Gavriel ~ Sarah J. Maas

Rowan had not possessed an army of his own to give to Aelin. To give to Terrasen. So he had won an army for her. ~ Sarah J. Maas

The three others whirled for Rowan, and there was nothing he could do to get to that fuse.
To save the queen who held his heart in her scarred hands. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Gavriel's son was bellowing Whitethorn's name. A gods-damned victory cry. Over and over, the men taking up the call.
Then Fenrys's voice lifted.
And Gavriel's.
And that red-haired queen.
The Havilliard king.
On into battle, on into bloodshed, they called the prince's name. ~ Sarah J. Maas

The feeling that passed between them, so powerful there was no language to describe it... It was not mere friendship, but something born of and strengthened by it. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Lysandra's smile grew. "I like your fangs," she said sweetly.
Aelin choked on her grape. Of course Lysandra did.
Rowan gave a little grin that usually sent Aelin running. "Are you studying them so you can replicate them when you take my form, shape-shifter?"
Aelin's fork froze in midair.
"Bullshit," Aedion said. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Holy gods. He'd frozen the whole damn lake. He was THAT powerful? ~ Sarah J. Maas

To whatever end?" she breathed. Rowan followed her, as he had his entire life, long before they had ever met, before their souls had sparked into existence. "To whatever end, Fireheart. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I know you two are old and up past your bedtime so ill keep this quick. ~ Sarah J. Maas

There is... this rage." she said "This despair and hatred and rage that lives and breathes inside me. There's not sanity to it, no gentleness. It is a monster dwelling under my skin. For the past ten years, I have worked every day, every hour, to keep that monster locked up. And the moment I talk about those two days, and what happened before and after, that monster is going to break loose, and there will be no accounting for what I do."

"That is how I was able to stand before the King of Adarlan, how I was able to befriend his son and his captain, how I was able to live in that palace. Because I did not give that rage, those memories, one inch. And right now I am looking for the tools that might destroy my enemy, and I cannot let out the monster, because it will make me use those tools against the king, not put them back as I should - and I might very well destroy the world for spite. So that is why I must be Celaena, not Aelin - because being Aelin means facing those things, unleashing that monster. Do you understand? ~ Sarah J. Maas

Windows ­were shuttered as they passed, probably because of Rowan, who looked like nothing short of death incarnate. But he was surprisingly calm with the villagers they approached. He didn't raise his voice, didn't snarl, didn't threaten. He didn't smile, but for Rowan, he was downright cheerful. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I can't bury another friend."
"You won't."
"If anything ever happened to you, Rowan-"
"Don't" he breathed. "Don't even say it. We dealt with that enough the other night."
He lifted a hand - hesitated, and then brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen across her face. His callused fingers scrapped against her cheekbone, then caressed the shell of her ear.
It was foolish to even start down that road, when every other man she'd let in had left some wound, in one way or another, accidentally or not.
There was nothing tender in his face. Only a predator's glittering gaze. "When we get back," he said, "remind me to prove you wrong about every thought that just went through your head."
She lifted an eyebrow. "Oh?"
He gave her a sly smile that made thinking impossible. Exactly what he wanted - to distract her from the horrors of tomorrow. "I'll even let you decide how I tell you: with words"- his eyes flickered once to her mouth- "or with my teeth and tongue. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Tell me that even if I lead us all to ruin, we'll burn in hell together.'
'We're not going to hell, Aelin,' he said. 'But wherever we go, we'll go together. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Would I have loved her if I had know from the start what she is?" He shook his head. "If I had met her now... my first instinct would be to protect Dorian from her.

Celaena was a fraction of Aelin - both good and bad. But Aelin... she is Celaena, and she is queen, and she is the Fire-Bringer. I fell in love with a facet, and I panicked when I realized it was a fraction of the whole - when I saw that power, that heritage, and... it was not a part of my plans.

Rowan Whitethorn saw everything. From the moment he met her, he saw all of Aelin. And he was not afraid. I don't blame either of them for falling in love. I don't blame her... I was what Celaena need after Endovier. But Rowan is who Aelin needs - forever. ~ Sarah J. Maas

To whatever end. ~ Sarah J. Maas

The creature took Aelin's face in its hands, and her sword thudded to the ground, forgotten.
Rowan was screaming as the creature pulled her into its arms. As she stopped fighting. As her flames winked out and darkness swallowed her whole. ~ Sarah J. Maas

This thing between them, the force of it, could devour the world. And if they picked it, picked them, it might very well cause the end of it. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Faster than lightening, his hand shot out and she gagged, jolting as he grabbed her tongue between his fingers...He released her tongue, and she gasped for breath. She swore at him, a filthy, foul name, and spat at his feet. And that's when he bit her. She cried out as those canines pierced the spot between her neck and shoulder, a primal act of aggression--the bite so strong and claiming that she was too stunned to move. He had her pinned against the tree and clamped down harder, his canines digging deep, her blood spilling onto her shirt. Pinned, like some weakling. But that was what she'd become, wasn't it? Useless, pathetic.

She growled, more animal than sentient being. And shoved.

Rowan staggered back a step, teeth ripping her skin and she struck his chest. She didn't feel the pain, didn't care about the blood or flash of light. No, she wanted to rip his throat out--rip it out with the elongated canines she bared at him as she finished shifting and roared.
Rowan grinned. "There you are. ~ Sarah J. Maas

He would not apologize for today, or yesterday, or for any of it. And she would not ask him to, not now that she understood that in the weeks she had been looking at him it had been like gazing at a reflection. No wonder she had loathed him. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Thank you for the oil," he added. "My skin was a little dry. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Because I made a promise. A promise to my friend that I would see her kingdom freed." She shoved her scarred palm into his face. "I made an unbreakable vow. And you and Maeve - all you gods-damned bastards - are getting in the way of that." She went off down the hillside again. He followed.
"And what of your own people? What of your own kingdom?"
"They are better off without me, just as you said."
His tattoo scrunched as he snarled. "So you'd save another land, but not yours. Why can't your friend save her own kingdom?"
"Because she is dead!" She screamed the last word so loudly it burned in her throat. "Because she is dead, and I am left with my worthless life!"
He merely stared at her with that animal stillness. When she walked away, he didn't come after her. ~ Sarah J. Maas

You collect scars because you want proof that you are paying for whatever sins you've committed. And I know this because I've been doing the same damn thing for two hundred years. Tell me, do you think you will go to some blessed Afterworld, or do you expect a burning hell? You're hoping for hell
because how could you face them in the Afterworld? Better to suffer, to be damned for eternity and
~ Sarah J. Maas

Saying those words made a sharp, quick panic rise up in her, an aching pain that had her throat closing. "You left me," she repeated. Maybe it was only out of blind terror at the abyss opening up again around her, but she whispered, "I have no one left. No one. ~ Sarah J. Maas

She realized that Rowan saw each of those thoughts and more as he reached into his tunic and pulled out a dagger. Her dagger. He extended it to her, it's long blade gleaming as if he'd been secretly polishing and caring for it these months.
And when she grasped the dagger, it's weight lighter than she remembered, Rowan looked into her eyes, into her very core of her, and said, 'Fireheart'. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Behind her, the Fae warrior observed every flicker of movement. He'd be the deadly one--the one to look out for. It had been fifty years since she'd fought a Fae warrior. Bedded him, then fought him. He'd left the bones of her arm in pieces. She'd just left him in pieces. But he had been young, and arrogant, and barely trained. This male... He might very well be capable of killing at least a few of her Thirteen if she so much as harmed a hair on the queen's head. ~ Sarah J. Maas

He himself was a beautiful weapon, forged by centuries of ruthless training and warring. ~ Sarah J. Maas

What in hell is that?"
She kept going toward the bathroom, refusing to apologize or look down at the pink, delicate, very
short lace nightgown. When she emerged, face washed and clean, Rowan was sitting up, arms crossed
over his bare chest. "You forgot the bottom part."
She merely blew out the candles in the room one by one. His eyes tracked her the entire time.
"There is no bottom part," she said, flinging back the covers on her side. "It's starting to get so hot,
and I hate sweating when I sleep. Plus, you're practically a furnace. So it's either this or I sleep
naked. You can sleep in the bathtub if you have a problem with it. ~ Sarah J. Maas

He needed to sort this out - needed to get her to just look at him again, so he could try to explain that he hadn't been prepared. Having her touch the tattoo that told the story of what he'd done and how he'd lost Lyria . . . He hadn't been ready for what he felt in that moment. The desire hadn't been what shook him at all. It was just . . . Aelin had driven him insane these past few weeks, and yet he hadn't considered what it would be like to have her look at him with interest. ~ Sarah J. Maas

She dared a look at Rowan, whose face remained carefully blank, but saw the words there anyway. You wicked, clever fox. And here you were, thinking the red hair was just for vanity. I shall never doubt again. ~ Sarah J. Maas

He lifted the lavender soap to his hair, and she squeaked.
"You don't use that in your hair," she hissed, jolting from her perch to reach for one of the many
hair tonics lining the little shelf above the bath. "Rose, lemon verbena, or ... " She sniffed the glass
bottle. "Jasmine." She squinted down at him.
He was staring up at her, his green eyes full of the words he knew he didn't have to say. Do I look
like I care what you pick? ~ Sarah J. Maas

The two princes stared at each other, one gold and one silver, one her twin and one her soul-bonded. There was nothing friendly in the stares, nothing human - two Fae males locked in some unspoken dominance battle. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Cadre, yet more than that. Brothers - the warriors fighting at his side were his brothers. Had stayed with him through all of it. And would continue to do so now. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Aelin slumbered beside him, her breathing deep and even, yet again wearing one of his shirts. Some primal part of him snarled in satisfaction at the sight, at knowing she was covered in his scent. ~ Sarah J. Maas

He supposed any lick of self-consciousness had been flayed from her under the whips of Endovier. Even though he'd tattooed over the bulk of the scars on her back, their ridges remained. The nightmares, too - when she'd still startle awake and light a candle to drive away the blackness they'd shoved her into, the memory of the lightless pits they'd used for punishment. His Fireheart, shut in the dark. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Her scent hit him. For a second, he could only breathe it deep into his lungs,his Fae instincts roaring that this was his family, this was his queen, this was Aelin. He would have known her even if he were blind. Even if there was another scent entwined with hers. Staggeringly powerful and ancient and - male. Interesting. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Gods, he was brilliant. Cunning and wicked and brilliant.
Even when he beat the hell out of her. Every. Damn. Day. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Someone's broken into the warehouse."
Rowan was out of the room, armed and fully ready to shed blood before Aelin could grab her own weapons. Gods above--he moved like the wind, too. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Rowan lifted his eyebrows. Are you all right?
She nodded. I just want to get through these two days and be done with it.
"That will never stop being strange," Aedion muttered.
"Deal with it," she told him, carrying the suit into the bedroom. "Let's go hunt ourselves a pretty little demon. ~ Sarah J. Maas

She was tired in her bones, but she rallied her energy one last time and told him of they years in Rifthold, of stealing Asterion horses and racing across the desert, of dancing until dawn with the courtesans and thieves and all the beautiful, wicked creatures in the world. And then she told him about losing Sam, and of that first whipping in Endovier, when she'd spat blood in the Chief Overseer's face, and what she had seen and endured in the following year. She spoke of the day she had snapped and sprinted for her own death. Her heart grew heavy when at last she got to the evening when the Captain of the Royal Guard prowled into her life, and a tyrant's son had offered her a shot at freedom. She told him what she could about the competition and how she'd won it, until her words slurred and her eyelids drooped. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I wish you to become who you ­were born to be. To become queen. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Gods, without his magic ... Humans were remarkable. To be able to survive without leaning on magic ... He had to give them credit. ~ Sarah J. Maas

She would not waste energy missing him, wishing he were here to talk everything through, or to just have the comfort of waking up beside him and knowing he existed. She swallowed ~ Sarah J. Maas

Where is Aelin.
Where is my wife? ~ Sarah J. Maas

I've never taken a woman on a beach," - Rowan Whitethorn ~ Sarah J. Maas

Better than being a dog leashed by a psychotic monster. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Fae warriors: invaluable in a fight - and raging pains in her ass at all other times. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Thirty minutes later, Rowan was still staring up at the ceiling, teeth gritted as he calmed the roaring in
his veins that was steadily shredding through his self-control.
That gods-damned nightgown.
Shit.
He was in such deep, unending shit. ~ Sarah J. Maas

And tell Rowan," Aelin said, fighting her own sob, "that I'm sorry I lied. But tell him it was all borrowed time anyway. Even before today, I knew it was all just borrowed time, but I still wish we'd had more of it." She fought past her trembling mouth. "Tell him he has to fight. He must save Terrasen, and remember the vows he made to me. And tell him . . . tell him thank you - for walking that dark path with me back to the light. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Their hands clasped between them, he whispered into her ear, I claim you, too, Aelin Galathynius. ~ Sarah J. Maas

But she didn't want to know - didn't want to think about the Sun Goddess and her agenda as she flung herself on Rowan, breathing in his scent, memorizing the feel of him. The first member of her court - the court that would change the world. The court that would rebuild it. Together. ~ Sarah J. Maas

He gripped her hard, forcing her to meet his eyes as he snarled, "I see you. I see every part of you. And I am not afraid."
I will not be afraid.
A line in the burning brightness.
My name is Aelin Ashryver Galathynius . . .
And I will not be afraid. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I know you are tired, Fireheart. I know that the burden on your shoulders is more than anyone should endure. But we'll face this together. Erawan, the Lock, all of it. We'll face it together... We'll face it together. And if the cost of it truly is you, then we'll pay it together. As one soul in two bodies. ~ Sarah J. Maas

She wondered whether the queen knew. Rowan did. Aedion did. And Arobynn did. He had understood that with Rowan, she was no longer afraid of him; with Rowan, Arobynn was now utterly unnecessary. Irrelevant. ~ Sarah J. Maas

You will keep other people out of it!" she screamed, so loudly that the birds stopped chattering. She thrashed against him, gripping his wrists. "No one else!"
"Tell me why, Aelin."
That gods-damned name . . . She dug her nails into his wrists. "Because I am sick of it!" She was gulping down air, each breath shuddering as the horrific realization she'd been holding at bay since Nehemia's death came loose. "I told her I would not help, so she orchestrated her own death. Because she thought . . ." She laughed - a horrible, wild sound. "She thought that her death would spur me into action. She thought I could somehow do more than her - that she was worth more dead. And she lied - about everything. She lied to me because I was a coward, and I hate her for it. I hate her for leaving me.
Rowan still pinned her, his warm blood dripping onto her face.
She had said it. Said the words she'd been choking on for weeks and weeks. The rage seeped from her like a wave pulling away from shore, and she let go of his wrists. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Tell me that we'll get through tomorrow. Tell me that we'll survive the war. Tell me - " She swallowed hard. "Tell me that even if I lead us all to ruin, we'll burn in hell together. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Your skills when it comes to complimenting women are unparalleled. ~ Sarah J. Maas

It was a long story, and sometimes she grew quiet and cried - and during those times he leaned over to wipe away her tears. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I claim you, Rowan Whitethorn. I don't care what you say and how much you protest. I claim you as my friend. ~ Sarah J. Maas

She sucked in a shuddering breath, and he pulled back far enough for them to share breath. Her fingers shook as she brushed them against his mouth, and his control nearly shredded apart right there.
'What are you waiting for?' he said, the words near guttural.
'Bastard,' she murmured, and kissed him.
Her mouth was soft and warm, and he bit back a groan. His body went still - his entire world went still - at that whisper of a kiss, the answer to a question he'd asked for centuries. He realized he was staring only when she withdrew slightly. His fingers tightened at her waist.
'Again,' he breathed.
She slid out of his grip. 'If we live through tomorrow, you'll get the rest.'
He didn't know whether to laugh or roar. 'Are you trying to bribe me into surviving?'
She smiled at last. And damn if it didn't kill him, the quiet joy in her face.
They had walked out of darkness and pain and despair together. They were still walking out of it. So that smile … It struck him stupid every time he saw it and realized it was for him. ~ Sarah J. Maas

The next Monday, assembly seemed to go on forever. The kindy kids got up to sing 'Kookaburra', and then half of year two were awarded certificates for reading. Holly thought it would never end. Then ~ Rowan McAuley

I guess I work in small ways. It's kind of like this story someone told me, about a guy on the beach in Mexico throwing starfish in the sea. Thousands had washed ashore. Someone asked him why - 'Why are you wasting your time, when there are so many? You can't possibly make a difference.'"
"I know that story! The man threw another one back, and said -"
"'Made a difference to that one!'" Rowan finishes. ~ Kirsten Hubbard

We make a messed-up pair, don't we?"
"The soldier and the junkie," Daniel said with a self deprecating chuckle.
"Ex-soldier and ex-junkie," Sam corrected him. "We're getting there. ~ Isabelle Rowan

And had then acted territorial enough to make Rowan wonder if he seemed so ridiculous around Aelin all the time. ~ Sarah J. Maas

She wanted to be his everything. ~ Cate Rowan

Ah, Eugenie. I know. We will be victorious, you and me. We're the strongest monarchs in this world. You and I will lead this army, and we will conquer the Rowan land. We'll split it between us, adding on to our kingdoms ... and from there, we can go anywhere. We could rule half this world together - all of this world - you and me. Kingdom after kingdom would fall to us ... ~ Richelle Mead

You will suffer the greatest agony of all," Goddard told him after he was revived from their final bout. "You will be gleaned in the presence of the Grandslayers, and you will disappear. You won't be a footnote in history, you will be erased from it. It will be as though you never lived."

"I can see how that would be a horrifying thought for you," Rowan told Goddard. "But I don't have a burning need to make my existence the center of the universe. Disappearing is fine with me. ~ Neal Shusterman

I didn't see then what I see now, that the things that make us unremarkable are also the very things we'll fight to death to protect. Unremarkable things turn us into heroes. ~ Rowan Coleman

Institutions develop because people put a lot of trust in them, they meet real needs, they represent important aspirations, whether it's monasteries, media, or banks, people begin by trusting these institutions, and gradually the suspicion develops that actually they're working for themselves, not for the community. ~ Rowan Williams

For the first three months I knew him, I thought Lassie was Rowan Atkinson. ~ Shawn Spencer

I wish it back," she said in uncharacteristic sharpness. "I don't care to cast blame. I just want it back. It is, after all, my personal property. Not meant for anyone else to read." "Full of juicy secrets, is it?" Julian asked, eyes glinting. "About you? Or about all of us?" "Perhaps I shall have to track down this ghost and claim the journal myself," Rowan said. "Sounds like interesting reading." Emma lifted her chin. "I assure you, you would find it frightfully dull." "Your blush tells a different tale." Julian smirked. ~ Julie Klassen

I think there is a great deal of interest still in the Christian faith. ~ Rowan Williams

Despite herself, despite what she'd done, she decided she wanted Rowan to call her milady at least once every day. ~ Sarah J. Maas

That was all Celaena needed to hear before she tossed the ring to Maeve, before Rowan rushed to her, his hands on her cheeks, his brow against her own. "Aelin," he murmured, and it wasn't a reprimand, or a thank-you, but ... a prayer. "Aelin," he whispered again, grinning, and kissed her brow before he dropped to both knees before her. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I have a problem with Porsches. They're wonderful cars, but I know I could never live with one. Somehow, the typical Porsche people-and I wish them no ill-are not, I feel, my kind of people. I don't go around saying that Porsches are a pile of dung, but I do know that psychologically I couldn't handle owning one. ~ Rowan Atkinson

Rowan knew it was now possible to look directly at Zandra, Zandra the Princess of Jupiter, the one he had loved all his life. He reached out to take her hand. True, he was covered all over with scars and scratches and stitches, but then, in a way, so was she. The end. ~ Phoebe Stone

He stepped closer, and her body warmed as if he were the sun. ~ Cate Rowan

I love you. I love everything about you. Your voice, your laugh. Your eyebrows when they grow back. Your face, your body, your hard head and your cautious heart. I want to spend the rest of my life looking at you, listening to you, working with you, just being with you. Rowan of the purple lupines. ~ Nora Roberts

Doctrinal formulae are neither a set of neat definitions nor some sort of affront to the free-thinking soul; they are words that tell us enough truth to bring us to the edge of speech, and words that sustain enough common life to hold us there together in worship and mutual love... I learned to rethink Hegel and to grasp that what he was concerned with was not a system that could be projected on to some detached reality 'out there', but a habit of thinking that always sought to understand itself as a process of self-questioning and self-dissolution in the process of discovering *real* language - and thus real thinking. It is the energy of surpassing the settled individual self in the journey to truth... The Hegelian point (as I understand it) is that meaning does not come in the gaps between words or things, but in the way in which the structure and the surface of the world and speech can be so read and heard as to lead us into new and strange configurations of understanding - how words and things always deliver more than themselves, more than a series of objects and labels, and so both undermine and re-establish appearances.

Hans Urs von Balthasar... developed an aesthetic of extraordinary depth in which some of the same themes may be discerned. His 'dramatic' construal of the world is meant to remind us that we do not start from intuitions of spiritual truth and then embody them in some way in practices and words. First we are addressed and engaged by what is utt ~ Rowan Williams

[T]here is no goodness that is not bodily and realistic and local. ~ Rowan Williams

All amusement faded from Fenrys's beautiful face. "You're a bastard, Rowan. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I can hear my brother's voice in my head. Your problem is that you're too emotional.
But how can I not be emotional, Rowan? How can I not care? ~ Lauren DeStefano

It would have been nice, she supposed. It would have been nice to have one person who knew the absolute truth about her
and didn't hate her for it.
It would have been really, really nice.
She walked away without another word. With each step she took back to her room, that flickering light inside of her guttered.
And went out. ~ Sarah J. Maas

You make me want to live, Rowan. Not survive; not exist. Live. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I'm a witch, not a Ouija board."
--Rowan Gant (Perfect Trust: A Rowan Gant Investigation) ~ M.R. Sellars

just before his arrival his two lieutenants had very nearly come to blows over the meaning of the word dromedary. They were both good seamen and amiable companions, but they were both given to writing verse, Mowett being devoted to the heroic couplet while Rowan preferred a Pindaric freedom, and each thought the other's not only incorrect but devoid of grammar, sense, meaning, and poetic inspiration. At two bells in the afternoon watch this rivalry had spilled over on to the name of the transport: why, it was difficult to make out, since dromedary could not conceivably be made to rhyme with anything ~ Patrick O'Brian

Dorian nodded his thanks. "The first time you met Aelin, did you know...?"
A snort. "No. Gods, no. We wanted to kill each other." The amusement flickered. "She was... in a very dark place. We both were. But we led each other out of it. Found a way-- together."
For a heartbeat, Dorian could only stare. As if reading his mind, Rowan said, "You'll find your way, too, Dorian. You'll find your way out. ~ Sarah J. Maas

Rowan doesn´t know me as well as he thinks," he murmured, seemingly unconcerned with the jagged blades closing in on him, "otherwise he never would´ve made such a mistake."
Edgebriar smiled, leering at Ash fron behind the trio of knights, content to let his guards engage the Winter prince.
"And what mistake would that be?"
"There only four of you. ~ Julie Kagawa

I was never a watering pot before I met Charles," he [Tris] sobbed. "It's all his fault."
"You never cared before you met Charles," Derek said quietly "You never loved before you met Charles. ~ Rowan Speedwell

We all want to be stronger and better. Sometimes just to prove that we're good enough to be respected ... or loved. ~ Isabelle Rowan

When I asked her about her marriage, she'd only say that sometimes people, even those who love each other, can hurt each other just by being themselves. ~ Cate Rowan

Aelin can decide what to tell you." "Such a good dog." Rowan ~ Sarah J. Maas

The tattoos around his eyes burned as he scanned the surrounding area. No one but him probably noticed, but the plumes of darkness branching in every direction were writhing and groaning, desperate to avoid the light of the moon and street lamps.
Come to me, he beseeched them.
They didn't hesitate. As if they'd merely been waiting for the invitation, they danced toward him, flattening against his car, shielding it - and thereby him - from prying eyes.
"Freaks me out every damn time you do that," Rowan said as he crawled into the front passenger seat. For the first time, Sean's friend had accompanied him to "keep you from doing something you'll regret." Not that Gabby had known. Rowan had lain in the backseat the entire drive. "I can't see a damn thing."
"I can." Sean's gaze could cut through shadows as easily as a knife through butter.
Gabby was in the process of settling behind the wheel of her car. Though more than two weeks had passed since their kiss, they hadn't touched again. Not even a brush of fingers.
He was becoming desperate for more.
That kiss . . . it was the hottest of his life. He'd forgotten where he was, what - and who - was around him. He'd never, never, risked discovery like that. But that night, having Gabby so close, those lush lips of hers parted and ready, those brown eyes watching him as if he were something delicious, he'd been unable to stop himself. He'd beckoned the shadows around them, meshed their lips together, ~ Gena Showalter

On the second floor was the office in which Houston pounded an ancient typewriter with two fingers, always setting an example of unceasing hard work for his admiring students. They had no hint of the fact that their hard-driving dean had contracted tuberculosis while serving as a GI in France in Word War I. Houstan always seemed vibrant and impassioned in the chase for justice as he tried to expose his students to everything relating to the law that might give them an advantage.
...
"I never worked hard until I got to the Howard Law School and met Charlie Houston," Marshal told me. "I saw this man's dedication, his vision, his willingness to sacrifice, and I told myself, 'You either shape up or ship out.' When you are being challenged by a great human being, you know that you can't ship out."
So Houston rescued Marshall and launched him into a career as one of the greatest lawyers in American history. ~ Carl T. Rowan