V E Schwab Quotes

Lila!" he said cheerfully. "So you aren't a figment of my brothers imagination after all. ~ V.E Schwab

Kell had a strange feeling about the girl, but he pushed it aside. ~ V.E Schwab

Delilah Bard had a way of finding trouble. She'd always thought it was better than letting trouble find her, but floating in the ocean in a two-person skiff with no oars, no view of land, and no real resources save the ropes binding her wrists, she was beginning to reconsider. The ~ V.E Schwab

Kings need not raise their voices to be heard. ~ V.E Schwab

He didn't want to rule the world. He only wanted to save it. Athos ~ V.E Schwab

And Ulysses stopped up his ears against the siren's song," recited Victor, pulling the plugs from his own ears as Serena collapsed to the dirt lot, "for it was death. ~ V.E Schwab

One adventure at a time. ~ V.E Schwab

What a waste of life, to stand around and think so much on every little thing. ~ V.E Schwab

She handed back the cigar and dug the silver watch out of her vest pocket. It was warm and smooth, and she didn't know why she liked it so much, but she did. Maybe because it was a choice. Taking it had been a choice. Keeping it had been one, too. And maybe the choice started as a random one, but there was something to it. ~ V.E Schwab

He was sitting in the back of the booth, and Lila on the outside edge, as far from him as possible. She couldn't shake the feeling he was watching her beneath that brimmed cap, even though every time she checked, his attention was leveled on the tavern behind her head. His fingers traced absent pattern in a pool of spilled ale, but his green eye twitched in concentration. It took her several long seconds to realize he was counting bodies in the room.

"Nineteen," she said coolly, and Alucard and Kell both looked at her as if she'd spoken out of turn, but Holland simply answered, "Twenty," and despite herself, Lila swiveled in her seat. She did a swift count. He was right. She'd missed on e of the men behind the bar. Dammit.

"If you have to use your eyes," he added, "you're doing it wrong. ~ V.E Schwab

Kell tipped his head so that his copper hair tumbled out of his eyes, revealing not only the crisp blue of the left one but the solid black of the right. A black that ran edge to edge, filling white and iris both. There was nothing human about that eye. It was pure magic. The mark of the blood magician. ~ V.E Schwab

Magic was a living thing---that, everyone knew---but to Kell it felt like more, like a friend, like family. It was, after all, a part of him (much more than it was a part of most) and he couldn't help feeling like it knew what he was saying, what he was feeling, not only when he summoned it, but always, in every heartbeat and every breath. He was, after all, Antari. ~ V.E Schwab

Kell looked her in the eyes. "You will be trapped there," he said. "When it is over."
Lila shivered. "Perhaps," she said, "or perhaps I will go with you to the end of the world. After all, you've made me curious. ~ V.E Schwab

Are you afraid yet? he would ask when the floor was slick with Eli's blood. Are you afraid? ~ V.E Schwab

Master Kell," said Alucard, cheerfully. "What an unexpected pleasure, running into you here." His voice had a natural undercurrent of laughter in it, and Kell could never tell if he was being mocked.
"I don't see how it's unexpected," said Kell, "as I live here. What is unexpected is running into you, since I thought I made myself quite clear the last time we met."
"Quite," echoed Alucard.
"Then what were you doing in my brother 's chambers?"
Alucard raised a single studded brow. "Do you want a detailed account? Or will a summary suffice? ~ V.E Schwab

No," he said. "That's not magic, Lila. That's just murder. ~ V.E Schwab

In myths, the hero survives.
The evil is vanquished.
The world is set right.
Sometimes there are celebrations, and sometimes there are funerals.
The dead are buried. The living move on.
Nothing changes.
Everything changes.
This is a myth.
This is not a myth. ~ V.E. Schwab

Oh yes, your relationship with Miss Bard is positively ordinary."
"Be quiet."
"Crossing worlds, killing royals, saving cities. The marks of every good courtship. ~ V.E Schwab

Go on," Kell told him without taking his eyes from Lila. " Get some rest."

Hastra shifted. "I can't, sir," he said. "I'm to escort Miss Bard--"

"I'll take that charge," cut in Kell. Hastra bit his lip and retreated several steps.

Lila let her forehead come to rest against his, her face so close the features blurred. And yet, that fractured eye shone with frightening clarity.

"You never told me," he whispered.

"You never noticed," she answered. And then, "Alucard did."

The blow landed, and Kell started to pull away when Lila's eyelids fluttered and she swayed dangerously.

He braced her. "Come on," he said gently. "I have a room upstairs. Why don't we--"

A sleepy flicker of amusement. "Trying to get me into bed?"

Kell mustered a smile. "It's only fair. I've spent enough time in yours."

"If I remember correctly," she said, her voice dreamy with fatigue, "you were on top of the bed the entire time."

"And tied to it," observed Kell.

Her words were soft at the edges. "Those were the days..." she said, right before she fell forward. It happened so fast Kell could do nothing but throw his arms around her.

"Lila?" he asked, first gently, and then more urgently. "Lila?"

She murmured against his front, something about sharp knives and soft corners, but didn't rouse, and Kell shot a glance at Hastra, who was still standing there, looki ~ V.E. Schwab

There are no good men in this game. ~ V.E Schwab

He was, after all, Antari.
And Antari could speak to blood. To life. To magic itself. ~ V.E Schwab

Lila had discovered that the hardest part of her charade was pretending that everything was old hat when it was all so new, being forced to feign the kind of nonchalance that only comes from a lifetime of knowing and taking for granted. Lila was a quick study, and she knew how to keep up a front; but behind the mask of disinterest, she took in everything. She was a sponge, soaking up the words and customs, training herself to see something once and be able to pretend she'd seen it a dozen - a hundred - times before. ~ V.E Schwab

She felt like a god. She dreamed of people who could fight back. Of wills strong enough to resist her. ~ V.E Schwab

The name of the place was Is Vesnara Shast, which translated to The Wandering Road. What Lila didn't know, not until she saw Lenos's unease, was that the Arnesian word for road - shast - was the same as the word for soul. ~ V.E Schwab

Whatever I am, let it be enough ~ V.E Schwab

(...)Lila, one of these days, you're going to get yourself killed."
"Would you miss me?" she asked.
"Like an itch," he shot back. ~ V.E. Schwab

Please tell me this is easier to take off than it was to put on."
Calla raised a brow. "You do not think Master Kell knows how? ~ V.E Schwab

Sure I do," countered Lila cheerfully. "There's Dull London, Kell London, Creepy London, and Dead London," she recited, ticking them off on her fingers. "See? I'm a fast learner. ~ V.E Schwab

He hadn't meant to do it. That is to say, he hadn't set out in his car with the /intent/ to kill the janitor. But he /had/ unearthed Sykes's rotation schedule, and he /had/ gotten in his car at the same time that Sykes clocked out of his once-a-week night shift, and he /had/ seen him crossing the road, and he /had/ sped up. ~ V.E Schwab

What child didn't wish to know if his bedtime stories were the stuff of fiction or of truth? ~ V.E Schwab

You look like Snow White killed the queen and stole the mirror. ~ V.E. Schwab

Standing there on display was painful enough.
Now came the truly unfortunate task of socializing. ~ V.E Schwab

She felt frozen all over again but in a different way. It wasn't icy water. It was fear. ~ V.E Schwab

She sank her teeth into his bottom lip, drawing blood, and gave a wicked laugh, and still he kissed her. Not out of desperation or hope or for luck, but simply because he wanted to. Saints, he wanted to. He kissed her until the cold night fell away and his whole body sang with heat. He kissed her until the fire burned up the panic and the anger and the weight in his chest, until he could breathe again, and until they were both breathless. ~ V.E. Schwab

...it is sad, of course, to forget.
But it is a lonely thing, to be forgotten.
To remember when no one else does. ~ V.E. Schwab

I keep wondering, if all of it is my fault. Where does it start, Tieren? With Holland's choice, or with mine?"
The priest looked at him, eyes bright within his tired face, and shook his head. For once, the old man didn't seem to have the answer. ~ V.E Schwab

But what stops one from committing sins, if they have nothing to fear?" Kell shrugged. "I've seen people sin in the name of god, and in the name of magic. People misuse their higher powers, no matter what form they take. ~ V.E Schwab

When this is over," she said, tucking the watch into a fold of her cloak. "I want to be the one to slit his throat. ~ V.E Schwab

Lila was drawn less to the water and more to the ships blanketing it. Vessels of all shapes and sizes, from brigs and galleys to schooners and frigates, bobbed on the red waves, their sails billowing. Dozens of emblems marked the fabric on their masts and flanks, but over them all, red and gold banners had been hung. They glittered, taunting her. Come aboard, they seemed to say. I can be yours. Had Lila been a man, and the ships fair maidens guiding up their skirts, she could not have wanted them more. Hang the fine dresses, she thought. I'll take a ship. ~ V.E Schwab

He kissed her until the cold night fell away and his whole body sang with heat. ~ V.E. Schwab

It's weird, isn't it? How cities change. Buildings go up, and come down, and it looks the same - and different. ~ V.E. Schwab

No one saw me go. No one thinks to look for someone who's always there. - Ilsa ~ V.E. Schwab

Mother... fucker... ~ V.E Schwab

The earth beneath your feet does not care you will be king. Nor the water in your cup. Nor the air you breathe. You must speak to them as equal, or even better, as supplicant. ~ V.E Schwab

Dead men can't hold grudges. ~ V.E Schwab

Lila knew what it felt like to want something, knew the way it whispered and sang and screamed in your bones. And this felt like that, but wasn't. An impostor of longing. ~ V.E Schwab

Rhy shook his head, exasperated. "Kell isn't the only one you fail to understand. My bond with him didn't start with this curse. You wanted him to kill for me, die for me, protect me at all costs. Well, Mother, you got your wish. You simply failed to realize that that kind of love, that bond, it goes both ways. I would kill for him, and I would die for him, and I will protect him however I am able, from Faro and Vesk, from White London, and Black London, and from you. ~ V.E. Schwab

My life is mine to spend," she said. "And I will not spend it here, no matter how nice your city is, or how much safer it might be. We had a deal, Kell. And now you have Tieren to guard your story and heal your brother. I'm of no use to him. Let me be of use to you. ~ V.E Schwab

It's always hard, when introducing readers to a new world/set of rules, not to lay it all out manual-style in the opening chapters but make sure to put the action and the characters at the front. If people don't become invested in them and in the story, the world in which it's set will become a burden. ~ V.E Schwab

Magic was a truly beautiful disease. ~ V.E Schwab

Knowledge may be power, but money buys both. ~ V.E. Schwab

The world is neither fair nor right, but it has a way of balancing itself. ~ V.E Schwab

Me?" she said, pushing open the doors. "I'd choose clever. ~ V.E Schwab

It was like a magnet, constantly drawing his eye, but Victor forced himself not to stop and look at it. Not to think about what it meant, that Eli Cardale was really, truly dead. The way the knowledge knocked Victor off-balance. A counterweight finally removed.
An opposite but equal force erased. ~ V.E. Schwab

Some people steal to stay alive, and some steal to feel alive. Simple as that. ~ V.E Schwab

Sydney, look at me.' He rested his hands on the car roof and leaned in. 'No one is going to hurt you. Do you know why?' She shook her head, and Victor smiled. 'Because I'll hurt them first. ~ V.E Schwab

Magic may be infinite. But spells are made by men. ~ V.E. Schwab

Lila looked to Kell. "You didn't teach me this one."
His jaw was slack. "I … I didn't know it."
Holland gave them both a bland look. "Amazing," he said dryly. "There are still things you haven't learned. ~ V.E. Schwab

She bent most of the rules. She broke the rest. ~ V.E Schwab

Magic bent the world. Pulled it into shape. There were fixed points. Most of the time those points were places. But sometimes, rarely, they were people. ~ V.E Schwab

Sometimes you had to pretend, everyone knew that. Pretend to be happy. Pretend to be brave. Pretend to be strong. If you pretended long enough, it eventually came true. Pretending ~ V.E Schwab

She felt like Alice in Wonderland. Like the soda must have had a little drink me tag and now the room was shrinking, or she was growing, or either way there wasn't enough space. ~ V.E. Schwab

Power required corruption, and corruption rewarded power. ~ V.E Schwab

If he weren't currently in the back of a cop car, he would have wanted to make a thesis note. ~ V.E Schwab

You know so little of war. Battles may be fought from the outside in, but wars are won from the inside out. ~ V.E Schwab

She'd been betrayed, shot, saved, healed, hurt, healed again, forced to resurrect two men, only to witness the reassassination of one of them. ~ V.E Schwab

Delilah Bard - always a thief, recently a magician, and one day, hopefully, a pirate - was running as fast as she could. Hold ~ V.E Schwab

If magic coursed through everyone and everything, was that what it felt like when it found itself again? ~ V.E Schwab

Only fools are certain. ~ V.E Schwab

A small prickle ran through Victor when he spotted her, the voyeuristic thrill of seeing someone before they see you, of being able to simply watch. ~ V.E Schwab

The voices started up again, but they couldn't stop her now. The waiting was over. There was no turning back, and that simple fact made it easier to go forward. The ~ V.E Schwab

A respectable prison is still a prison. ~ V.E Schwab

He listened to the shhk of metal sliding home, then turned to find Lila waiting, her back purposely to the tavern, as if her present were already her past. ~ V.E Schwab

Are you strong enough to win?" she asked. Was he? This wasn't a tournament magician. Wasn't even a sliver of magic like Vitari. Osaron had destroyed an entire world. Changed another on a whim. "I don't know," he said honestly. Lila flashed a glimmer of a smile, sharp as glass. "Good," she answered, pushing open the door. "Only fools are certain." * ~ V.E Schwab

You don't understand," gasped Eli. "No one understands." "When no one understands, that's usually a good sign that you're wrong." Eli ~ V.E Schwab

Don't you see?" said Calla. "He wasn't coming to pay your debt. He was coming to see if you'd returned to pay it yourself." Lila felt her face go hot. "I do not know why you two are circling each other like stars. It is not my cosmic dance. But I do know that you come asking after one another, when only a few strides and a handful of stars divide you. ~ V.E Schwab

The worst part of going numb was that it took away everything but this, the smothering need to hurt, to break, to kill, pouring over him like a thick blanket of syrup until he panicked and brought the physical sensations back. ~ V.E Schwab

I put my life into His hands." "Well," said Victor, earnestly, "let's hope He gives it back. ~ V.E Schwab

Astrid Dane. . . Her long colorless hair was woven back into a braid, and her porcelain skin bled straight into the edges of her tunic. Her entire outfit was fitted to her like armor; the collar of her shirt was high and rigid, guarding her throat, and the tunic itself ran from chin to wrist to waist, less out of a sense of modesty, Kell was sure, than protection. Below a gleaming silver belt, she wore fitted pants that tapered into tall boots (rumor had it that a man once spat at her for refusing to wear a dress; she'd cut off his lips). The only bits of color were the pale blue of her eyes and the greens and reds of the talismans that hung from her neck and wrists and were threaded through her hair. . .
"I smell something sweet," she said. She'd been gazing up at the ceiling. Now her eyes wandered
down and landed on Kell. "Hello, flower boy. ~ V.E Schwab

He?" asked Victor incredulously. He wasn't in the mood for God. Not this morning. "According to your thesis," he said, "an influx of adrenaline and a desire to survive gave you that talent. Not God. This isn't divinity, Eli. It's science and chance."
"Maybe to a point, but when I climbed into that water, I put myself in His hands - "
"No," snapped Victor. "You put yourself in mine". ~ V.E. Schwab

(he thought it particularly foolish to endow inmates with a detailed sense of the positions of vital organs, but there you go), ~ V.E Schwab

Because Rhy didn't need his protection, not anymore, and he'd only told a partial truth when he said they both needed this.
The whole truth was, Rhy needed it more.
Because Kell had given him a gift he did not want, could never repay.
He'd always envied his brother 's strength.
And now, in a horrible way, it was his.
He was immortal.
And he hated it.
And he hated that he hated it. Hated that he'd become the thing he never wanted to be, a burden to his brother, a source of pain and suffering, a prison. Hated that if he'd had a choice, he would have said no. Hated that he was grateful he hadn't had a choice, because he wanted to live, even if he didn't deserve to.
But most of all, Rhy hated the way his living changed how Kell lived, the way his brother moved through life as if it were suddenly fragile. The black stone, and whatever lived inside it, and for a time in Kell, had changed his brother, woken something restless, something reckless. Rhy wanted to shout, to shake Kell and tell him not to shy away from danger on his account, but charge toward it, even if it meant getting hurt.
Because Rhy deserved that pain.
He could see his brother suffocating beneath the weight of it. Of him.
And he hated it.
And this gesture - this foolish, mad, dangerous gesture - was the best he could do.
The most he could do. ~ V.E. Schwab

Everyone thinks I have a death wish, you know? But I don't want to die - dying is easy. No, I want to live, but getting close to death is the only way to feel alive. And once you do, it makes you realize that everything you were actually doing before wasn't actually living. It was just making do. Call me crazy, but I think we do the best living when the stakes are high. ~ V.E Schwab

He suffered," added Athos softly. "But not like you." He brought his mouth closer. "No one suffers as beautifully as you." There it was, in the corner of Holland's mouth, the crease of his eye. Anger. Pain. Defiance. Athos smiled, victorious. ~ V.E Schwab

You remember me, and I'll remember you, and that way we won't be forgotten." "That's shit logic, Vic." "It's perfect. ~ V.E Schwab

Ignorance is only bliss if you want to get caught. ~ V.E. Schwab

Myths do not happen all at once.
They do not spring forth whole into the world. They form slowly, rolled between the hands of time until their edges smooth, until the saying of the story gives enough weight to the words - to the memories - to keep them rolling on their own.
But all stories start somewhere, and that night, as Rhy Maresh walked through the streets of London, a new myth was taking shape. ~ V.E Schwab

I thought you said–"

"I said Rhy forgave them. I never said I did. ~ V.E. Schwab

I do not know why you two are circling each other like stars. It is not my cosmic dance. But I do know that you come asking for one another, when only a few strides and a handful of stairs divide you. ~ V.E Schwab

Lila Bard lived by a simple rule: if a thing was worth having, it was worth taking. ~ V.E Schwab

His heart slowed, winding down like a music box, a season at its end.
The last air left Holland's lungs.
And then, at last, the world breathed in. ~ V.E Schwab

How do you know when the Sarows is coming?
(Is coming is coming is coming aboard)
When the wind dies away but still sings in your ears,
(In your ears in your head in your blood in your bones.)
When the current goes still but the ship, it drifts along,
(Drifts on drifts away drifts alone.)
When the moon and the stars all hide from the dark,
(For the dark is not empty at all at all.)
(For the dark is not empty at all.)
How do you know when the Sarows is coming?
(Is coming is coming is coming aboard)
Why you don't and you don't and you won't see it coming,
(You won't see it coming at all.) ~ V.E Schwab

Magic ran between them like a current, a cord, and he wondered who she would have been if she'd stayed in Grey London. If she'd never picked his pocket, never held the contents ransom for adventure.
Maybe she would never have discovered magic.
Or maybe she would have simply changed her world instead of his. ~ V.E Schwab

Ah, there you are, Bard," came a familiar voice, and she turned to see Alucard striding over.
"Saints, is that a dress you're in? The crew will never believe it."
"You've got to be kidding me," growled Kell. ~ V.E Schwab

Purity without balance is its own corruption. ~ V.E Schwab

To clever plans,' said Kell, toasting his brother. 'And dashing princes.'
'To masked magicians,' said Rhy, swiping the wine.
'To mad ideas.'
'To the Essen Tasch.'
'Wouldn't it be amazing,' murmured Rhy later, when the bottle was empty, 'if we got away with it? ~ V.E Schwab

It doesn't bother you, that everyone believes different things?" "Why should it?" he asked. "We all believe the same thing really, we simply give it different names. Hardly a crime." Lila ~ V.E Schwab

She was done playing by other people's rules. Done hiding. If you lived in the dark, you died in the dark. But stand in the light, and it was that much harder to make you disappear. ~ V.E. Schwab

Crime isn't that complicated. People steal because taking something gives them something. If they're not in it for the money, they're in it for the control. The act of taking, breaking the rules, makes them feel powerful. They're in it for the sheer defiance. ~ V.E Schwab

How many men would she have to turn to dust before one took her seriously? ~ V.E. Schwab