Shana Abe > Quotes

“I heard what you said. I’m not the silly romantic you think. I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want…a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.”
― Shana Abe

“I've wanted you from the moment I first saw you in the museum. Before that. I wanted every part of you from the first time I felt you, your presence. I want you in the sky, and against the earth. I want to kiss you again, I want to touch you, I want to feel you in my arms and I want to hear you gasping my name when I'm inside you. I want all that, and I want it badly. Every time I look at you, I want it. So you're going to have to become used to that, Rue. It won't change."
(Christoff to Rue)”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“All that effort,” he mused, “merely to avoid me. How gratifying.”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“I didn’t want to be in love with you. I didn’t want to believe in love at all. It’s never happened to me before. And to be perfectly frank, I’m still not entirely happy about the whole thing. I think—it’s going to be exhausting. You’re domineering and devious and I’ve noticed that whenever we’re not kissing, I wish we were.” Her voice had grown nearly plaintive; she stopped and cleared her throat. “It’s a damnable situation. I don’t know what to do about it.”
He eyed her from the chair. “I’m pigheaded, too. Pray don’t forget that.”
“Certainly not. It was the next thing I was going to mention.”
“My sweet, your notion of love is unique, to say the least. I wonder that you haven’t written me sonnets already. Something like ‘Ode to the Blackguard.”
― Shana Abe, Queen of Dragons

“Lia: "You've changed your mind about wanting to marry me. You're afraid I'll burn down your home. Embarrass you in front of all the other city brutes."

Zane: "I'm afraid," he said gently, "that you will burn down my heart.”
― Shana Abe, The Dream Thief

“I didn't ask you to catch me!"

"You're so delightful when you're irrational. Of course I'm going to catch you." He slid a hand behind her nape and kissed her again. "It's what I do.”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“Is that why you came?'
'No, I came because I simply can't get enough of people looking down their noses at me. The girls at school are getting frightfully lax about it.'
'Are they? How remiss of them. We're taught from the cradle how to look down our noses, you know, we rich sons of bitches. Perhaps Westcliffe's curriculum is a tad too liberal these days.”
― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark

“My dowry is thirty-five. A year.”
His brows climbed. “You’re joking.”
“I would never joke about money with a notorious thief. Just imagine, in a mere two years you’re at a profit.”
“How I adore a woman who does mathematics in her head.”
“I can forge signatures as well.”
“Splendid. Exactly the bride I’ve been hoping for.”
― Shana Abe

“She was spirit and presence, as rare and brilliant as snowflakes in sunlight, and he could not bring himself to harm her.”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“I would have done anything. Don’t you know that?”
“No.”
“Then you haven’t been paying close attention. I love you. Even more than gold and dreams, I love you. It seems insane you haven’t realized it. You were the one who first informed me of it.”
“I broke your leg,” she said”
― Shana Abe

“You’re naught but a human man. You couldn’t possibly understand.”
He lifted a brow, still smiling. “Liar.”
“Cutpurse.”
“Runaway.”
“Swindler!
“Coward,” he said softly, and she jerked back.
“Bastard!”
“Undoubtedly true.” He made a short bow.”
― Shana Abe

“Trust you? Rue--trust you? You counterfeited your own death rather than wed me. You told me you'd rather die than stay in Darkfrith. I can't--I don't know how to fix that. I don't know how to mend it. Tell me." He took a step toward her. "Tell me, and I'll do it.”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“I confess, as much as I enjoyed you in breeches, you hold up that gown rather well."

"You truly have stopped tying to be charming."

"You're the most ravishing creature in the world, sweet Rue, even when hidden behind feathers and beads. How was that?”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“He’d never liked tea. It seemed somewhat ridiculous to him, to interrupt his day with miniature cakes and dry, crustless sandwiches, and fragile china that always seemed about to snap in half between his fingers. Tea, Kimber reasoned, was a feminine invention, ruled by females of a certain type: ruffled, beribboned, and iron-willed.”
― Shana Abe, Queen of Dragons

“I need to keep sharp. But when you're this damned close to me, all I think about is you. I think about your mouth, and I think about your breasts, and I think about your pink tongue and your legs wrapped around me. I think about touching you and you touching me--and then I look at you and you're giving me that look--yes, that one, just there, as if you want me to kiss you--please stop--" He exhaled on a hiss, tipping his head back against the wood and pressing two fingers to the bridge of his nose.”
― Shana Abe, The Dream Thief

“You snore.”
“I don’t!”
“Only a little. Very ladylike snores. I found them charming.”
― Shana Abe

“No Regrets.”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“I won’t trouble you long,” said Maricara. “No doubt you have all manner of pressing plans to consider. Spies to engage. Betrayals to enact. That sort of thing.”
“Only on Sundays,” Kim replied. “It’s Tuesday. We’re discussing stealing sweetmeats from small children today.”
― Shana Abe, Queen of Dragons

“I don’t know how these matters are supposed to go,” she said finally, in the dark. “I was raised amid mountains and the Milky Way. But it seems to me that if a lady tells a gentleman she is in love with him, even if she’s actually just a serf, he ought to either reciprocate the emotion or else leave the room.”
“Oh? Is there not a third option? Perhaps, say, a thorough ravishment instead?”
“That is hardly gentlemanly. And I don’t think you should call me Princess any longer, either. I’ll be a countess, I suppose.”
“No, beloved. Remember? A king.”
“I’ll settle for queen.”
― Shana Abe, Queen of Dragons

“You said I was pretty, before."
"Did I?" A new laugh escaped him, mirthless. "How unoriginal. I must be the master of understatement. I think you're goddamned radiant, and you know it. Sometimes I think if I look at you too long I'll go blind, like a lunatic staring straight into the sun. No," he said in a savage undertone, and let the gown fall back to the floor. "You're not pretty.”
― Shana Abe, The Dream Thief

“It wasn't an itch. It was a sickness. It was poison blazing through him, thinking of her all the time, watching her, touching her, wanting and wanting and wanting until his mind went black.”
― Shana Abe, The Dream Thief

“He felt beyond himself. He felt for the first time in his adult life a shadow of fear in his heart--fear for her, for what he actually wanted from her--and for himself, for what he might do.”
― Shana Abe, The Dream Thief

“She did what she could for him. She kissed him in return. She lost her breath and both her hearts, and finally Turned to smoke and back.”
― Shana Abe, The Dream Thief

“nothing helped tea. It simply was what it was, which was boiling hot and flavorless.”
― Shana Abe, The Sweetest Dark

“Whether you like it or not, we are your blood."
"Half my blood."
"Aye," agreed the marquess, sober. "Although 'twould seem you've gotten the better half by far. All beauty, none of the beast."
She blinked at that, crossed her arms.
"How charming! Had you planned that for long?"
"Only since this morning." He shrugged, unabashed. "I'll do better in London."
"Please, don't bother."
"I'm afraid I cant help myself. I'm charming by nature.”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“Im going to kiss you, Eleanore" he said quietly, still looking at her. "Not now. Later." His eyes cut back to mine. "I thought it fair to tell you first." I stilled. "If you think you can do so without me biting your lip, feel free to try." His gaze shone wicked blue. "I dont mind if you bite." "Biting your lip off, I should have said." "Ah,Lets see how it goes, shall we?”
― Shana Abe

“I am wed now. My husband is Zane. I’m sorry.”
― Shana Abe, Queen of Dragons

“In the dark he glimmered with starlight. When they altered directions the swelling hush of the wind filled her ears, but when they glided, when they rode the wings of the air itself, she heard only him. The whispered resonance of his flight, respiration, heartbeat. Quiet. As if the cosmos had never held anything but them, as if above and below, in all the black glittering solitude of the universe, there would never be anyone else but them.”
― Shana Abe, The Smoke Thief

“Your Grace:
Others come. Prepare for Invasion.
—M.”
― Shana Abe, Queen of Dragons

“Your Royal Grace,
Forgive my boldness. If I might inquire: How old are you?
—Kimber”
― Shana Abe, Queen of Dragons