Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy #1)

by Jacqueline Carey

the keeping of secrets from adults is oft the only power a child may hope to possess.

‘Love as thou wilt.’”

“That which yields, is not always weak. Choose your victories wisely.”

That which yields, I thought, is not always weak.

We are meant to taste of life, as Blessed Elua did, and drink the cup of it to the dregs, bitter and sweet alike.

“You do not know what I am. If you mistake the yielding in me for weakness, you are fools for it.”

All along, I had thought myself Kushiel’s victim, marked out for the awful divinity of his love. It was something else, to think of myself as his weapon.

there is as much deception in noise as there is in silence.

It is a human failing, to attribute the best of motives to those we know the least, and the worst to those we love best;

“Go,” Hyacinthe said, kissing my brow, his voice unwontedly tender. “Before my heart breaks. Go.”

There are those who are awkward in the face of sorrow, fearing to say the wrong thing; to them, I say, there is no wrong in comfort, ever. A kind word, a consoling arm … these things are ever welcome.

Joscelin laughed softly, and I buried my face in his chest. There was so much between us, and so much that would ever be between us. And yet, I knew, I did not want to be without him.