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Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Every brutal act is born of love.”
Every? Nah, I don't think so.
“The future queen of Ilya bows her head to no one.”
Never thought I would be confused asf instead of kicking my feet when hearing words like these.😖
Anger is too dangerous an emotion to let myself feel.
🤐🤝
I would spend the rest of my days making her flower crowns if she wanted to be a queen. My queen. Not Kitt’s. Not Ilya’s. Mine.
🥺💔
“Then you have no idea how much power you hold over me.” “You seem to forget that I’m completely powerless, Prince.” Her words hold an edge, as though her breath has become a blade she drags along my neck. “So be my weakness, then.”
🙈
So I distract. Deflect.
In fact, my entire life is in shambles and all I can do is stare at the jagged pieces in my palm and laugh. I don’t dare look in a mirror because what stares back is a mosaic of every mistake, every tragedy traced into my skin, and the looming shadow of each one to come.
You learn a lot about someone when you’re their maid.”
Reading between the lines is rather difficult when they are blurred.
Say it louder. 😶🎤
“You don’t need my forgiveness. You only need my protection. And now”—Kitt’s voice grows callous, so opposite his tone toward me—“I’ve given you purpose.”
I may have grown to despise my father in recent weeks, but that does not mean I wish to tarnish our family’s name.”
You mean the one made from killing people for a made-up reason and bribing others to spread hate?
“Why obey a man when I can be a far greater one?
I know that's right! 🤟🏼🤘🏼
For every end, there is always a beginning.
Cruelty molded him into a king, where kindness would have only crippled him.
Says the one who didn't experience kindness and decided to make his sons' lives miserable.
Even still, Iris was hidden away long before the growing of a spare in her womb. Love and paranoia are quite fond of each other, habitually mingling into a suffocating protection.
SPARE? SPARE????? Hiding the wife to shield yourself from the consequences of your actions = love for the wife????
“So bow at my feet with a sneer, if you must. I won’t see it with your face to the ground.”
It seems I’m incapable of carrying on a conversation with substance.
🫂
“Impress me today, darling,” he had whispered, kneeling before me.
I almost admire their devoted detestation for me.
But to be an Ordinary is to prove myself in ways that even Elites cannot.
Perhaps in another life, I am strong enough to never need proof of it. Perhaps in another life, I am brave enough to confess that I love him. Perhaps in another life, I learn to love him from afar. And that is the most fearless thing of them all. So I look away, letting my feet carry me even farther from him.
The sound of my quick breaths echoes around me, accompanied only by the pounding of my heart.
In coming panic attack or migraine or both???
Fear and pain course through me to create a daunting concoction of desperation.
I’ve never felt Death so tangibly, and yet, I recognize his presence all the same. The cold breath on my neck can only belong to the Death I have nearly met so many times before.
And yet, one day I hope she does. Just to show her the extent of what I’m willing to do if only she asks.
Only if she ask? 🥺 Baby, you can do better. I know you will ❤️
This is precisely what I feared—myself.
🫂
I’m shaking, every part of me trembling in fear of what I’ve done. In fear of myself.
But I’m laughing again, strained yet relieved.
But watching isn’t nearly enough. I could fall to my knees, beg to be the only one worthy of witnessing her.
It’s unfamiliar, his touch. So unlike the claiming feel of his brother’s.
“I thought you might not walk through those doors tonight. And it made me realize that I’d much rather spend the rest of my life apart from you, watching at a distance, than without you.”
“So I look like hell?” “If you look like hell,” he whispers with a sly grin, “then I’m fortunate to be going there.”
“And I will happily be your distraction from pain. For as long as you need.”
“I don’t want to gain power if it means I lose myself in the process.”
“Everyone loses themselves to something. So make it worthwhile.”
“Pae.” His voice is ragged. “I would lose my life for you before finding something else worth living for.” His fingers weave into my hair, slide along the back of my neck. “You are my inevitable. In life and in death.”
History itself is bathed in blood, and it is the kings who shed it.
This child shares her mother’s piercing gaze, or rather, stole it. Those eyes belong to Iris, not the infant who killed her.
She looks like the sharpness that piercing grief hones one into. Like fearlessness carved out of necessity, not courage.
“I have a fiancé.” “And yet…” I dangle the heels in front of her. “I’m the one carrying your shoes. Though, I am worried about what it is you’ll be taking off next.”
“I won’t be charmed by your pretty words, Prince.”
I pad into the bedroom, intent on flopping face-first onto my mattress. Not that I expect to get much sleep. No, it’s a combination of nerves and boredom that has me wishing to do nothing at all but rot with my thoughts.
think vaguely of how I might leave this world. Fighting? Regretful? At peace?
“Respect is earned,”
I’ve been continuously reminded of just how dangerous it is to be alone with my own thoughts.
“There are a lot of things I pretend not to love.”
“What was it you asked?” My smile is wicked. “Your book, darling.” “Right.”
“My father used to read them to me,” she says softly. “This one was my favorite.” “Tell me about it,” I murmur.
“And the other books?” “Mostly magic and worlds I wanted to escape to.” She sounds oddly bashful. “Worlds where I might have fit in.”
A happy ending in which I lie on Paedyn’s lap, listening to her read until the day I fade into a distant memory.
