More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
They say a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. They made no mention of the heart.
if you must only wound the man, you better kill his pride.”
My wife’s dream was about a better world. Not a bloodier one.”
He always thinks because I’m reading, I’m not doing anything. There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extroverted.
‘Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark.’ ”
“In a world of killers, it takes more to be kind than to be wicked.
“I will die. You will die. We will all die and the universe will carry on without care. All that we have is that shout into the wind—how we live. How we go. And how we stand before we fall.”
Your daughter brought me from the Rim. My allegiance is to her. But above all it’s to Reaper.
“Cacatne ursus in silvis?” Does a bear shit in the woods?
“My name is Darrow au Andromedus, lancer of the Martian House Augustus, and I have claimed this vessel as a spoil of war. It is mine. This means, per Societal rules of naval warfare, that your lives are mine. I am sorry for that, because it means you will likely all die.
“Too demokratic?” I whisper. “I don’t think autocratic demokracy counts.” Sevro wrinkles his nose. “You did threaten to vent them into space.” “Threaten? I thought I implied it rather smoothly.” “Smooth as gravel, dipshit.”
“No. Don’t speak. It’s not your turn just because I pause.”
“You meet a man, you know him. You meet a woman, she knows you.”
“History is written by the victors.”
There is no peace for great men.
“The strong always have a part,”
“And your heart to Cassius’s mother,” Sevro reminds me. “Thank you, Sevro.” “Here to help!”
“You’re a sinister little shit, aren’t you?” Victra asks. “I’m Gold, bitch. What’d you expect? Warm milk and cookies just because I’m pocket-sized?”
wisdom is found in the heart, not the head.
“Mortals who plan die a thousand times. We who obey die but once.”
Easier than the truth. Yet it takes only one truth to bring a kingdom of lies crashing down.
“He has to play my game!” Sevro says. “Shithead isn’t getting out till he plays nice. I’ll give him a riddle instead. What do I have in my pocket?” I grow tired of the game, so behind his back, I point to my eye. “An eyeball,” the Jackal says. “Gorydammit, who told him?”
“And who do you know that can kill me?” I say, that ridiculous Gold rage building in my voice so that it might impress all these hungry souls. “The Jackal failed. Antonia au Severus-Julii failed. Proctors Apollo and Jupiter failed. Cassius au Bellona failed. Karnus failed. Cagney failed. Aja au Grimmus and her Praetorians failed.” The hangman failed. The mines and pitvipers failed. “And now you fail.”
“Tell all who will hear, the Reaper sails to Mars. And he calls for an Iron Rain.”
We gave them the faces of legend and myth to remind ourselves that there is no evil, no good. No gods. No demons. There is only man. There is only this world. Death comes for us all. But how will we shout into the wind? How will we be remembered?”
“Replacing me already?” Sevro snorts, watching him go. “He’s got one hand. You’ve got one eye. I have a type.”
And what is the bloodydamn point of surviving in this cold world if I run from the only warmth it has to offer?
I was someone who saw your light and your dark and accepted both without judgment, without agenda.
“Friendships take minutes to make, moments to break, years to repair,”
“I would know you … anywhere.” She kisses my forehead. “My boy. You’re my Darrow.”
All eyes see their own way.
