Legendary (Caraval, #2)

by Stephanie Garber

The Prince of Hearts. A symbol of unrequited love and irrevocable mistakes that never ceased to fill Tella with both dread and morbid bewitchment.

For it was also said the Prince of Hearts was not capable of love because his heart had stopped beating long ago. Only one person could make it beat again: his one true love. They said his kiss had been fatal to all but her—his only weakness—and as he’d sought her, he’d left a trail of corpses.

“Fortune-tellers aren’t like you and me. They see the world as it could be, and sometimes they try to bring about what they want, rather than what should be.”

This was why love was so dangerous. Love turned the world into a garden, so beguiling it was easy to forget that rose petals were as ephemeral as feelings, eventually they would wilt and die, leaving nothing but the thorns.

Once a future is foretold, that future becomes a living thing and it will fight very hard to bring itself about.

Dante had wings. And, holy mother of saints, they were beautiful—soulless jet-black with midnight-blue veins, the color of lost wishes and fallen stardust. He was turned toward his nightstand washing his face, or maybe he was kissing his reflection in the mirror.

She liked the thrill that came with taking risks. She loved the feeling of doing something bold enough to make her future hold its breath

“If you can convince yourself it’s true, you can convince anyone.”

“I’d hold on to my secret because I’d want to keep playing the game with you, and if I told you the truth it would spoil all the fun.”

Your sister didn’t win because she solved simple riddles. She won because of what she was willing to sacrifice for those riddles, and for what she was willing to sacrifice in order to find you.”

“When you truly care about someone, aren’t you supposed to be honest, even if it means you might lose that person?”

Unfortunately Tella wasn’t the sort of girl people saved—she was the one they left behind.

I think I wanted to make you jealous.” “It worked,” Dante said roughly.

“I’ve never wanted to be someone else until that moment I saw him kiss you on the dance floor.”

“Think whatever you want, but if you honestly believe that’s the only reason I’m here right now with my hands all over you, you’re not nearly as clever as I thought.”

“Fate is only an idea, but I think by believing in it we turn it into something more.

What she did looked terrible, but judging her based on a moment like that is the same as reading one page from a book and assuming you know the whole story.”

“I kept coming back to you, not because of Legend, or the game. But because you’re so real and alive and fearless and daring and beautiful and if what’s between us isn’t real, then I don’t know what is.”

But I think Paradise was afraid of love because when she loved, she did it as fiercely as she lived.”

“I know you were willing to sacrifice yourself for her, but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice you.”