Vicious (Villains, #1)

by V.E. Schwab

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between Bad and Good, but between Bad and Worse.

Be lost. Give up. give In. in the end It would be better to surrender before you begin. be lost. Be lost And then you will not care if you are ever found.

All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective.

Victor was out. Victor was free. And Victor was coming for Eli—just as he’d promised he would. He sunk the shovel into the cold earth with a satisfying thud.

Eli’s face slowly, slowly, began to open, and Victor felt his chest loosen with relief as Eli’s darker self peeked through.

He wondered about life, and people, and science, and magic, and God, and whether he believed in any of them.

it was as if Eliot Cardale had found God. Even better, as if he had found God and wanted to keep it a secret but couldn’t. It shone through his skin like light. “So,” said Victor slowly, “let’s assume EOs do exist. You’re going to figure out how.” Eli flashed him the kind of smile a cult leader would covet. “That’s the idea.”