More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Below, London carried on as before but the bells of Big Ben had never been so silent.
Magic and love. Love and magic. They destroy everything in the end.’
She took another sip and experienced a sudden awareness of sunshine, flower-strewn meadows, somewhere laughter and the buzz of honey bees.
‘It’s girls like you who amount to nothing in the end.’
You must have lots of secrets; any respectable woman should.’
East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
‘Red velvet with cream cheese. Die right now if you please.’
Lust lives inside the eyes, Anna, and so do lies.
‘My life was fine two minutes ago and now you’re in it. Please piss off.’
‘You found the world of the rose. You see, everything has a world inside of it.’
there’s nothing like the curiosity of a witch …’
Rowan nodded. ‘I do suspect we have sold our souls.’
We belong to legend, to fairy tale and storybook, to the blood-red paintings on cave walls.
Sacred. Sinners. Wonders. Wicked. Virgins. Whores. Call us what you will. It’s our duty to bring magic into this world.’
‘Manda, magic isn’t evil.’ She reached out and put a hand on her knee. ‘It’s only as good or as bad as the witch who casts it.’
‘But you’re already set for hell, Manda, remember?’ Effie winked. ‘You’re a witch now; may as well enjoy the fall.’
The more beautiful the rose, the sharper the thorns.
‘I like a woman with an appetite.’ ‘I think you like any woman with a pulse,’ she pointed out.
‘A cat has nine lives and curiosity still managed to kill it,’
Magic and love go hand in hand. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
‘My aunt thinks trick or treating is akin to breaking into people’s houses and attacking them with an axe.’
‘It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul. Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars
The only dangerous thing around here – is us.’
The sun knows our truths, but the moon knows our lies,
‘When the world is denuded of the moon’s light, secrets must out. For all of us have a dark moon within.’
‘I think it’s what sixteen-year-olds do.’ ‘Screw it all up?’ ‘Exactly.’
‘Men are always so quick to slap a label on things. I attribute most of the problems of the world to that. They think they’re being clever, carving everything up, but all true wisdom is lost that way.’
‘I hope you’re not lying. If we don’t have trust, we don’t have anything.’ I guess we don’t have anything then.
He said school was an extremely necessary waste of time and that I was to see it through.
I make a point of going to every party I’m not invited to.’
‘Are you poor?’ said Rowan sceptically. ‘I don’t own a Louis Vuitton bag and therefore I am poor. Like time, it’s all relative.
Passion. Now there’s a more interesting proposition. Much more thrilling – volatile, impermanent, ever-changing. Love in motion.
That look like he’s already undressed you and he’s deciding what to do with you.
She put an arm around Anna and they danced, forgetting the angst, the dramas, the crowds and whispers; feeling nothing but being young and alive.
the loneliness that comes from the space between two people who have nothing left to say to one another.
It was a beginning – the door was ever so slightly ajar.
‘Hate is merely one of the depths of love.’
All this talk of magic is exhausting. To be young and starry-eyed
‘A story, a story, let it come, let it go’.
How do you find a shadow in the dark?
Anna felt torn between exhilaration and panic – the feeling you get standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down.
there was a slight tremor in her eyes – the look of a hunter realizing they have become the hunted.
Why do you insist on disappointing me?’ ‘It’s better than leading you on.’ ‘I’d much rather be led on.’
The wolves will always be waiting in the woods.
We pursue life’s pleasures and drink of their marrows deep.
‘I love sun and snow and nothing in between.
‘He’s a man, Anna. They have done us enough harm across the ages that any harm we do to them now is insignificant.’
‘By the waxing of my heart, by the waning of my life, I promise on the moon. A witch’s promise. I will always be here for you.’
He frowned, his face peculiarly ageless, somewhere between a young boy unsure what to do and a man tired of life already.
‘But you have to promise the coven is a democracy, not a fascist state.’ ‘Yes. It’s all free love and fairness and fairy tales,
