Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire, #1)

by Jay Kristoff

Take hold of my hand, For you are no longer alone. Walk with me in hell. —MARK MORTON

And in sight of God and his Seven Martyrs, I do here vow; Let the dark know my name and despair. So long as it burns, I am the flame. So long as it bleeds, I am the blade. So long as it sins, I am the saint. And I am silver. —THE VOW OF SAN MICHON

ASK ME NOT if God exists, but why he’s such a prick. Even the greatest of fools can’t deny the existence of evil. We dwell in its shadow every day.

My mama knew herself, and there’s a fearsome power in that. Knowing exactly who you are and exactly what you’re capable of. Most folk would call it arrogance, I suppose. But most folk are fucking fools.”

“Too much hate will burn a man to cinders, Chevalier.” “Oui. But at least he’ll die warm.”

“There’s no misery so deep as one you face by yourself. No nights darker than ones you spend alone. But you can learn to live with any weight. Your scars grow thick enough, they become armor.

there’s a difference between those who swim with the flood and those who drown fighting it. And its name is Wisdom.

A great and terrible host were come upon the walls, and the city’s defenders quailed, for among the Dead could be seen faces of those known them; loved ones slain and comrades in arms fallen. But the Black Lion raised his sword to heaven, and his princely countenance was grim, and at the sound of his voice, their faithless hearts were raised up. “No fear,” he bid them. “Only fury.” —JEAN-SÉBASTIEN RICARD The Battle of Báih Sìde

Gabriel tapped an empty leather pouch at his belt. “Behold the purse in which I keep my fucks for what you think of me.”

“‘I’m no princess. I’m a fucking queen.’”

‘I’d tear the wings off an angel to fly this cage. I’d claw down the sky to carve my name into this earth.’

Through all my years in San Michon, all the blood and sweat and darkling roads I walked, I learned one of my greatest lessons sitting in that Library with those girls in the still of the night. “A life without books is a life not lived.

A girl who wielded books like blades.

‘What a world this would be, were it not held wholly and solely in the grip of stubborn old men.’

There is no hell so cruel as powerlessness.’

“Music is a truth beyond telling. A bridge between strangest souls. Two men who speak not a word of each other’s tongues may yet feel their hearts soar likewise at the same refrain. Gift a man the most important of lessons, he may forget it amorrow. Gift him a beautiful song, and he shall hum it ’til the day the crows make a castle of his bones.”

You know what most men don’t do enough of?” “Tell me, Silversaint.” “They don’t shut the fuck up.

Truth.

Put a man in a room for a hundred years with a thousand books, and he’ll know a million truths. Put him in a room for a year with silence, and he’ll know himself.”

They say the best revenge is living well, but there’s still a lot to be said for dancing beneath the blood moons in a cloak made of your enemy’s skin.

The world needs bad men, boy. We keep the monsters from the door.’ “‘But that’s the problem, hero. Bad men never realize when the monster is them.’

‘It’s the lowest kind of man who raises a fist to his child and calls it love. And it’s the worst kind of tyrant who demands you adore him above all others.’

Give someone the power to do anything they want, and they’ll do exactly that. That’s the horrifying part—the only thing holding some folk back from the worst atrocities they can imagine is the fear they might not get away with it.

Your past is stone, but your future is clay. And you decide the shape of the life you’ll make.’

But that is what we do, Little Lion. We carry the greatest burdens not on our shoulders, but in our hearts. But those taken from us never truly die. They await us in the light of God’s love.’

Eternity lies in the hearts of those who cherish us.

And if your God would name my love a sin, then he’s no God I know.’

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

And if this was wrong, I decided, then let it be the wrong I’d die for. There, with that girl in my arms, I swore to God I would give all else—my blood, my life, my everything—if only he would let me have her. “Just. Her.”

What did you want to be when you grew up?’ “Dior shrugged, looked me in the eye. “‘Dangerous.’

From holy cup comes holy light; The faithful hand sets world aright. And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight, Mere man shall end this endless night. — AUTHOR UNKNOWN