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

by Jay Kristoff

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.”

“I’ve lived thirty-five years with the name my mother gave me, coldblood, and never once have I seen the meek inherit anything but the table scraps of the strong.”

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

‘We are hope for the hopeless. The fire in the night. We will walk the dark as they do, and they shall know our names and despair. For so long as they burn, we shall be flame. So long as they bleed, we shall be blades. So long as they sin, we shall be saints.’

“See, I never understood that. Why pride is looked on as an evil. You work hard at something you’re not born good at? Damn right you should be fucking proud. There’s nothing comes of quitting besides the knowledge you didn’t finish.” Gabriel shook his head. “It’s only in faerie tales that everything works out for the best with a magik spell or a prince’s kiss. It’s only in storybooks some little bastard picks up a sword and wields it like he was born to it. The rest of us? We have to work our arses off. And we might not ever taste triumph, but at least we dared to fail. We stand apart from those cowards whispering on the sidelines about how the strong did stumble, while never daring to set foot in the ring themselves. Victors are just folk who were never satisfied being vanquished. The only thing worse than finishing last is not beginning at all. And fuck finishing last.”

And damn right I want to be fucking great. Don’t you? Don’t you want your life to count for something? To matter?’ “‘More than anything.’ Her eyes were brief fire as she looked to the window. She whispered then, and her words sounded more like a prayer. ‘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.’ “I nodded. ‘One day as a lion is worth ten thousand as a lamb.’

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

One hand holding a sword is worth ten thousand clasped in prayer.’

A daughter. Named Esan.’ “My eyes narrowed at that. ‘That’s Old Talhostic too. For Faith…’ “Chloe nodded and murmured. ‘Esani.’ “‘Faithless…’ I whispered, looking at the vein in my wrist. ‘What the fuck

Don’t understand the significance of Esani and why he looks at his wrist.

“No time to fret, I told myself. No time to fear. “When there’s little you can do, do what little you can.