The Excalibur Curse (Camelot Rising, #3)

by Kiersten White

Guinevere nodded, her throat painfully tight with how much she wanted to say. How it hurt that Lancelot would not let her. But if Guinevere demanded that her apology be listened to or accepted, she would be doing it for herself. Lancelot deserved to feel however she needed to, and Guinevere deserved Lancelot’s anger.

“If she is your mother, then I am glad she had a hand in creating you, and that brief gratitude is all we ever owe her. You do not owe her loyalty,

For so long after he had hurt her, she thought her only options were to forgive him completely or hate him completely. But now she knew she could hold the wrongness of what he had done and at the same time forgive him, because people were so much more than the worst things they did. She had to believe that, otherwise how could she move through the world carrying the guilt of the harm she had done?

Just because violence shaped you does not make your very existence an act of violence.”

Without nature to remind them of how small they are, without the constant struggle to eat, to stay warm, to hunt or to avoid being hunted, mankind turns its violence outward. They seal themselves away behind brick and stone, become cruel, conquering, covetous wretches.

First and foremost, I guess I should thank all the many, many Arthurian stories that participated in the long history of treating their women characters like garbage. My rage fueled this trilogy. All your women belong to me now, and you can’t have them back.