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Tatiana said books were ten times more interesting than any boy.
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Annica ⚡️ annica_reads_books ⚡️
This idea was so devilishly tempting and yet so extraordinarily naughty that for once I actually stopped to think about it. It was well known that I was the worst-behaved Grand Duchess. If not for Alexei occasionally outshining me, I might be the worst child ever to cross the threshold of the Alexander Palace.
I didn’t have crushes on the soldiers like Maria—I wanted to be one.
His hate was metal in the air, I could taste it.
Everything interesting was always forbidden.
“I’m more than you think I am.”
“I was on fire, Maria. I was a comet in the sky. Nothing could stop me.”
“The gods have a sense of humor when they choose our position in life. How rarely we suit it.”
A heart open to joy is a heart vulnerable to sorrow. There’s no family without loss, no love without pain.”
“Whatever else is taken from you, never lose hope. Even if you see how dark the world can be, choose to believe it could be better.”
Be careful what you allow to shape you. Ruling is a responsibility, and a heavy one. It’s what we owe to the people, not what they owe to us.”
“I don’t know if I want to know my future.” “Your future is all our futures, boy,” she said softly. That’s why I hated mystics—always speaking in riddles.
He cleaned the slush off my face with his mittened hands, his own face hilariously distraught. He looked like he’d set an orphanage on fire.
It was her, completely her: warm, teasing, playful, and honest.
The worst part of being a royal is when your best intentions end in ruin.
It’s a funny thing to finally become friends with your sister when you’re adults.
“Where does power come from, Anastasia?” “Well … “ I said, slowly. “The nobles say power comes by birth. The priests say by prayer.” “And what does a sorcerer say?” “Maybe … by practice?” Rasputin eyes locked on mine. “The sorcerer says … power comes by any means necessary.”
I swept the whole incident under the rug along with my parents. And when something much worse came along … I swept that, too. Because I had so much practice.
“If you have a chance of a beautiful day … take it.”
In chaos, so many things slip through the cracks.
“It concerns me, Anastasia, that you think love matters more than the sacrament of marriage. I worry what you girls are learning from these novels.”
I was beginning to wonder if love was the worst trick of the gods. It seemed to exist mainly to torture us. Unhappy marriages were so much more common than blissful ones. And marriages that could never occur seemed most painful of all.
They took everything from me, and the only thing I’d ever wanted, they’d never let me have.
Suffering changes you. Either you become cold and bitter, divorced from human feeling. Or the opposite occurs, and you can’t bear to inflict the pain you’ve felt on anyone else.
Even if it could never happen … I’m glad we had the dream.”
“the most beautiful things are fragile and can’t last. That’s what makes them precious while we have them.”
Even if you see how dark the world can be … choose to believe it could be better.
“Every mark on you is something you survived to get back to me. You have never looked more beautiful.”
“You think you could ever be ugly to me? You are me. You’re everything I love, everything I care about.”
Don’t you believe it means something? You can’t tell me you think this thing between us is just chance, just magical chemistry. I think I love you because I was always meant to love you. We’re made for each other—we’re made for this.”
I couldn’t remember a moment when he hadn’t been magnetic to me, the only color in a world of gray.
“You gave everything for me and I gave everything for you. That doesn’t disappear. Time and space can’t destroy it.”
