The Stolen Heir (The Stolen Heir Duology, #1)

by Holly Black

“First we must go a ways south,” the prince says. “To a hag who will give us a piece of information that I hope will help us trick Lady Nore. Then we head north and east, over water, into the Howling Pass, through the Forest of Stone, to her stronghold.” “A small group is nimble,” Tiernan says. “Easier to hide. Even if I think crossing through the Stone Forest is a fool’s notion.” Oak traces the route up the coast with a finger and gives us a roguish grin. “I am the fool with that notion.”

Sometimes it feels as though there’s a knot inside me, and were it to come apart, whatever emerged would be all teeth.

“They taught you a lot of things, your family,” I say. The sleight of hand, the wall climbing, the swordsmanship. “Not to die,” he says. “That’s what they attempted to teach me, anyway. How not to die.” Considering how often he throws himself directly into the path of danger, I do not think they taught him well enough.

My greatest weakness has always been my desire for love. It is a yawning chasm within me, and the more that I reach for it, the more easily I am tricked. I am a walking bruise, an open sore.