More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Inside me there is a coward who fears discomfort. That coward will offer solace in the form of excuses. But it is the coward who grooms a man for his defeats. The coward who makes him accept them because he is accustomed to finding a good reason to quit.
You’re acting like you share a secret language all of a sudden.” “Isn’t that always the case with those who’ve read the same books?”
Now you are cracking. That is a good thing. If you wish to be repaired…” “You must first be broken,”
“Nut to butt, Bellona. Don’t be shy.”
“If all lies were so kind, I’d never wish to hear the truth.
I had to suck water from a rusted pipe, and no, that’s not a euphemism.”
“Ears. You could have chosen pricks.” “Thought about it. Gender biased and too heavy.
“I knew you’d come. You’re stupid like that. It’s why I love you.
We achieve perfection first by acknowledging our failures. We increase understanding first by recognizing our ignorance.
But they shout for the god while I carry a hollowness inside me the size of the man.
“I think…if love is anything, it is truth. If life is anything, it is struggle.
That season of life is a haze to him, but when I die and reflect on my life, I know I will still believe that season was the meaning of mine.
I have more reasons to fight than they do. My armor is my love.
Be wary of tyrants: they will help you today and own you tomorrow.
prevaricate.”
“My son is lost. He will come home. But he is not here today. The enemy is. So today, we are not mothers. We are not fathers. We are not brothers or sons. They come to make us slaves again. So today we are not dreamers. We are not Colors. We are swords. We are wrath. We are reapers.”
“Perhaps: wrath, I am thee? They come for our children, Virginia.” She turns to me and cups my face with one hand. “Do not fear for me. Instead, pity them.”
I am Iron. I am Death. I am Gold.
“Sefi once told me fruit is never sweeter than after you’ve eaten shit.” He peels a tangerine and eats it before spitting it out. “Not ripe yet.”
“Pay special attention to what’s in his hands. It just looks like a sphere from far away. It’s not, at least in its details. It’s hundreds of manticores, hydra, skulls, hammers, eagles, a few Poseidons, mermaids, centaurs, and crescents he has taken from the prows of Gold warships. No room to include any from ships smaller than a destroyer-class. You understand? That is consistency against intense competition, Lysander. For twelve years now. One battle does not make you a lord of war.”
“You don’t have me by the throat. You have me by the balls. You can wrench and twist and it will cause me terrible agony. But in the end, they are just balls, and I am a woman, so I will go on, enduring without my balls and I will pester you with death by a billion cuts.
Lux Ex Tenebris. Out of darkness, light.
but how can you lead if you cannot walk—and how can you walk if you fear every step?
Forgetting is essential to learning, just as exhaling is essential to breathing. Breathe out, then in. Find the self, then lose it once again. Thus, the path goes ever onward.
Instead of looking away, as most do, to preserve his image of the invulnerable Reaper, he admires my imperfections, catalogues the wounds to understand my narrative, and then loves me all the more for them.
Cassius—” “If you say ‘fly like an eagle,’ I am turning this ship around,” he says and pushes the Archimedes into the debris field. “Watch and learn, Lyria.” He winks at her. A piece of debris hits the hull. We all wince. “Starting now.”
“Mars needs you. Your boy—” “If Pax grows up to be as stupid as you, I’ll be a proud father. I’m not leaving you.” “Really?” He sounds incredibly touched. “You’d really die here with me? I just…well…I thought that was your and Sevro’s thing. Thank you, Darrow.”
We wanna be on the other side of this shit. We’re waiting to live. But this is it. This is our life until we change it.
Honestly, Darrow, atomics, warlord heads. I thought our honeymoon would be more romantic.” “Honeymoon.” “Yes. Apparently we’re a couple till Virginia fights me for you.”
“Cassius. I wasn’t just talking about this trip. By journey, I meant my life.” He looks over at me, touched and more than a bit surprised. “You’re my brother. We let ten years slip past. Ten years we should have fought side by side. I won’t make that mistake again. Whether you like it or not, you’re with me to the end.”
“That motherfucker’s gonna burn.”
“I must. I am Cassius Bellona, son of Tiberius, son of Julia, brother of Darrow, Morning Knight of the Solar Republic, and my honor remains.”
But he does not fall. Not Cassius au Bellona.
You really should think about changing the slipper policy, Cassius would say right now.
“And you saved Cassius’s,” she says. “It wasn’t me that did it. I liked him very much. In another life, I might have loved him. But he didn’t need a woman’s love. He needed a brother’s.
He was so afraid on our journey to the Core. So nervous to see you and be rejected. But when he saw you respected him, valued him, he shined like a star. His path led back to you, because you made him feel loved. That is all that matters, Darrow. When he died, he knew he was loved.
