L’Nasia > L’Nasia's Quotes

“I recognize that sound. It's the sound of holding on to a cliff by the edge of your nails. The sound of barely containing a pain so immense that to look at it, to raise your own flesh and examine what's beneath, is to risk falling into a darkness you know you'll never escape.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“They that would be a leader, let them be a bridge.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“Growing up Black in the South, it’s pretty common to find yourself in old places that just… weren’t made for you. Maybe it’s a building, a historic district, or a street. Some space that was originally built for white people and white people only, and you just have to hold that knowledge while going about your business.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“From buried lives to beaten ones. From blood stolen to blood hidden. I map this terrain's sins, the invisible, and the many, and hold them close. Because even if the pain of those sins takes my breath away, the pain feels like belonging. And ignoring it, after all I've just witnessed, would be loss.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“power taken and not returned incurs a debt. And the universe, and the debt, will always come to collect, one way or another.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“Grief does strange things to people’s minds. This I know. One morning a couple of weeks after my mother died, my dad said he thought he could smell her cheesy grits cooking on the stove—my favorite and my mother’s specialty. Once, I heard her humming down the hall from my bedroom. Something so mundane and simple, so regular and small, that for a moment, the prior weeks were just a nightmare, and I was awake now and she was alive. Death moves faster than brains do.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“Sometimes, you say the awful thing quickly and without taking a breath because lingering is too painful.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“Someone I care about is alive but hurt. Someone I like very much is right here in front of me, asking me to sit with him. It dawns on me that if I ignore that, or forget how important that is, than I truly will make the shadows my home.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“But grief isn’t a competition. It’s not an identical pain that we all meet one day when death finds us. It’s a monster, personalized by our love and memories to devour us just so. Grief is suffering, tailored.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“What truly ties us together is not blood but pain. When we love someone and lose them, that loss imprints itself on everyone else we love too.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“Wishes are the dangerous mind games we play with ourselves. The only way to win is not to play.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“I feel Sel’s gaze on the back of my neck, on my cheek, before I hear his voice.
“Mae hi’n brydferth.”
“What?” I ask. Nick turns when I do, just as confused. Arthur’s memories don’t recognize modern Welsh, and I only know a little. I do recognize the words for “she” and “beautiful” though.
Or maybe Nick isn’t just as confused as me, because a slow, laughing smile spreads across his face, like he understands Sel’s game already. He leans a hip against the wall to watch me beside his Kingsmage, eyes teasing. “Ydi, mae hi. Yn dragwyddol.”
Maybe that last word was “forever.”
“Beautiful forever”? No, “always”? I flush, then pout.
“Because of Arthur, I’m only fluent in Old Welsh, not modern. You know this isn’t fair.”
“We know,” they respond together, and laugh.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“When white people say something's 'not about race,' it's usually because it is and they don't wanna talk about it.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“We ran for many reasons. We ran to protect ourselves. We ran so we would not die, so that our daughters could live.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“Sel looks between us both. “I cannot believe I am stuck with you two.”
The tension lifts, and I smile. “You are, you know. Stuck with us.”
Nick makes a sound of disagreement. “Nah. I think you’re stuck with us, Bree.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“Since when has a man's title prevented his brutality instead of further emboldening it?”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“Power is one thing; control is another.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“The unsaid thing about funerals is that directly after the communal mourning for someone you love, after everyone is gone and the connected grief dispersed, comes a solitude beyond imagining. A great, gaping nothing where a whole person and life and future used to be. The other side of a funeral is abyss.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“Just know, Briana Matthews," he says, "that you are worth this and more.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“You excel at so very many things, punishing yourself is a great example.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“If he has to protect you, he won't protect himself.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“But that’s the thing. The Legendborn legacy isn’t power; it’s violence.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“No other Merlin can protect you like I can because no other Merlin feels about you the way I do. I want you to live because I want you to be happy. Not because of a spell, but because so very many things would break and go dark if you weren't in the world. Myself included.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“Just because my hair takes up space doesn't mean it's dirty.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“We had faith,” he says quietly. “That you’d know how to get us all out safely.”
“And if I didn’t?”
We look at each other for a long moment, then to Sel, and back to each other. When he finally speaks, Nick’s voice is warm enough to wrap the three of us together, a bond of its own. “Then the world would be broken in more ways than one.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“And... you're also the most wondrous being I have ever encountered, will ever encounter. And I believe there is nothing in this world that you cannot do.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“Lancelot grasps my face in both palms and holds it tight. “Come back, Bree. Come back to us.”
My root has left me. The only thing of my own here, the only thing that kept me safe in this hellscape. “No…” I shake my head.
“Please.” Merlin’s voice is nearly unrecognizable. “Come back to us.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“The two meet eyes over me. Something about that shared glance, the worry there, the care… makes the dream feel too good to leave. Makes me want to stay there between them, even if it’s all a lie in the end.”
― Tracy Deonn, Bloodmarked

“But here we stand and here we are. A king, a knight...and a prince." "What...shall...we...do?”
― Tracy Deonn, Oathbound

“You’re Bree Matthews, baby. You can do anything.”
― Tracy Deonn, Oathbound