Zera Quotes

“As much as I hate to admit it, you did good work today," Yorl says in the doorway.

"Aw, I appreciate you, too." I reach to bop his black nose, but he lifts his chin out of the way.

"Don't."

I stamp my foot. "Why does everyone in this city hate fun?"

"Do you think a stranger sticking their fingers up your nose is fun?"

"Up your nose? Gross. I was just going to tap it. Who's been trying to stick their fingers up your nose?"

"The human children," he grumbles. "Every chance they get.”
― Sara Wolf, Find Me Their Bones

“For once, Lazy Zera, I ask of you: be as merciful with yourself as you are with everyone else.”
― Sara Wolf, Find Me Their Bones

“Stop it!" I flail my arms between them. "Both of you. Lucien, this is Yorl. Yorl, this is Prince Lucien."

Yorl freezes as Lucien narrows his eyes further at him. "Your Highness? In that gaudy getup?" He pauses, looking down. "With pants that tight?"

"It's better than no pants at all," Lucien snarls. Yorl shifts in his robe, his barely formed hackles raising straight off his neck in a golden ridge.

"I'm not a naked ape," Yorl fires back, "who needs them to begin with!"

The competitive pride is so thick I can practically smell it. People are staring. I clap my hands as loud as I can, like I'm trying to break up a feral-dog fight.”
― Sara Wolf, Find Me Their Bones

“Don't," she says. "Don't come back. You have no friends here."

"Except you."

Her steady gaze quavers, hazel on my blue, sadness on my sadness.

"I am not a friend," she corrects. "I am a home." Her words are arrows, the warm sort, and I let them pierce me, one after the wonderful other. Her grip intensifies. "You will always have a home with me, Zera.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“Two hungers are in me, and they drive me forward. I was born to starve.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“This world has seen enough suffering. I have seen enough suffering. And I do not wish it on anyone else.”
― Sara Wolf, Bring Me Their Hearts

“You're so determined to suffer."
"Have you considered that maybe I deserve it?”
― Sara Wolf, Bring Me Their Hearts

“In vetrisian court customs, one does not embrace. Unless one is family.

I run, unthinkingly--scrabbling over the pile, bricks and wood flying, my arms reaching for her through the swirling dust.

And she catches me, hands and all.

Scarred neck and all.

Smile and all.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“Lucien ignores her and pulls me flush to him, my waist against his, my forehead against his. Malachite makes a discontented noise and struggles to face his chair away in the small room,”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“Love doesn't take. It gives. She's given the wolf her trust. And the wolf will give her Varia in return.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“I breathe deep, for maybe my last breath, and say, "Please, trust me. Wait for me."
It's a promise, and a cry, and a prayer.
It's unfair to ask him. Selfish.
But maybe I've earned a little of that, at the end of all things.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“Somewhere between the days and nights that passed of his crying beneath the boughs of the white tree, Malachite found the jewels--her necklace and her bracelet. But not the ring. And that gave him the only hope he could cling to. Her ring--she still had it, maybe. She had said to wait for her.
So he would.
He would, until the end of the world again.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“The bed is warmer tonight. Warmer than it's ever been and stranger. But easier, too. Lucien catches me looking at him on the pillows, and he smirks.

"You have my permission to stare at me all night."

"And why would I do that?" I fire off a half-downy mumble. "I've already memorized everything on you."

"Well." His smirk grows unmanageable. "Not everything."

Since when is he the one who seduces, instead of me? My face fills red.

"Princes aren't supposed to have roguish manners."

"And ladies aren't supposed to sleep in beds with unmarried men."

"Only married men, then."

He hefts up on one elbow, tracing my hand under the covers. "What are you implying, Lady Zera?"

"Go. To. Sleep." I pause. "Your Highness."

The kiss comes, as I knew it would, breathless and enmeshed in each other, and I'm the first one to pull away and the only one to roll over in faux grumpiness. Lucien's laugh rumbling the mattress.

I try to sleep--try so hard to play at being a human as he is--but I fade in and out, waking up in the odd hours to reach over and feel that he's still there. Still real.

Still with me, despite everything.

Despite how many mistakes I've made.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“It's still hard, to accept his love at the drop of a hat, without doublethinking or flinching away. Maybe it'll always be hard. But at the very least, I'm trying. I'm trying to make it work, this time, instead of running away.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“The little room has a slot for a window, the bright sunlight squaring through no bigger than a peg. I stand on my tiptoes to see out of it, and feel a support beneath me as Lucien picks me up by the waist with his broad hands and lifts.

He smirks up at me, "Is that any better?"

"A little." I feign disinterest, peering through the window.”
― Sara Wolf, Send Me Their Souls

“In de prospectus stond dat een zonsopgang op Zera iets heel aparts is en voor deze keer heeft dat leugenblaadje eindelijk eens gelijk!”
― Gerrit Teule, Stof