Aurora Andresen Klevstuen

“Did you guys break up?” she asks. “What’d he do?” “He . . . lied to me.” “Ah, yes. Lying. Something you’d never stoop to.”
― Ali Hazelwood, Check & Mate

“I had not thought we would end like this,” he said. “That you would kill me as your father killed Fausten.”
Conor gave a sort of gasping laugh. “You know me well, too well,” he said. “I, too, was thinking of Fausten tonight.”
“I do not know how Fausten may have felt,” Kel said, “but I would rather that you ended my life than that you let anyone else do it. My life was always yours anyway.”
Conor closed his eyes, just for a moment. When they fluttered open again, they were wide, piercing—haunted. Conor took hold of the lapels of Kel’s jacket, fingers whitening with the tautness of his grip.
He said, “You are my unbreakable armor. And you will not die.”
He pulled Kel closer for a moment; Kel felt Conor’s lips brush his forehead and something cold settle around his neck. Conor let go of his shirt—Kel could see the Castelguards, not far behind him now, staring with wide eyes—and Conor’s hands struck Kel’s chest, flat-palmed, a hard shove. Kel stumbled, felt the ground under him crumble and give way as he fell, toppling headlong from the cliff edge to the sea below.”
― Cassandra Clare, The Ragpicker King

“It does not matter whether I trust Falconet,” he said. “I cannot trust you. And if I were to forgive you, the Charter Families—whether they are conspiring or not—would all move against me. They would see weakness all over me like blood on a wounded animal.” Conor slammed his hands against the Sunderglass bars. The noise echoed through the Trick, a crack like thunder. “If you had only come to me,” he said with real anguish, “we would have determined something, come to some understanding, but what you did—treason cannot be wiped away or forgotten. Everyone knows of your guilt; everyone has seen it. I cannot stop what is going to happen. I cannot—” He took a deep breath.
“You cannot save me,” Kel said flatly. “That is what you mean.”
“No,” Conor whispered. “All of your decisions have brought us here. You have taken yourself away from me. And I can never forgive you for that.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” Kel said. He held out his hands. He knew Conor could not touch him through the bars, but he had never reached out for Conor and found the gesture unanswered. He could not stop himself. “I am your Sword Catcher,” he said softly, and he saw Conor’s eyes shine in the dimness. “I bleed so that you will not bleed. I die so you can live forever.”’
“No one lives forever, Kel,” Conor said evenly, and walked away.”
― Cassandra Clare, The Ragpicker King

“I want a different life than the one I have.”
― Cassandra Clare, The Ragpicker King