Rai (is hard to please) > Recent Status Updates

“And I did mean monster.”

“Yes, I’d memorized the guidelines that fast, asshole.”

Oh, goody. Another Edward Cullen wannabe.
What a great sign 🙃

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, wolfie, but that wasn’t a perfect limerick.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He lifted my hand, our fingers laced, and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. “My girl’s perfect.”
I didn’t correct him because we both knew that I wasn’t perfect. But our love was. We were perfect for each other.

“I could’ve been more understanding the first time Shane came to me. Not that he gave me much reason since he was being a total ass that day, but all of this stems from something greater. An intolerance that needs to be eradicated.”

Third-act conflict:
miscommunication… diplomacy edition

“Tomorrow morning, you’ll call Sean—that’s this guy over there—at the shop and set up appointments for this week so I can tattoo the rest of your pack.”

YES. LIKE CIVILIZED INDIVIDUALS.

“Maybe. But I don’t regret it. I got what I wanted. Plus she was really pretty to look at when she was giving me that tattoo.”

Shane, bud. Dumbfuck. Read the room.

“My anger over being abducted and wounded by these asshats melted behind a need to help them. They were like Nico. Like Mateo. In need of something, peace and healing, that I could possibly give them.
Holding Shane’s hostile gaze, his jaw clenching, I set my glass of water aside on the table and stood. ‘Okay.’”

… that’s it? FFS AT LEAST MAKE HIM SAY PLEASE. BETTER YET, HAVE HIM SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT

“She’s a lady?”
“Compliant, agreeable.” Another long, hard lick. “Easy to please.”

As a lady and someone with a vagina… inaccurate on all counts.

“This wasn’t dating. This was walking down your forever path. I needed to know he wanted to go with me.”

“You don’t think he might want a more masculine color?”
“Real men wear pink, Nico. Haven’t you heard?”
This woman. She was half crazy. And I loved it.
“Must’ve missed the memo.”

“I’d given his little brother a job here as a favor to Devraj who’d asked on Henry’s behalf for some reason. I was pretty sure it was paying back the favor for Henry’s help in that whole blood trafficking ring debacle.”

18% in:
“We’d hired him as a favor to Ruben who’d asked on behalf of his brother, Henry Blackwater, a grim who worked for him.”

“The alliance with Mysten through marriage had dissolved when the bastard daughter gave a resounding no to Garrett’s proposal and eloped with her handmaiden and her fencing instructor.”

AS SHE SHOULD

“I know we’re young,” he blurted. “I know that we met under stressful circumstances. I know that I’m a prince and you’re a merman. But I also know that I’ve never felt this way about anyone else. I know we’re both the last, and we’ve felt alone. But we could be alone together.”

“We were wrong to think your soft heart was a weakness.”
“The world isn’t kind,” Tal said as Garrett held him at arm’s length, the flames of the torch flickering from the ground, casting them both in eerie shadows. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t be.”

“You married for an alliance, Isa, to help our family and the people of our kingdom. I will do the same because it’s the responsible thing to do, but also because you know I can’t allow you to be better than me at anything.”
“If that were the case, you’d be much better at politics.”

“Can I touch you?”

🥰🥰🥰

“I’m not used to being on my legs this long.”

Nooooo he can’t lose his finnnnnns

“Protect him by any means necessary.”

…. whelp. This is gonna go well.

“I know that something that is a part of you could never be bad.” (…)
“You don’t understand,” Tal said bitterly. “I chose to destroy the ship. I made a choice.”
“So did they, when they chose to hurt you.”

(…) “He doubled over before vomiting into the water.”

1. Thank you for acknowledging the consequences of eating too fast on an empty stomach
2. Isn’t that where Athlen sleeps… 😅😬

“You may touch me.”
Athlen crinkled his nose. “You have to ask?”
“He’s royalty. Of course you ask.”
“I didn’t.”
“I make exceptions for myths from the sea,” Tal said with a loopy smile.

“You aren’t a good person, but I think you could be if you tried. So perhaps you should try.”

“I don’t want to do it, which in my experience is the surest sign that I need to.”

“You’ll find out soon enough that the trappings of high office exist for no reason at all except to keep people from being too effective at their jobs, which is a great inconvenience for the Clerisy.”

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“They were our friends.”
“Then does that mean we’re—”
“You had better not push it, nun. I can possess you whenever I want. I could do far worse than make you murder someone. I could make you try on hats.”

“Something occurred to me that I had never considered before. If the Lady was playing a game, a great game, a game of life and death, then who was Her opponent?”

(2/2)

At that, an emotion close to anger prickled hot across my skin. My chest ached. It wasn’t fair of him to make me feel sorry for him. He didn’t deserve my pity. “Stop dying,” I told him.
A faint smile touched his lips. “Is that all?” he asked softly.

(1/2)

“Have I been praying to you? Is that why you’re here?”
“This isn’t a dream.” My throat was dry. “You’re awake.”
His eyes narrowed, struggling to bring me into focus. “No,” he decided. “The real Artemisia wouldn’t be here.”

“Perhaps the decisions that shaped the course of history weren’t made in scenes worthy of stories and tapestries, but in ordinary places like these, driven by desperation and doubt.”

“We regarded each other at an impasse, and the world fell away in a weightless plunge as I realized that looking into her face was like gazing into a mirror. We both believed the other misguided for trusting a revenant—both thought the Lady meant us to ally ourselves with our own. One of us was right, the other wrong. A warped reflection in a glass.”

“What do you plan on doing next? Killing all the humans in Loraille? Then you’ll just be alone. You’ll have made the world your reliquary.”
“Be careful, nun,” the revenant warned.

Someone 👏 finally 👏 said 👏 it