Hymn of The Night Quotes

“If I am to be associated with your devil, then for your own good I suggest you do not take me for his whore, though I’m sure she’s equally terrifying,” She cocks her head slightly, trying to remember the details of their dark anti god. “I suppose just the devil would do, that would give you enough warning I believe.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“No one had caught the small smirk on the prince's face during the memorial except for Atara, a cruel expression Meraki was so sure was reserved just for her. One she did not even know the barest taste of.
Not even a fraction of that ice made its way onto his face in the presence of her cousin, like she was the sun itself melting it away.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“Atara knew the gods. She could not pray to them to keep her family safe, but she could take something else from them.
Twenty five years ago they had taken her tears in exchange for a second chance at life. The secret was supposed to die with her mother, but she found out regardless, and the gods lept at that fact like dogs on a bone.
She didn’t need her tears back though. No, it will be them who will cry when she takes their power, one by one, until that's all they are; stories.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“The gods are nothing more than the monsters who happened to hold the pen. They wrote the story, so why not be the hero?
That was the first thing Atara learned when the gods spoke to her for the first time. They hadn't even needed to pretend to be kind or virtuous, the stories that circulated were more powerful than the actions they took—like they had a life of their own.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“And so, Meraki stands, brushing the dirt from her ruva and starting off towards the camp, the whispers of those long dead chasing her heels.
For once, she lets them follow.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“He says her name like it's the last thing left in this world, the final lifeline preventing him from caving in completely.
...
He had not realized he never truly knew happiness until he met her.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“She went down softly in the distance, nothing more than a feather falling gently against a pond, barely visible through the red mist and dark fog surrounding her. Not a sound was heard beside the caw of the crows nearby and the rustling of leaves.
​The cries of the damned, after all, were seen but never heard.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“No one had caught the small smirk on the prince's face during the memorial except for Atara, a cruel expression Meraki was so sure was reserved just for her. One she did not even know the barest taste of.
Not even a fraction of that ice made its way into his face around her cousin, like she was the sun itself meting it away.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“She looks up from where the arrow, dripping ruby red with her blood, is gripped in her hand, and smiles.
All hell breaks loose then.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“Meraki watches them go with a strange fascination. The men of the east were truly intriguing in a sick sort of way. She could come at them armed to the tooth in iron and all they would see is the body that lay beneath, the softer feminine curves that indicate she is less worthy of their attention as anything besides just that; flesh. That is, until she actually drew blood, and then that’s when they saw her. And if that's what it took to be seen, then she would draw rivers of it.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“She had often wondered, when she first met him, if Kasar wished for something more between them.
They fit together like two pieces of a broken pot, jagged on the edges, but smoothed out once together, nothing but the faintest hair of a line to suggest they are not one.
When she had asked, he laughed.
He said he loved her like he loved his own sister, and that was a love untarnished by the thorns of romance, perhaps even more intimate. Friendship, he had said, was the remedy for a broken soul, whether you know it’s broken or not.
She’s crying without making a sound as she rides hard and fast through the forest. A friend, even if it left them without their other half, could let you go if they knew that was what you truly wished.
A lover, could not.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“The looks they cast her change to something more akin to horror. They're looking at her like she's a monster.
And Adriel, well, he continues to look on sadly, damn him.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“What power, despite being an easy target for hate with their lilting smiles and captivating stares, did they truly have? They were used, and then discarded at her own disposal.
The thought makes her stomach turn.
The influence of the east seemed to have seeped through after all—for women were always the easiest to blame in the end.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“Perhaps, somewhere far East where the mothers and spouses of those left strewn across the grass sit and wait for their sons to come home, they think the same of their own precious ones.
A hundred of her own would not be equal to one of theirs in their eyes.
A funny sentiment, one that causes the slightest smile, unnoticed by all but one of those around her, to tilt the prince's lips up.
They were all fools drenched in red, regardless of what deity or god it was in the name of.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“She moves, and people die.
And gods, they die fast.
It's over so quickly she doesn't realize at first, as if time had slowed down only for her and the entity that watches from within the vessel that her body had become.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“She would wield death with this blade, with or without the hand of its godly owner to guide her.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“His hair had come loose from its tie around his face, and it swirls around his narrowed eyes in a storm of soft brown. Ironically, he looks the most unguarded, she thinks, when he's fighting. Like the layer of Adriel that is there to be the prince of the most influential clan in the Hygsten is stripped away, leaving a raw, unbridled version of himself simply lost in the mechanical motions of the battle.
She liked this version.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“Adriel looks like he tried to stay awake, sitting just beside her bed on the rugs, however he eventually fell asleep with his head pillowed by his arms just below where her own head lay.
Inches apart, really. She could see each individual eyelash from where she watches him.
She continues to stare for a moment, her heart beating faster than it normally would, much to her horror.
It was probably just the fever.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“Do you look at that bruise on his face and feel pride, or are you currently wallowing in self pity over how tortured you are pretending to hate him?" Kasar whispers to her as they watch Adriel go over the basics of using a bow with the trainees a week later. "Because I would personally feel pretty proud to have landed a bruise that lasted this long."
Meraki slowly turns to him. "Do you want to find out just how proud I am of my hits?"
"Noted.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“You're a natural at this, you know?"
"I'm a natural at everything."
"Humble too.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night

“The green of summer fades to the orange and yellow of autumn, the fallen leaves stained red from the high cost of blood the war had wrought.”
― Jo Grospierre, Hymn of The Night