The Falconer Quotes

“Aoram dhuit,” he breathes. “I will worship thee.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“You know my mother thinks the waltz is indecent."

"Your mother would find the sight of a chair leg indecent.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Time won’t fix me. Time allows me to become more skillful at hiding how much I hurt inside. Time makes me a great liar. Because when it comes to grief, we all like to pretend.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“I'm like him. I'm a monster, too.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Must you question everything?”
“Aye,” I say. “It delights me to annoy you whenever possible.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“For heaven’s sake,” I say, “will you please sip the tea so I don’t have to pour you another cup every five minutes?”
“We’re facing an apocalypse,” he replies. “There is not enough tea in the world to calm me.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Kiaran’s kiss is fierce, his breathing ragged. ‘Have I ever told you the vow a sìthiche makes when he pledges himself to another?’ He slides his fingers down my neck and his lips are so soft against mine that I barely feel them. ‘Aoram dhuit,’ he breathes. ‘I will worship thee.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Well,” I say brightly, “we’re getting on splendidly, aren’t we? Glad to see you’re all becoming friends over your mutually violent desires.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Crimson suits you best.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Kiaran and I have little connection beyond our names. We battle, bleed and hunt together almost every night. He teaches me how to slaughter in the most effective, brutal ways possible. But I've never told Kiaran why I hunt, and he has never told me why he kills his own kind. This is our ritual, our dance. The only one that matters.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Sometimes the memories we cling hardest to are the ones that hurt us the most.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“He opens one bottle and holds it out to me. ‘Drink this one.’

Inside is a milky blue liquid with what looks like thin slivers of glass floating in it. Surely he doesn’t mean for me to drink glass. ‘Am I going to regret consuming its contents?’

‘No. But I imagine you’ll still call me every expletive you can possibly think of.’ He presses it into my palm.

‘I don’t like the sound of that.’ I sniff the vial and scrunch up my nose at a sharp tang that burns my nostrils. Like something that might come out of my chemistry set. ‘Ugh! What’s in this? It smells vile.’

‘I knew a human girl once. She was stubborn, like you. Refused to drink the paltry contents of that bottle, like you . . .’ He pauses for dramatic effect. ‘And she died a horrible, painful death – torturous, really – because she wouldn’t take my advice.’

I scrutinise him. ‘There was no girl who died, was there?’

‘There will be if you don’t drink what’s in that damned bottle.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“My ears are bleeding. I have a nasty headache. I'm trapped in a room with a murderous faery and I blame you."

"That's fair.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“When Dante described the circles of Hell, he clearly forgot the one where a hungry pixie sits on one's shoulder for eternity.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“In what way could keeping me in ignorance be construed as protection?’ I straighten a piece of wire to add to the fire-starter. ‘God spare me from such protection, especially when it involves safeguarding my poor feminine sensibilities from life-saving information.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Well,” Gavin drawls, “at least now I know what to do if that ever happens. I’ll throw a jar of honey and run like hell.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“I was twelve. You were girls, and therefore an entirely different species.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Ask her. Why. She is starving. Meeee!”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“There are two exits out of this room. Choose one.”
Derrick chuckles. “What a glorious comeuppance.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“I have to remove your . . . whatever this is.’

‘Nightdress,’ I say, my cheek against the pillow. ‘It’s from Paris. You’ve been alive how long and still can’t identify a woman’s clothing?”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Well, I can safely say that I've never experienced a more exciting two days. I suppose I should send a note before seeing you again. 'Are you in the company of any creature liable to attack me unprovoked? I can visit later.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Perhaps it's a honey-ache. That's the result of eating too much of what isn't yours."

"But your friend offered it. So she might not have explicitly said, 'Derrick, please eat all of the honey in my kitchen,' but it was implied by the mere fact that she has a kitchen.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“You take care of my bairn."

He blinks. "I beg your pardon?"

"My ornithopter.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Catherine doesn’t appear to notice my maid’s panic, or the strangeness of our conversation. She stares at Kiaran in silent, unabashed awe. Then she blinks rapidly and puts her hand out, palm down, as though she had forgotten that part of a proper greeting.

Kiaran takes her hand. ‘What am I to do with it? Kiss it?’

Dona shivers and Catherine looks to be on the verge of swooning. ‘That would be wonderful,’ she whispers, in a dreamy way that sounds completely unlike herself.

I gape at Catherine with dawning horror. Oh, hell! She’s been faestruck. Kiaran told me about the terrible effect the daoine sìth have on humans. People willingly become victims for a single touch from a faery, for a moment of closeness. Before the daoine sìth were trapped underground, many humans had died because of it.

‘I’ve changed my mind. Stop inadequately playing human,’ I say. ‘Drop her hand and step away. Take a very big step.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“I've changed my mind. Stop inadequately playing human," I say. "Drop her hand and step away. Take a very big step.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Oh, do be quiet. That was a lapse in judgement,’ I say, waving a hand dismissively. ‘I was young and foolish.’

‘You did it for four years.’

I glare at her. ‘It was a very long lapse in judgement.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“I'm immortal. You consider the future because one day you'll die. I don't have that uncertainty." - Kiaran”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“I feel. I feel. Strong and untouchable and capable. An exquisite glow of joy fills me up and extinguishes my anger. For this instant, I am whole again. I am not broken or empty. The shadow-self inside me that compels me to kill is silent. I am unburdened. I am complete.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“At that precise moment, Derrick barrels through the ballroom doors, bright as ever. He hovers above my shoulder and lands gracefully on my bare skin.

His wings graze my neck and he hiccups once. ‘Glorious lady.’ He stretches across my collarbone. ‘I have consumed –’ hiccup ‘– wondrous, splendid, beautiful honey. And it was –’ hiccup ‘– magnificent.’

I almost groan aloud.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer

“Names hold power, Kam," he says. "Don't use that one unless you'd like to see firsthand what it was once capable of.”
― Elizabeth May, The Falconer