Providence Quotes

“Our story had been anything but simple up to now, and it would be callow and irrational to think we could pick right back up where we’d left off at the beginning of the war.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“I smoothed back her hair, wanting nothing more than to hold her in my arms and keep her there.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Sylvie struggled to stand again. She accomplished the task, but looked as if she might fall over at any moment. “I might have the strength…to strangle him while he’s unconscious. Maybe Fate appreciates…irony.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“I’m sorry,” I said suddenly, realizing that I hadn’t really responded to her properly. “This isn’t goodbye, Tessia. This is welcome back.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“She’s saying…ah, shit, Art. I wish I didn’t have to be the go-between here.’ Regis winced, a mental expression that sent a twitch through my own slack face. ‘She’s saying that she understands. It’s okay. You’ve done everything you can. She wants you to know that, after everything…well, she’s glad you’re here in the end. You and Sylvie. And me, but she added that as a kind of afterthought, and I—okay, okay. She, uh…she loves you, Art. And she wants me to tell you…goodb⁠—’ “Stop,” I said, suddenly fully awake again. “Don’t. This isn’t goodbye.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“I swallowed and ran a hand over Tessia’s hair. It was strange, thinking of it specifically as Tessia’s hair again. Her body. Her.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Art…’ Regis’s thought trailed off for a moment. ‘She says…that it’s okay. She wants you to know…that you did the right thing.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“A staccato beat against the wet ground drew my attention back to Tessia; she was seizing, her entire body shaking so violently that her heels clattered wildly against the stone. I dragged her into my lap, cushioning her head from the convulsions of her body.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Emotional support weapon of mass destruction, reporting for duty, sir,”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Mourning that version of myself, of the love I had been allowed to share that I had withheld from myself in my real life, I could only plead with the keystone. Enough, I begged. I don’t want to keep doing this. Please. That is enough. Let me go.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“My bond, who was like a daughter to me and Tessia,”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“I howled with the despair of waking and realizing that the life I’d lived was a dream. A beautiful, wonderful, horrible dream.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Beside me, a concerned frown formed on my wife’s face, and she rolled over fitfully.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“I will be the king here that I could never be as Grey, I thought, brushing my fingers along Tessia’s arm, which was woven through my own. And it will be because of you.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“She turned to look at me, and I felt myself slipping away into those teal eyes, which shone turquoise in the sun. “I love you, King Arthur,” she said softly, my name barely a whisper on her lips. “And I love you, Queen Tessia,” I answered. More than anything, I yearned to lean forward and kiss her painted lips, but I held myself back, submitting to the decorum of the day. In truth, I would have rather foregone the ceremony and pomp entirely and instead spent the day just the two of us, insulated from the needs of the wider world.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Through the crowd, I caught sight of a particular pair of beautiful teal eyes, shining with delight, and I couldn’t help but smile in return. ”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“But I know that I care for him, respect him, and want him to have a happy life after all this. If that isn’t a foundation for real love, then I’m not sure what is.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“I don’t think Arthur ever pretended to be anyone except who he really was,’ she answered slowly, forming every word with care. ‘I can only imagine how hard it must have been for him—the loneliness, the guilt of having to keep such a secret.’ ”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“I accept that I am order from chaos, spontaneous rebirth, the bond that holds against the inevitable. I am what the rest of my kind are not: changeable. I had my time, and I gave everything I was, and now my time has come again. I am guardian and guide, caution and fury, daughter and partner. But I am not my mother’s mistake or my father’s tool. I am not my grandfather’s treasure to be hoarded or weapon to be swung. I reject the role required of my birth clans, and I refuse the name of Indrath or Vritra.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Many things are thought impossible until they become real. Fools insist reality must conform to their expectations, while the wise know that knowledge of our reality is constantly evolving, timeless and without finality.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Wren and Gideon exchanged a look that sent a shiver of pure horror down my spine as I wondered what I had wrought on the world by introducing the two.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“With Arthur, as it always has. Dicathen is my home, its people my people. Its enemies”—she held the ancient phoenix’s eye, every syllable honed to a fine point—“my enemies.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Papa…it’s really you. I was afraid you were a dream.” ”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“Why did you stop it from killing me? I asked, unsure if Tessia’s disembodied spirit would even be able to respond. There was a long pause, and I thought perhaps she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer me. Then her voice sounded in my head, clear and bright as a silver bell: ‘I have a promise to keep.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“So much about Arthur makes sense, now, knowing…everything.” A vine as thick as my arm wrapped around Tessia’s waist like an embrace, and she plucked a golden flower from it, twirling it in her fingers as she spoke. “His maturity, his confidence, even as a child…and I thought you’d be the same, having lived two lives. But…” She met my eyes and held them. “You’re a child. Stunted.” I started to snap a retort, but she kept talking. “You haven’t had two lives. Not even one. Which is why you can’t see what’s being done to you. You know, of course. But you don’t see.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“My best friend. My brother. And…I had hated him, tried to kill him…because of something he didn’t even do.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“And for every end, there are new beginnings too. Endings don’t have to be something to fear.”
― TurtleMe, Providence

“There aren’t many things I need, but there are a whole lot that I want!”
― TurtleMe, Providence