King's Cage Quotes

“To stand in front of a person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Those who know what it's like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“You aren’t alone.” The hope in his eyes cuts deeply. “You have your crown.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“I've been broken too many times to break again.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Now I'm in a king's cage. But so is he. My chains are Silent Stone. His is the crown.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“I thought I knew what heartbreak was. I thought that was what Maven did to me. When he stood and left me kneeling. When he told me everything I ever thought him to be was a lie. But then, I believed I loved him.

I know now, I didn't know what love was. Or what even the echo of heartbreak felt like.

To stand in front of a person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Not a god’s chosen, but a god’s cursed. That’s what we all are.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“There are pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction. A ghost living inside a living boy I cannot begin to fathom. The ghost who sat by my bed while I dreamed in pain. The ghost who kept Samson from my mind as long as he could, I know, delaying an inevitable torture.

The ghost who loves me, in what poisoned way he can.

And I feel that poison working in me.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Through it all, I stare at the boy on the throne. He maintains his mask. Jaw clenched, lips pressed into a thin, unforgiving line. Still fingers, straight back. But his gaze wavers. Something in his eyes has gone far away. And at his collar, the slightest gray flush rises, painting his neck and the tips of his ears.

He's terrified.

For a second, it makes me happy. Then I remember―monsters are most dangerous when they're afraid.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“The person she loved is dead, stolen by someone else. Mine chose to walk away. Chose everything I hate over everything I am. I wonder which hurts more. Before”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Mare,” he whispers. “Choose me.”

Choose a crown. Choose another king’s cage. Choose a betrayal to everything you’ve bled for.

I find my thread of steel too. Thin but unbreakable.

“I am in love with you, and I want you more than anything else in the world.” His words sound hollow coming from me. “Anything else in this world.”

Slowly, my eyelids flutter open. He finds the spine to match my gaze.

“Think what we could do together,” he murmurs, trying to pull me closer. My feet hold firm. “You know what you are to me. Without you, I have no one. I am alone. I have nothing left. Don’t leave me alone.”

My breathing turns ragged.

I kiss him for what could be, what might be, what will be—the last time. His lips feel strangely cold as we both turn to ice.

“You aren’t alone.” The hope in his eyes cuts deeply. “You have your crown.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“There are pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“As you enter, you pray to leave. As you leave, you pray to never return.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“You are only a shadow, and who looks at shadows when they have flame?”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“My heart breaks for him; my heart hardens against him.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Cameron, my heart is quite literally in this," he hisses through gritted teeth.
Swooning words. A romantic declaration. I can barely stop my eyes from rolling.
"Save it for when we get her back," I grumble.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“And his eyes are worst of all. Her eyes, Elara's eyes. Once I thought them cold, made of living ice. Now I know better. The hottest fires burn blue, and his eyes are no exception.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“In the palace, during my imprisonment, I learned that Maven had been made by his mother, formed into the monster he became. There is nothing on earth that can change him or what she did. But Cal was made too. All of us were made by someone else, and all of us have some thread of steel that nothing and no one can cut.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Maven Calore is not his own self. He told me as much. He is a construct, a creation of his mother's additions and subtractions. A mechanical, a machine, soulless and lost. What a horror, to know that someone like this holds our fates in the palm of his quivering hand.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams. —HRC”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“I love your brother, Maven. You were right. You are only a shadow, and who looks at shadows when they have flame? Who would ever choose a monster over a god?”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“In what life can I trust anything out of your mouth ever again?”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“The words were only words. He could never part with her. So it was easy to push her into his path ― and push him off course. The equivalent of waving a red flag in front of a bull. She was his hurricane, and every nudge pulled him deeper into the eye of the storm.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“The smell made it really hard to be friends with you."
"Probably why we stuck together. No one else could handle my stink or your attitude.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“You're like Thomas was. You are the only person I care about, the only person who reminds me I am alive. Not empty. And not alone.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Maven is a talented liar, and I don't trust a single word he speaks. Even if he was telling the truth. Even if he is a product of his mother's meddling, a thorned flower forced to grow a certain way. That doesn't change things. I can't forget everything he's done to me and so many others. When I first met him, I was seduced by his pain. He was the boy in shadow, a forgotten son. I saw myself in him. Second always to Gisa, the bright star in my parents' world. I know now that was by design. He caught me back then, ensnaring me in a prince's trap. Now I'm in a king's cage. But so is he. My chains are Silent Stone. His is the crown.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“The crushing weight of silence hangs heavy as always. For a moment it's too difficult to breathe, and I wonder if this is how I die. Drowned in this bed of silk, burned by a king's obsession, smothered by open air.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Those who know what it's like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Another round," she goads, and holds out a hand for the cards. "I bet a week of laundry."
Across from us, Cal stops his preparatory stretching to snort. "You think Mare does laundry?"
"Do you, Your Highness?" I snap back, grinning. He just pretends not to hear me.”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage

“Cal stares at the floor, silent for a long, stoic moment. "I never thought Maven would do that to her," he mutters finally. "She probably didn't either."
Then you're both stupid, my brain screams. How many times doe one wicked boy have to betray you people before you learn?”
― Victoria Aveyard, King's Cage