Apprentice Quotes

“People make mistakes all the time – some of us just are in more of a position to leave an impact when we do.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“Well done, Darren!” Master Byron was full of praise for the prince. “What did you use to cast it?”
Darren’s eyes found mine. “Something I don’t regret.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I don’t need another ‘adversity builds character’ speech, Darren. That man is a chauvinistic pig. Where’s your adversity?”
Darren raised a brow. “I’m looking at it.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“All of sudden I cared what someone thought of me. Because we are friends. And making you miserable and angry makes me miserable and angry. I don’t want to be the person to make you mad or cry, Ryiah. I want to make you laugh. I want you to make me laugh, because gods know you are the only one who can. So, yes, I am sorry, I am sorry because even if I was right, I was also wrong. And I’d rather lose a silly battle than your friendship.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I was tired of my traitorous heart wanting things that were taken. Or, more importantly, people that I didn’t want to want.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“That somehow, this insufferable girl would become the one person I am forever, hopelessly, madly drawn to against my will and possibly even my better judgment.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I told you not to trust a wolf,” he continued. His words dripped like honeyed venom. “Because it would only ever want to break you.” Darren let out a small, harsh laugh. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? I’m the wolf, Ryiah. I guess what I really should have told you was to never trust a prince, but that’s not quite as memorable.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“We couldn’t be friends. We couldn’t be enemies.
So what were we?”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I know exactly who you are.” I took a step forward, and another, until I was standing right in front of him. Then my words turned to ice. “You are the selfish, spineless son of a king who is too afraid to be his own man. You would rather hide behind your status than fight for something that could actually mean something.” There, that felt good. “And it’s a shame, really it is, because, according to you, I was the one true friend you had.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“So how did you do it? What makes the cold-hearted princeling mortal like the rest of us?”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I’m not that pitiful little girl you bullied last year.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“Someday, Ry, you are going to realize who Darren really is. He’s a prince, and he’s only going to break your heart.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I respect you, Ryiah. I told you last year you were the one good thing about the Academy and I meant it. You aren’t like anyone else here, or any person I’ve ever met. You’ve overcome so much and yet at the end of it you are still kind. You still care.”
“I don’t want to be the person to make you mad or cry, Ryiah. I want to make you laugh. I want you to make me laugh, because gods know you are the only one who can. So, yes, I am sorry, I am sorry because even if I was right, I was also wrong. And I’d rather lose a silly battle than your friendship.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“Anything for Byron’s least favorite apprentice. It’s the least I can do since you took over my torch.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“It's an easy thing to want someone, it's another to love them.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“My apprenticeship is more important than strangling Master Byron. I repeated the motto over and over again. If I said it enough times it would become true, or so I hoped.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“Three. I had just made my first, second, and third kill. Before I had even obtained my mage’s robes. I bent over and vomited into the grass. There was no pride, no justice, just the appalling sense that I had lost my innocence. That I was a monster.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“You can be a great man and still be a fool. Many of our country’s leaders can attest to that. Were they still living.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“He was a prince. There was no hope in saying yes to the boy with the garnet eyes who left me reckless and confused at every turn. There was no future with him. None. Darren had duty. To the Crown. Gods only knew Priscilla and Blayne had spent enough time reminding me of that.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“Ryiah.” Darren suddenly dropped my gaze, looking anywhere but my face. “If things were… If they were different-”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“You can't avoid them forever, Ry.
You have to make a decision soon. It isn't fair what you are doing to either of them.

I know.
I'm just afraid of making the wrong one.

You aren't afraid of making the wrong one, Ry, it's the fact that you want to make the wrong one.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“He kept me up against the wall, kissing me like he couldn't fight any longer. Like he was me, fighting himself and losing to a fervor that would burn him alive.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I wanted to dance. I wanted to be swept up in the long desert night, sending a farewell to the fallen and embracing the living.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“The irony was that my real enemy had been there all along right in front of me. Smiling crookedly and convincing me we were friends. Trying to seduce me for the thrill of the chase. Chastising me for not trusting him that first year in the tower stairs at the Academy… Telling me he loved me. And then tossing me aside the second I jeopardized his dreams. I wasn’t what he had wanted all these years. I’d merely been a diversion in his pursuit of the crown.
I never should have trusted a prince.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“Love Darren? Of course not. Love is for fools not smart enough to see the path in front of them. That’s the difference between you and I, Ryiah. I see the truth and accept Darren for what he is. You just see what you want to see. It’s why I will wear the crown and bear his children while you are left wondering why you were never good enough.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I’m not like you. I’ve never cared about keeping relationships or sparing people’s feelings. All I’ve ever cared about is power: how to get it, and how to keep it. I told you as much when we met.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I don't want to choose him. I know a future with him would never be what I want it to be.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“I never got a chance to ask,” he said quietly, “how you were faring. After the battle.” “Are you asking me now?” “I am.” “I’m fine.” I couldn’t think of what else to say. Anything else felt like a betrayal. “I’m glad.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“So, yes, I am sorry, I am sorry because even if I was right, I was also wrong. And I'd rather lose a silly battle than your friendship.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice

“The charge to produce lightning requires a very intense emotion - one that would not be forgotten so easily.”
― Rachel E. Carter, Apprentice