The Abyss Surrounds Us Quotes

“But she underestimated me. I played my cards, I laid in wait, I let myself be beaten and manipulated. If she keeps that promise she made to me, I’ll show her the truth I’ve learned on her boat. I don’t just raise monsters. I am one.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“And it sucks, because I want to kiss her. It's infuriating how perfect it would be to kiss her right now, perched on a cannon on a pirate ship under the stars. That sounds like something off the pages of an adventure novel. But my life isn't one of those stories. My story is a hurricane, and here with Swift is just the eye.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“It's one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, knowing their stories.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“You don't touch her controls. You never touch my ship like that again. Next time it happens, I cut a finger off. Each time you go against me, you lose another finger. When you're out of fingers, you're out of luck. Am I clear?"
... "Perfectly," I choke. "Ten chances it is.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Home is what you kill for. And I killed for Swift.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Am I 'just one of them'?" Swift asks, miffed.
"No, you're so much more."
...
Home is what you kill for.
And I killed for Swift”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“But when you suffer with someone, you learn them. And it’s hard to kill a person you’ve learned.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“They can try to kill me all they want, but I'm the girl who stands on tha backs of the beasts of the NeoPacific. The Minnow blazes from within, promising life and warmth and vilainy, but out here I'm mighty.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“I don’t just raise monsters. I am one.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Don't get too chummy with me, Cas. I'll eat you alive." - Swift
... "Was that a threat? God, you're the least intimidating pirate I've ever had the misfortune to meet." - Cas”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Did it ever occur to you that your neck might matter to me at least as much as mine? Actually, probably more than mine? - Swift, to Cas”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“You're at the top of the world - you're the most powerful thing on the sea when you're serving under her - but there's a cost. There's always a cost.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, knowing their stories.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“I've taken a monster used to destroy them and tamed it in their favor. I've hatched the enemy's tool and shaped it into something they can wield. And here, sitting squarely on his back, I'm the very image of a conqueror, my full weight thrown on the subjugated.

I am not a girl. I am a symbol.

And I represent everything that I shouldn't.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“But before that day it felt like at least I had an ally on this boat. Now I have nothing. Well, I have a fat baby sea monster. But Bao doesn't tell jokes, and somehow I need that.

I hate how I need that.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“What do you mean, what's the deal with my hair?" - Swift
...
"Did you get bored one day and hack half of it off? You look like you've had a close call with a weed whacker." - Cas”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“If it weren't for her, one way or another I'd be another bloated corpse staining the NeoPacific.

So when I lie back and roll onto my side, I decide I'm not bunking back to back with the girl who kept me from sparing Durga or the girl who dragged me aboard the Minnow and threw me into a janitorial closet. She's not the girl who slammed me into a wall a minutes ago or the girl who called me a shoregirl like it was the height of an insult.

I'm just going to sleep next to the girl who saved my life.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“The sea is still tonight, and the decks are silent. "I'm sorry," I tell Mr. Kagawa, meaning it wholeheartedly. He came on this ship to relax, not to relieve the memories that haunt him.

But he waves off my apology, a tense smile crackling over his face. "It's one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, knowing their stories.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Dad takes a step back, one hand still on my shoulder, and reaches into his pocket. He draws out a little blue capsule, and I feel every molecule in my body screaming to run. Dad must catch the panic in my eyes - he squeezes my shoulder and holds out the capsule. "Cas, it's fine. It's going to be fine. This is just in case."

Just in case. Just in case the worst happens. The ship falls. Durga fails, I fail, and the knowledge I carry as a Reckoner trainer must be disposed of. That information can't fall into the wrong hands, into the hands of people who will do anything to take down our beasts.

So this little capsule holds the pill that will kill me if it comes to that.

"It's waterproof," Dad continues, pressing it into my hand. "The pocket on the collar of your wetsuit, keep it there. It has to stay with you at all times."

It won't happen on this voyage. It's such a basic mission, gift-wrapped to be easy enough for me to handle on my own. But even holding the pill fills me with revulsion. On all my training voyages, I've never had to carry one of these capsules. That burden only goes to full-time trainers.

"Cas." Dad tilts my chin up, ripping my gaze from the pull. "You were born to do this. I promise you, you'll forget you even have it." I suppose he ought to know - he's been carrying one for two decades.

It's just a right of passage, I tell myself, and throw my arms around his neck once more.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“She probably just wants to see me get eaten.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“E tan e epi tas.
Come back alive and victorious, or don't come back at all.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“I shudder, clutching the pill in my fist. The ridges of the raised lettering on the capsule dig into my skin. Six characters in total. Epi-Tas. Half of a Spartan phrase. E tan e epi tas. With your shield or on it.
Come back alive and victorious, or don't come back at all. That's our way. That's our principle.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Santa Elena lifts a radio to her lips, and a second later, her voice snaps into my ear. "Your orders were to dismantle the persuit and then surrender. The purpose of those orders was to get the damn SRC off our tail. You do realize that by coming back here, you ensured that all of that hard work was for nothing, right? I'm just so curious about what possessed you to come chasing after us. It sure as hell isn't Swift, here. You can't possibly be in that deep.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us

“Of course she lunges, her hands slamming into my shoulders, throwing me against the half-open drawers. I wait for the next blow, but none comes. She hesitates, every part of her body held in tension then crawls into bed and rolls over, doesn't say anything. From a typhoon to stilled seas in the blink of an eye.”
― Emily Skrutskie, The Abyss Surrounds Us