Sky in the Deep Quotes

“We find things, just as we lose things. If you’ve lost your honor, you’ll find it again.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“Vegr yfir fjor.” Honor above life.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I feel like…” I caught the sob in my chest and swallowed it, suddenly embarrassed. He leaned in closer to me. “Like what?” My eyes ran over his face. The scruff on his jaw. The dark lashes around his blue eyes. “Like I’m a flame about to burn out.” My voice was so thin it sounded like I could reach out and break it with my fingers. “Like I’m going to disappear.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I could still see a young Eelyn standing on the beach turned into the wind, a sword in one hand and an axe in the other. I hadn’t lost her. I hadn’t buried her. I’d only let her change into something new.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“And when he kissed me again, the seconds slowed. They stretched out and made more time. I felt his body against mine, unraveling everything else that was between us, and my soul unwound, threading itself to his. And I let it. I gave myself to him. Because I was already his.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I don’t belong to you.”
“Yes, you do.” He pulled the hair back out of my face so he could look at me. “Like I belong to you.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“What are you thinking?” He took my hand.
“I’m thinking I don’t want to fight anymore.”
His fingers tightened around mine. It seemed so foolish now, all the fighting.
All the death and loss and mourning.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I was the ice on the river. The snow clinging onto the mountainside.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I’d envied Iri my whole life for his open heart, and now mine had been pried open too.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“Home felt an entire world away.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“The writhing, bleeding hole inside of me closed up. I let him erase it. I let him make it go away.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I stared at her. “This kind of bond is formed when a soul is broken. It’s formed through pain, loss, and heartbreak. They’re bound by something deeper than we can see. And that made Iri family.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I wept. A dark, scared cry rising up out of me. He held me together, keeping the pieces from falling down around us. And I cried until I couldn't feel. I cried until I couldn't think.
The moon rose up over my broken home and I broke with it.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I sat down on the cot, curling up on my side and tried to stay quiet as I wept. But the thing writhing inside me was too angry to be calmed. It was too hurt to be hushed. It was a living, breathing thing and it was trying to swallow me whole. And maybe it would. I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore and only the sound of the fire remained.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“She’s got fire in her blood”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I’ve thought of you every day.” He watched as I wiped the tears from my face. “Fiske’s father gave me a choice to be traded back to the Aska, Eelyn.”
“What?” I could feel the words prying my mind open.
“I couldn’t go. I couldn’t leave this place.” He reached to take my hand. “The path of my soul has taken a turn, just as yours has.”
“This is not the same.” I glowered at him. “I want to go home.”
“I know. But you will never be the same. You will never be the same person you were.” He paused. “You are seeing the truth. I see you thinking it, everyday.”
“What truth?”
“That they’re like us.”
I put my face into my hands, trying to escape what he was saying. Because it made me feel like the world was turned sideways. Like everything I’d ever been taught didn’t fit into the shape of this world.
“What are you thinking now?”
The weight of it fell from my head, down into the rest of my body. The words were small but they were true. “I’m thinking that I wish you’d died that day.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“We find things, just as we lose things... If you’ve lost your honor, you’ll find it again.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“The fog sat on the field like a veil, but we could hear it. The blades of swords and axes brushing against armor vests. Quick footsteps in sucking mud. My heart beat almost in rhythm with the sounds, pulling one breath in and letting it touch another before I let it go.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“My father’s rasping whistle caught my ears from down the line and I searched the dirt-smeared faces until I found a pair of bright blue eyes fixed on me. His gray-streaked beard hung braided down his chest behind the axe clutched in his huge fist. He tipped his chin up at me and I whistled back—our way of telling each other to be careful. To try not to die.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“The path of my soul has taken a turn, just as yours has.”
“This is not the same.” I glowered at him. “I want to go home.”
“I know. But you will never be the same. You will never be the same person you were.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“Fjotra is the blood bond. They aren’t brothers,” I corrected her.
“That’s munstrǫnd fjotra. Sál fjotra is a bond between souls.” I stared at her.
“This kind of bond is formed when a soul is broken. It’s formed through pain, loss, and heartbreak. They’re bound by something deeper than we can see. And that made Iri family.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I reached into my vest for the idol of my mother and my fingers hit something else. I fished it from where it was tucked against my heart and I held it out before me. A smile pulled wide at my lips, threatening tears. It was a taufr, the talismans the Riki used to protect the ones they loved. Fiske must have slipped it into my vest with the idol. The stone was smooth and black, the words etched into its surface.
Ala sál. Soul bearer.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“The rest of the camp readied outside as I worked at his armor, checking everything twice. When my hands went back a third time, he caught them with his and waited for me to look up at him.
“Left side, near the dock.” His voice was still waking. “I’ll be there with Iri.”
I nodded. I’d been right about Vidr’s plans. He’d made Fiske head of one of the groups.
He pulled my hand up and opened my fist, pressing his lips to my palm, and the feel of him ran through me, grounding me. Then his lips found mine in the dark, soft and warm, molding against mine.
“Qnd eldr.” I whispered his people’s battle cry against his lips. Breathe fire.
He smiled, taking the back of my head with his hand and kissing my cheek. “Qnd eldr.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“Do you trust me, Fiske?”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I kept my eyes ahead, leaving Fiske standing in between the middle of the two night skies, the stars and the moon encircling him. The only hot, living thing on the ice. The only thing I could feel.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“When he was gone, I reached into my pocket and pulled my idol of Iri free. The wood was smooth and shining where I’d held it in prayer under every moon that rose in the sky. I carried it against my heart as I fought. I slept with it beside me. We became warriors together. And long before that, we were friends.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“I feel like… Like I’m a flame about to burn out. Like I’m going to disappear.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“You’ll find your own end before the snow melts because your pride and your anger are more important to you than your own survival.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“If I die tomorrow” -I swallowed- “you’ll take care of Iri.”
He nodded. He wasn’t going to say it wouldn’t happen because we’d both seen enough clansmen fall to know it could. “And if you don’t?”
“What do you mean?”
He looked down into my face, putting the words together in his mind before he said them. “If you go back to Hylli, I want to come with you.”
I twisted the corner of the blanket in my hands. “What about your family?”
“I’ll go where you go.” This time, the words were unyielding.
I nodded, trying to suck in a breath past the tears coming up in my throat. I didn’t want to cry. I reached for him and he came down onto his knees in front of me, between my legs, and he let out a long breath as he leaned into me. I held his weight, holding him tightly. “I didn’t want to ask you,” I said in a cracked whisper.
He set his head onto my shoulder. “You didn’t have to ask me.”
I smiled, my lips pressed to his ear. Because Fiske lived in lockstep with his heart. He did what he believed in. It was the reason he hadn’t left Iri in the trench and the reason he’d taken me home.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep

“Stay with me and come with us to the valley. We’ll meet the Aska there.”
I closed my eyes as a tear rolled down my flushed face. Trying to escape. Trying to leave this moment and pretend like I hadn’t chosen a path to get here. It wasn’t a command. It was a request. One that I didn’t think I could deny. He’d left his family and come with me down the mountain as his people reeled in the aftermath of a raid. He’d taken me home. Helped me find my father. Now it was my turn to make a choice.
To choose him the way he’d chosen me.”
― Adrienne Young, Sky in the Deep