The Queen's Assassin Quotes

“My aunts taught me that sometimes when the world is too much, when life starts to feel overwhelming, we must strip away what’s unnecessary, seek out the quiet, and listen to the dirt and trees. “All the answers you seek are there, but only if you are willing to hear them.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Do tell the story,” says Shadow.
Cal taps a finger against his cup. “It was almost as if she just appeared in my room one day, out of the blue.”
“Oh! Who is she?” cries the duchess.
“A lady I met in Renovia,” he answers, as Shadow’s cheeks burn. “In a castle.”
“Renovian,” says the duchess with distaste. “What is she like?”
“Shadow is about to answer when Cal cuts her off. He looks right at her when he speaks. “She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. Brave, courageous, loyal. In all the kingdoms of Avantine I have never met her equal.”
“And how did you propose, brother? Seeing that you had sworn off marriage and children to look after Mother’s estate,” says Shadow softly.
“Ah, but she too had vowed not to marry,” Cal answers. “So we promised to be unmarried to each other, but together forever.”
“What an atypical arrangement,” says Shadow, not quite meeting his eye.
The duchess was fully agitated by now. “Sworn off marriage and children? How strange! What kind of engagement is this?” She takes an aggressive bite of toast.
“A promise between two souls,” he says, but he only has eyes for Shadow.
“A promise can be broken,” Shadow replies.
“Not mine,” he says, so quietly that he’s not sure she can hear him.
“Nor mine,” she says, which means that she did.
They catch each other’s eye, and Cal wants nothing more than to reach across the table for her hand and to pull her to him. But they are at the Duke and Duchess of Girt’s table, and must conform to propriety.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“We may not have tomorrow, but we have tonight.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“I would rather remain in a cell for the rest of my life than see you throw your life away.”
“It is mine to do with as I wish,” I say softly. “Here.” I push the box closer to him. “Please take it. Find the scrolls. You’re almost free. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”
“I am not free, not without my love,” he says, and this time, when he looks at me, I don’t look away.
My love. How do I answer that? There has always been so much unspoken between us. And yet now that we’re together, now that he’s saying the words I’ve so longed to hear, it is hopeless. Our fate is already sealed.
“Leave with me. We can run away; we’ve done it before. We can find the scrolls together,” he says, taking my hands in his. “Shadow. Be with me. Always. I am yours. Be mine.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Of course,” Cal’s father would say, “this is just a story and stories are always a little bit true and a little bit false; we just don’t know which is which.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Of course,” Carl’s father would say, “this is just a story and stories are always a little bit true and a little bit false; we just don’t know which is which.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“My aunts warned me of this many times—be wary of the sway of others, they told me. Find your own path and stay upon it. Don’t allow yourself to be pulled in another direction, even if you must walk alone. “Do the most good,” is their favorite saying. The most good. I like that, because it allows for, well, some of the not-so-good too. Sometimes a bit of that is necessary.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“sometimes when the world is too much, when life starts to feel overwhelming, we must strip away what’s unnecessary, seek out the quiet, and listen to the dirt and trees.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“My aunts taught me that sometimes when that world is too much, when life starts to feel overwhelming, we must strip away what's
unnecessary, seek out the quite, and listen to the dirt and trees. "All the answers you seek are there, but only if you are willing to hear them.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Wearing a mask of obedience before royalty as they pulled the strings of the puppet monarchs.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Today he hasn't been half as irritating, which I find rather irritating.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Where will you go?” I ask him. My hands fist the sheets, rumpling them.
He doesn’t answer.
“I ask too much,” I say. Of course he will not return to me. I am to marry another, and being the queen’s consort is beneath him. He would be under constant threat of discovery, and with little more status than one of my servants. Once he has fulfilled his vow, he has a barony in his future, land, riches, freedom to marry, to have children of his own.
“You ask so little,” he says. “But that is not the reason.” He takes my hand and presses it to his lips.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Cal, listen to me.” I reach for his hands. Mine are shaking. “Hansen will have my name and my kingdom. But he will never have my heart. That remains with you, my love, forever.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“Don’t get me wrong. I know he loved me. But I don’t think he knew how to be a father.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“The duke is oblivious to all of this. He seems to regard himself as above everyone else, even—and maybe especially—his wife. Like they’re all children he’s tolerating until they’re sent back into the nursery with the governess.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“As I’ve already explained, Lady Shadow, I’ve spent a lot of time at court. I’m already well-versed in the art of bowing and keeping my mouth shut.”
“Ha! But have you read Crumpets and Cravats?”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“There she is, our lady of perpetual sleep!” he says smiling broadly.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“It’s vital that we work together,” he says. “Arguments will only slow us down.”
“We wouldn’t argue if you didn’t contradict everything I say. Hold on, I mean you if you don’t want to hear anything I have to say. You think you have all the answers already.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“ The lesson, my son, is that we alone, no matter how skilled or smart or how rich, are but spokes and cannot move the wheel alone, only together can we do that.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“But the queen thinks only of her country. She will stop at nothing to find the scrolls, for they are the key to her family’s protection . . . and her country’s salvation.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“It’s alarming, really, how quickly nice people become ravenous, bloodthirsty.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin

“At the door stood the strangest, most beautiful being Alphonia had ever seen, a silver-haired mage with violet eyes, neither female nor male, but both, as all the most powerful mages are.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, The Queen's Assassin