Blade Breaker Quotes

“Maybe we belong to each other, we who belong nowhere.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“She tasted blood too. The blood of Gallish soldiers, the blood of sea serpents from another realm. And, of course, her own blood. So much blood Corayne felt she might drown in it.
But I am a pirate’s daughter, she thought, heart pounding. Her mother, the bronzed and beautiful Meliz an-Amarat, grinned in her mind’s eye.
We do not drown.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“She tried not to think of the men she’d killed. Their faces came anyway, haunting in her memory.
“How many?” she said, her voice trailing off. Corayne didn’t expect Andry to understand the broken musings of her mind.
But pain crossed his face, a pain she knew. He looked beyond her, to the bodies in green and gold. He shut his eyes and bowed his head, hiding his face from the desert sun.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I will not count.”
I have never seen a heart break before, Corayne thought, watching Andry Trelland. He wore no wounds, but she knew he bled within. Once he was a squire of Galland who dreamed of becoming a knight. And now he is a killer of them, a killer of his own dreams.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“ Now there is nowhere to go, and yet I keep walking forward.
Into what, I do not know. And neither does anyone else.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“I am not brave.” Don ran a hand over his face, feeling his scars. The skin was hard and puckered. He would never be the same as he was before the temple. And history was about to repeat itself. “I am angry, saddened, frustrated—all things but brave.”
“I disagree.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“Orleon trembled with rage, his face matching his burgundy surcoat. He had no skill in hiding his emotions, and Erica knew exactly why.
He is a man. His emotions are not considered a burden or a weakness. Not like mine, which I must keep hidden, so men might feel a little less threatened and a little more strong.
Her fingers curled until she felt her own nails dig into her palms. Part of her wanted to claw Orleon’s red face right of and give him a mask to wear all the time, as she had to.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“You'd think I'd be used to this by now."
"Sorasa?"
"Death," Dom clipped. "Though I supposed they are interchangeable.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“It is easy for me to claim what is already broke, and Taristan was broken long ago. But not you. Somehow, even now, I see no cracks in you."
Raising her head, Corayne narrowed her eyes at the shadow. "And you never will.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“So much of the world rests on the shoulders of two young women, with men squawking at our edges.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“I'd rather cut a man's throat than hold his hand.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“The Heir flushed and scowled. They shifted, planting their body between Charlie and the sacred circle of bronze, as if it were a child to be protected. “I’ll not hear blasphemy.”
“You may cover your ears,” Charlie answered, before Sigil clapped a hand over his mouth.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“There’s still time,” Charlie breathed. He drummed his fingers on the table.
Sigil looked at him sidelong, scoffing. “And how do you know that?”
The priest shrugged, settling back in his chair. He interlaced his hands over his belly, like a man satisfied with a good meal. “The Spindles hold up the realms. We aren’t dead yet, so that’s something.”
“That’s something,” Sigil echoed, shaking her head.
We aren’t dead yet. Corayne almost laughed, and the many long days of travel and toil seemed to crash all at once, a terrible wave. The sea serpents, the horses, the oasis town filled with nothing but ghosts now. We aren’t dead yet, she thought. Weave that into a tapestry, for it seems to be the core thread of this journey.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“We Amhara are not meant to be remembered. We kill and we disappear. We don't stand around and beg for praise."
"Well, you'll be the first, then." Dom said, matter-of-fact.
She pursed her lips, confused. "The first?"
He only blinked at her, as if the answer were obvious. "The first Amhara remembered.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“Real power. Erida felt it flowing through her veins now, as if drawn from the throne beneath her and the crown on her brow. It was more seductive than anything and anyone the Queen had ever know. She wanted more of it, but beyond that, she wanted to keep it.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“Men are so unsuited to power.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“Andry’s natural instinct was to swallow his retort, to bury rough words. To find a gentler way. But the road had ways of changing a person, especially the road they were walking now.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“You know so little of kingdoms and courts, Taristan.” Erica heaved a weary sigh. If only his demon lord would gift him some common sense.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“ I began this day on one battlefield, and now I stand on another entirely. She certainly felt like a soldier, fighting with wits and intelligence instead of a sword. A sword is far more simple.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“I see anger in you, Princess,” Kesar said softly, hesitant. Tentative as a traveler walking across broken ice.
Ridha sighed, her chest rising and falling beneath her furs. “There is gratitude in me too,” she murmured. “So much it is almost overwhelming. To you, to Dyrian, even to the cold Lady of Kovalinn. For ignoring my mother. For refusing to leave the Ward to it’s dark fate. For all of your who refuse to surrender.” The air froze on her teeth. “I will not surrender either.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“Your concern is insulting”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“The fire Taristan spoke of licked up inside her, consuming her pain, turning it into something she could use instead. Anger. Fear. Anything but sorrow.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“No, not love. They will never love us." She shook her head at the court, despairing of the Madrentines as any good daughter of Galland would. Her voice dropped, her eyes flicking over Taristan again. "But they must respect you. Let them live. Let them see what a queen you are. How much better you are than the soft kings who came before, who sat this throne and did nothing but drink wine and write poetry." Harrsing's fingers tightened on Erida's arm, her grip surprisingly strong. "Show them what real power is.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“I am not brave.” Dom ran a hand over his face, feeling his scars. The skin was hard and puckered. He would never be the same as he was before the temple. And history was about to repeat itself. “I am angry, saddened, frustrated—all things but brave.”
“I disagree.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker

“If you were expecting a warm welcome from one such as Eyda, you were mistaken.”
“Clearly.” The Lady of Kovalinn still stood the walls, staring out into the long craggy jaws of the fjord, toward the Glorysea. “She seems to be made of stone.”
“She is Glorianborn.” Kesar’s joyful air faded a little, and a grim shadow Ridha recognized passed over her face. “We are graver than you children of the Ward.”
Ridha tasted bitterness on her own tongue. The light of different stars, she thought, remembering her mother and how she used to glare at the sky, as if she could will the stars of Glorian to replace the stars of the Ward.
“I know that more than most.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Blade Breaker