Where the Dark Stands Still Quotes

“Of women, he’s heard it said: “She will be the end of me,” or “She will be my undoing.” None of that is true for Liska Radost. She is not the end of anything, but the beginning of everything. He has been dead a long time, and she is his resurrection.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“You were always so full of hope, so maddeningly tenacious. And then, oh, then, Liska, Liseczka, the worst thing of all happened.’ His voice cracks, and he looks away. ‘I fell in love.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“She has always thought herself foolish for loving so much and so easily. Yet now it is her strength.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“If I look like a monster,’ he says roughly, ‘then no one will be surprised when I do monstrous things.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“You are not a monster, Liska Radost. You are sunlight, and you breathe life into everything you touch.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“I must tell you, my dear fox,” says the Leszy, “that you deserve someone far better than me. And yet—” His fingers brush the tip of her ear, linger there. “And yet, and yet and yet, I am a selfish creature, and I do not want to let you go.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Of course. What did I expect? Something befitting an all-powerful demon? No, of course not. I have razed battlefields and summoned storms and created wonders from magic alone, but she wants me to grow cabbages.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“if the world has not prepared a place for you, you must take up a hammer and chisel and carve one out for yourself.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Liska realizes, in that moment, that she has misjudged herself. Through the Leszy’s eyes, she has seen something in herself that she could have never believed otherwise: strength, tenacity, kindness. In his eyes, she is ever-changing, different with every dawn but no less sincere. She is not defined by her magic, for better or for worse. She does not need to prove herself to him or to anyone else. She is simply… enough. She has always been enough. It is this discovery, more than anything, that brings Liska to life.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Please," she begs. "Surely there must be some spell—there must be something, anything. Please, Eliasz, please. Tell me how to save you."
"Liska, Liseczka. Oj, lisku." He raises her hand to his lips, kisses her knuckles in a final act of worship. His smile is that of a man complete.
"I am already saved.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“A czarownik with a tree for a heart, a meddling house-spirit, a rusałka with a newfound conscience, and Liska herself, a mere village girl, all living under the same semi-sentient roof.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Liska snaps, frustrated. ‘We kissed, you incorrigible antlered tragedy! You think I can just put this out of my mind? This happened because of me!”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Grief is a bit like a chronic ache, I think—it’s always there, but sometimes you notice it more and sometimes less, and sometimes it’s unbearable and sometimes you think it might be gone for good.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“In nature, everything balances itself. There can be no winter without summer, no shadow without the sun. You are my soul, Liska Radost. I lived seven hundred years to find you.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“But nothing is ever equal with humans, really—we give and we take, the scales ever tipping. That’s just the way of it. I am what he has, and he is what I have—there’s no point keeping score.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“She wants to cut his throat. She wants to kiss him.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“The corner of his mouth pulls up in that laughing half-smile. ‘I do so love when you command me.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Her worry is its own ghost, haunting her through the night.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“L-Liska.” That is all she will give him. Her surname is hers to keep. He chuckles warmly. “Liska, Liseczka… oj, lisku. You’re not a very clever fox, are you?”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Stop.” With sudden frustration, she grabs a fistful of his shirt, pulling him closer. “Stop that. You are the most dreadful boy I have ever met, but you are mine, and you will not be taken by a cantankerous old god.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“His eyebrows tilt up, firelight reflecting in his eyes. "It was always to be my fate."
"Fate," she scoffs. "What is fate but an excuse to surrender responsibility? No, Eliasz, we cannot think of that yet—we must fight to the very end.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“The whole room smells of mystery, of old paper and wild berries and lively summer skies.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“The corner of his mouth tilts up. “We’re czarownik, not-so-clever fox—we can reach beyond the mortal veil and into the realm of spirits. To us, everything has a soul.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“What’s this? A good, pious girl, suddenly curious about witchcraft?”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“It’s a part of the in-between, so it can do things other places cannot. Like hiding entire rooms, or betraying my secrets.’ He aims a vindictive glare at the ceiling. ‘Insolent pile of kindling.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“I wish I could make them live, but alas, some things must die to grow again stronger. I can bend nature’s laws, but it is best not to break them.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“The corner of his mouth pulls up in that laughing half smile. “I do so love when you command me.” She tries not to blush. She fails.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“We kissed, you incorrigible antlered tradgedy!”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“If only we could go back to that time, Liska thinks, when we were young and full of stories. Gazing into the shadows of the ever-restive woodland, she escapes into a memory of better days.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still

“Though the process is swifter this time, it is no less macabre. His body rots and shrivels and falls apart, then bends and reforms into a cervine shape. Muscle and flesh regrow in the blink of an eye until the stag stands before her, pearl white against the dark.”
― A.B. Poranek, Where the Dark Stands Still