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“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“But kissing Locke never felt the way that kissing Cardan does, like taking a dare to run over knives, like an adrenaline strike of lightning, like the moment when you've swum too far out in the sea and there is no going back, only cold black water closing over your head.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“There you are," Cardan says as I take my place beside him. "How has the night been going for you? Mine has been full of dull conversation about how my head is going to find itself on a spike.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“He's flint, you're tinder.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Cardan looks at me as though he's never seen me before. He looks at me as though no one has ever spoken to him like this. Maybe no one has.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“My sweet nemesis , how glad I am that you returned”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“The curse is broken. The king is returned."

He's every bit as terrifying as any serpent.
I don't care. I run into his arms.

Cardan's fingers dig into my back. He's trembling, and whether it is from ebbing magic or horror, I am not sure. But he holds me as though I am the only solid thing in the world.”
― Holly Black

“Cardan grins at me as though we've been great friends all our lives. I forgot how charming he can be--and how dangerous that is.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“She's my wife," Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd. "The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I recall that your hands were on her, but her eyes were on me,' Cardan returns.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“The next time you want to make a point,' Jude says, 'I beg you not to make it so dramatically.'
His shoulder hurts, and she may be right about the iron poisoning. He certainly feels as though his head is swimming. But he smiles up at the trees, the looping electrical lines, the streaks of clouds.
'So long as you're begging,' he says.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Villains were wonderful. They got to be cruel and selfish, to preen in front of mirrors and poison apples, and trap girls on mountains of glass. They indulged all their worst impulses, revenged themselves for the least offense, and took every last thing they wanted. And sure, they wound up in barrels studded with nails, or dancing in iron shoes heated by fire, not just dead, but disgraced and screaming. But before they got what was coming to them, they got to be the fairest in all the land.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Jude. You are in no mood for games, very well. I am in no mood for them, either. Let me write it outright; You are pardoned. I revoke your banishment. I rescind my words. Come home. Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must. Just come home.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Playing the villain was the only thing he’d ever really excelled at.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Get down here before you’re recognized.â€�
“Playing hide-and-seek under the table? Crouching in the dirt? Typical of your kind, but far beneath my dignity.�
He laughs unsteadily, like he expects I am going to laugh, too. I don’t. I ball up my fist and punch him in the stomach, right where I know it will hurt. He staggers to his knees. The goblet drops to the dirt, making a hollow clanking sound. “Ow!â€� he shouts, and lets me tug him under the table.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?' Cardan asks, leaning back in the elaborately carved chair, the warmth of his words turning the question in to something like a compliment.

'No,' I say, glad to be annoyed back in to the present. 'Tell me.'

'I cannot,' he says, then frowns.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You think I don’t deserve him,â€� I say to Cardan.
He smiles slowly, like the moon slipping beneath the waves of the lake. “Oh no, I think you’re perfect for each other.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“What I want is him back, him standing beside me, him laughing at all this. I would settle for even his worst self, his cruellest trickster self, if only he could be here.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I think of Madoc, dozing away upstairs, all his dreams of murder. I think of Oriana and Oak being forced apart for years. I think of Cardan and how he will hate me. I think of what it means to make myself the villain of the piece. "For the next full minute, I command you not to move," I whisper back.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Some might think of him as a strong draught, burning the back of one’s throat, but invigorating all the same. You might beg to differ. So long as you’re begging, he doesn’t mind a bit.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“He will be the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Though I would not delight to see the straps sink into your skin, neither would I mourn.'

'Enough blustering,' he says. 'You've already won. Look.'

He takes me by the shoulders and turns me so that I can see where the great body of the serpent lies. A jolt of horror goes through me, and I try to wrench out of his grip. And then I notice the fighting has ebbed, the Folk are staring. From within the body of the creature emanates a glow.

And then, through that, Cardan steps out. Cardan, naked and covered in blood.

Alive.

Only out of his spilled blood can a great ruler rise.
...
Cardan takes a step forward and little cracks appear from his footfalls. Fissures in the very earth. He speaks with a boom that echoes through everyone gathered there. 'The curse is broken. The king is returned.'

He's every bit as terrifying as any serpent.

I don't care. I run into his arms.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Love,' Cardan goes on. 'That force that compels us to be sometimes better and often worse. That power by which we can all be bound. That which we ought to fear and yet most desire...”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“,,,I decided to play the hero. See how it felt. To try.'

'And?' she asks.

'I didn't like it,' he admits. 'Henceforth, I think we should consider our roles as monarchs to be largely decorative. It would be better for the low Courts and the solitary Folk to work things out on their own.'

'I think you have iron poisoning,' she tells him, which could possibly be true but is still a hurtful thing to say when he is making perfect sense.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“It is said that faerie children are not like mortal children. They need little in the way of love. They need not be tucked in at night, but may sleep just as happily in a cold corner of a ballroom, curled up in a tablecloth. They need not be fed; they are just as happy lapping up dew and skimming bread and cream from the kitchens. They need not be comforted, since they seldom weep.

But if faerie children need little love, faerie princes require some counsel.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“My sweet nemesis, how glad i am that you returned”
― Holly Black

“I hate being unwell,' he says.

'You're not sick,' Jude tells him. 'You are recovering from being stabbed- or rather, throwing yourself on a knife.'

'You would have done the same for me,' he says airily.

'I would not,' Jude snaps.

'Liar,' Cardan says fondly.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“Come home and shout at me.
Come home and fight with me.
Come home and break my heart if you must.
Just come home”
― Holly Black

“Not now, imp. We have many dull adult things to do.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“He realizes he doesn't want to play this game, once so familiar to him. He has no interest in trading barbs. He has no interest, even, in protecting himself.
He interrupts her halfway through some scathing little comment about her time in the palace. "Just tell me what you wish of me. Jewels? Gowns? A comfortable manor? This is dull. What possible value is there in a contest over which of us has a heart most like a withered little pit?”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King