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“I put both of my hands on the desk. 'Just tell me why you hate me. Once and for all.'

His long fingers smooth over the wood of Dain's desk. 'You really want honesty?'

'I am the one with the crossbow, not shooting you because you promised me answers. What do you think?'

'Very well.' He fixes me with a spiteful look. 'I hate you because your father loves you even though you're a human brat born to his unfaithful wife, while mine never cared for me, though I am a prince of Faerie. I hate you because you don't have a brother who beats you. And I hate you because Locke used you and your sister to make Nicasia cry after he stole her from me. Besides which, after the tournament, Balekin never failed to throw you in my face as the mortal who could best me.'
...
'Is that all?' I demand. 'Because it's ridiculous. You can't be jealous of me. You don't have to live at the sufferance of the same person who murdered your parents. You don't have to stay angry because if you don't, there's a bottomless well of fear ready to open up under you.' I stop speaking abruptly, surprised at myself.

I said I wasn't going to be charmed, but I let him trick me in to opening up to him.

As I think that, Cardan's smile turns in to a more familiar sneer. 'Oh, really? I don't know about being angry? I don't know about being afraid? You're not the one bargaining for your life.'

'That's really why you hate me?' I demand. 'Only that? There's no better reason?'

For a moment, I think he's ignoring me, but then I realise he's not answering me because he can't lie and he doesn't want to tell the truth.

'Well?' I say, lifting the crossbow again, glad to have a reason to reassert my position as the person in charge. 'Tell me!'

He leans in and closes his eyes. 'Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.'

I am shocked in to silence.

'Maybe you should shoot me after all,' he says, covering his face with one long-fingered hand.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I may be rotten, but my one virtue is that I'm not a killer. I wanted to frighten you, but I never wanted you dead. I never wanted anyone dead.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.'

I am shocked in to silence.

'Maybe you should shoot me after all,' he says, covering his face with one long-fingered hand.
...
He doesn't look up as I walk around the desk to him. I place the tip of the blade against the bottom of his chin, as I did the day before in the hall, and I tilt his face toward mine. He shifts his gaze with obvious reluctance.

The horror and shame on his face look entirely too real. Suddenly, I am not so sure what to believe.

I lean toward him, close enough for a kiss. His eyes widen. The look in his face is some commingling of panic and desire. It is a heady feeling, having power over someone. Over Cardan, who I never thought had any feelings at all.

'You really do want me,' I say, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath as it hitches. 'And you hate it.' I change the angle of the knife, turning it so it's against his neck. He doesn't look nearly as alarmed by that as I might expect.

Not nearly as alarmed as when I bring my mouth to his.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“...kissing Locke never felt the way that kissing Cardan does, like taking a dare to run over knives, live 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.

Cardan's cruel mouth is surprisingly soft, and for a long moment after our lips touch, he's still as a statue. His eyes close, lashes brushing my cheek. I shudder, as you're supposed to when someone walks over your grave. Then his hands come up, gentle as they glide over my arms. If I didn't know better, I'd say his touch was reverent, but I do know better. HIs hands are moving slowly because he is trying to stop himself. He doesn't want this. He doesn't want to want this.

He tastes like sour wine.

I can feel the moment he gives in and gives up, pulling me to him despite the threat of the knife. He kisses me hard, with a kind of devouring desperation, fingers digging in to my hair. Our mouths slide together, teeth over lips over tongues. Desire hits me like a kick to the stomach. It's like fighting, except what we're fighting for is to crawl inside each other's skin.

That's the moment when terror seizes me. What kind of insane revenge is there in exulting in his revulsion? And worse, far worse, I like this. I like everything about kissing him- the familiar buzz of fear, the knowledge I am punishing him, the proof he wants me.

The knife in my hand is useless. I throw it at the desk, barely registering as the point sinks in to the wood. He pulls back from me at the sound, startled. HIs mouth is pink, his eyes dark. He sees the knife and barks out a startled laugh.

Which is enough to make me stagger back. I want to mock him, to show up his weakness without revealing mine, but I don't trust my face not to show too much.

'Is that what you imagined?' I ask, and am relieved to find that my voice sounds harsh.

'No,' he said tonelessly.

'Tell me,' I say.

He shakes his head, somewhere chagrined. 'Unless you're really going to stab me, I think I won't. And I might not tell you even if you were going to stab me.'

I get up on Dain's desk to put some distance between us. My skin feels too tight, and the room seems suddenly too small. He almost made me laugh there.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Yes, fine,' he says, annoyed, trying to push my blade away.

I hold it steady, so that the knife cuts in to his skin. He swears and puts a bleeding finger in his mouth. 'What was that for?'

'For fun.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“My word isn't worth much,' I remind him.

'So you keep saying.' He raises his brows. 'It's not comforting, I've got to tell you.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“We're enemies, no matter how many jokes he tells or how friendly he seems. Charmers are charming, but that's all they are.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“After our kiss, I am such a fool over you that I can hardly contain myself,' I tell him with as much sarcasm as I can muster. 'All I want to do is nice things that make you happy. Sure, I'll make whatever bargain you want, so long as you kiss me again. Go ahead and run. I definitely won't shoot you in the back.'

He blinks a few times. 'Hearing you lie outright is a bit disconcerting.'

'Then let me tell you the truth. You're not going to run because you've got nowhere to go.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Jude Duarte, daughter of clay, I swear myself into your service. I will act as your hand. I will act as your shield. I will act in accordance with your will. Let it be so for one year and one day... and not for one minute more.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You're mortal,' he informs me. In his other hand, he's carrying an empty goblet, tipped over absently, as though he's forgotten he still carries it. 'It's not safe for you here. Especially if you go around stabbing everyone.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“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"' he shouts, and lets me tug him under the table.

'We'll get out of here without anyone noticing,' I tell him. 'We stay under the tables and make our way to the steps to the upper levels of the place. And don't tell me it's beneath your dignity to crawl. You're so drunk you can barely stand anyway.'

I hear him snort. 'If you insist,' he says.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Cardan is clever, but it's not a nice kind of cleverness.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I don't suppose you have anything to drink around here?' Cardan asks. 'I don't imagine that whatever happens next is going to be particularly comfortable for me, and I would like to stay drunk in order to face it.'

'Do you really think I care if you're comfortable?' I demand.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“What did he offer you?' I ask, like we're all in on the same joke. Yes, it's a gamble. Maybe Cardan didn't offer them anything at all.

I try not to seem like I'm holding my breathe. I try not to show how small Cardan makes me feel.

The Ghost gives me one of his rare smiles. 'Mostly gold, but also power. Position.'

'A lot of things he hasn't got,' said the Bomb.

'I thought we were friends,' Cardan says halfheartedly.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“He reaches toward me, as though he's going to run his fingers over the bruises. I bring up the crossbow, and he thinks better of it.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I glance back and see that he has stopped moving. He's sitting on the ground, looking at his hand. Looking at his ring. 'He despised me.' His voice sounds light, conversational. Like he's forgotten where he is.

'Balekin?' I ask, thinking of what I saw at Hollow Hall.

'My father.' Cardan snorts. 'I didn't much know the others, my brothers and sisters. Isn't that funny? Prince Dain- he didn't want me in the palace, so he forced me out.'

I wait, not sure what to say. It's disturbing to see him like this, behaving as though he might have emotions.

After a moment, he seems to come back to himself. His eyes focus on me, glittering in the dark. 'And now they're all dead.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“The High King Balekin is a friend to my lady's Court,' Cardan says, silver-tongued in his silver fox mask. He wears an easy half smile. He's speaking the language of privilege, speaking it with his drawling tone, with the looseness of his limbs, as though he thinks he owns everything he can see.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“...I turn and press the point of my knife directly underneath his chin.

'Jude?' he asks, up against the wall, pronouncing my name carefully, as though to avoid slurring. I am not sure I have ever heard him use my actual name before.

'Surprised?' I ask, a fierce grin starting on my face. The most important boy in Faerie and my enemy, finally in my power. It feels even better than I thought it would. 'You shouldn't be.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I was passed out cold while my family was murdered. It's hard to fall more lowly that that.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I try not to let him know how much his calmness rattles me. It makes me feel as though the knife in my hand, which should lend me authority, isn't enough. It makes me want to hurt him just to convince myself he can be frightened. He's just lost his whole family; I shouldn't be thinking like that.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I want to strike Cardan over and over until I slap that smugness off his face. But if I did, he'd know just how much he scares me.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Cardan's clothes are disarranged from crawling under tables or being captured and tied, and his infamous tail is showing under the white lawn of his shirt. It it slim, nearly hairless, with a tuft of black fur at the tip. As I watch, the tail forms one wavering curve after another snaking back and forth, betraying his cool face, telling its own story of uncertainty and fear.

I can see why he hides that thing away.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Cardan draws a sharp breath and then lets it out slowly. 'I'd prefer to live.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I don't mind being one-handed,' Cardan interjects. 'But if you're going to restrain both of my hands, then you'll have to pour the wine directly in to my mouth.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“He smiles down at me, as if the reason I'm on my knees is because I am curtsying.

I want to wipe that smile off his face, but maybe I can't. Maybe he'll go on smiling that way to his grave.

'Can't we stay out here?' Cardan asks me. 'There's wine out here.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“The crossbow is where I left it, in the drawer of Dain's desk. I draw it out, cock it back, and point it at Cardan. He draws a ragged breath.

'You're going to shoot me?' He blinks. 'Right now?'

My finger caresses the trigger. I feel calm, gloriously calm. This is weakness, to put fear above ambition, above family, above love, but it feels good. It feels like being powerful.

'I can see why you'd want to,' he says, as though reading my face, and coming to some decision. 'But I'd really prefer if you didn't.'

'Then you shouldn't have smirked at me constantly- you think I am going to stand being mocked, here, now? You still so sure you're better than me?' My voice shakes a little, and I hate him even more for it. I have trained every day to be dangerous, and he is entirely in my power, yet I'm the one who is afraid.

Fearing him is a habit, a habit I could break with a bolt to his heart.

He holds up his hands in protest, long bare fingers splayed. I am the one with the royal ring. 'I'm nervous,' he says. 'I smile a lot when I'm nervous. I can't help it.'

That is not at all what I expected him to say. I lower the crossbow momentarily.

He keeps talking, as though he doesn't want to leave me too much time to think. 'You are terrifying. Nearly my whole family is dead, and while they never had much love for me, I don't want to join them. I've spent all night worrying what you're going to do, and I know exactly what I deserve. I have a reason to be nervous.' He's talking to me as though we're friends instead of enemies. It works, too; I relax a little. When I realise that, I am nearly freaked out enough to shoot him outright.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“What do you want to know?'

'I found a piece of paper with my name on it,' I say. 'Over and over, just my name.'

He flinches a little but doesn't say anything.

'Well?' I prompt.

'That's not a question,' he groans, as though exasperated. 'Ask me a proper question, and I'll give you an answer.'

'You're terrible at this whole "telling me whatever I want to know" thing.' My hand goes to the crossbow, but I don't pick it up.

He sighs. 'Just ask me something. Ask about my tail. Don't you want to see it?' He raises his brows.

I have seen his tail, but I am not going to give him the satisfaction of telling him that. 'You want me to ask you something? Fine. When did Taryn start whatever it is she has with Locke?'

He laughs with delight. This appears to be a discussion he isn't interested in avoiding. Typical. 'Oh, I wondered when you would ask about that. It was some months ago. He told us all about it- throwing stones at her window, leaving her notes to meet him in the woods, wooing her by moonlight. He swore us to silence, made it all seem like a lark. I think, in the beginning, he did it to make Nicasia jealous. But later...'

'How did he know it was her room?' I ask, frowning.

That makes his smile grow. 'Maybe he didn't. Maybe either of you would have done as his first mortal conquest. I believe his goal is to have both of you in the end.'

I don't like this. 'What about you?'

He gives me a quick, odd look. 'Locke hasn't gotten around to seducing me yet, if that's what you're asking. I suppose I should be insulted.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Cardan's hands are deftly splitting the deck of cards, but his glittering black eyes are on me.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You sure you brought me here just to talk?'

It turns out that having kissed someone, the possibility of kissing hangs over everything, no matter how terrible an idea it was the first time. The memory of his mouth on mine shimmers in the air between us.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Maybe living together is the reason we don't get on.'

'I don't like you, either,' I remind him.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince