β
I am Delilah Bard, she thought, as the ropes cut into her skin. I am a thief and a pirate and a traveler. I have set foot in three different worlds, and lived. I have shed the blood of royals and held magic in my hands.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
Caring was a thing with claws. It sank them in, and didnβt let go. Caring hurt more than a knife to the leg, more than a few broken ribs, more than anything that bled or broke and healed again. Caring didnβt break you clean. It was a bone that didnβt set, a cut that wouldnβt close.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
There were a hundred shades between a truth and lie, and she knew them all.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
Delilah Bard,β she said. βWeβve met before. And you looked worse.β
Rhy laughed silently. βI apologize for anything I might have done. I was not myself.β
βI apologize for shooting you in the leg,β said Lila. βI was myself entirely.β
Rhy broke into his perfect smile. βI like this one,β he said to Kell. βCan I borrow her?β
βYou can try,β said Lila, raising a brow. βBut youβll be a prince without his fingers.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1))
β
Don't get yourself killed."
"I'll do my best," said Kell, and then he was going.
"And come back," added Rhy.
Kell paused. "Don't worry," he said. "I will. Once I've seen it."
"Seen what?" asked Rhy.
Kell smiled. "Everything.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
Are you ready ?" she asked, spinning the chamber.
Kell gazed through the gate at the waiting castle. "No."
At that, she offered him the sharpest edge of a grin.
"Good," she said. "The ones who think they're ready always end up dead.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1))
β
If anyone could make the strange seem ordinary, the impossible look easy, it was Delilah Bard
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
Are you as famous in your world as Kell is here?β
Lila thought of the wanted posters lining her London. βNot for the same reasons.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
Delilah Bard never read many books.
The few she did had pirates and thieves, and always ended with freedom and the promise of more stories. Characters sailed away. They lived on. Lila always imagined people that way, a series of intersections and adventures. It was easy when you moved through life--through worlds--the way she did. Easy when you didn't care, when people came onto the page and walked away again, back to their own stories, and you could imagine whatever you wanted for them, if you cared enough to write it in your head.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
Delilah Bardβalways a thief, recently a magician, and one day, hopefully, a pirateβwas running as fast as she could.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
Magic ran between them like a current, a cord, and he wondered who she would have been if sheβd stayed in Grey London. If sheβd never picked his pocket, never held the contents ransom for adventure.
Maybe she would never have discovered magic.
Or maybe she would have simply changed her world instead of his.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
Dammit Bard, you're going to set the cat on fire.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
Kell looked down at Delilah Bard, a cutthroat and a thief, a valiant partner and a strange, terrifying girl.
He would see her again. He knew he would. Magic bent the world. Pulled it into shape. There were fixed points. Most of the time those points were places. But sometimes, rarely, they were people. For someone who never stood still, Lila still felt like a pin in Kellβs world. One he was sure to snag on.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1))
β
You cannot fault a captain for wanting to know about his crew."
"And you cannot fault a thief for keeping secrets out of reach."
"You have trouble with trust, Delilah Bard.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
Delilah Bard had a way of finding trouble. Sheβd always thought it was better than letting trouble find her, but floating in the ocean in a two-person skiff with no oars, no view of land, and no real resources save the ropes binding her wrists, she was beginning to reconsider. The
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
Because caring was a thing with claws. It sank them in, and didn't let go. Caring hurt more than a knife to the leg, more than a few broken ribs, more than anyth.ing that bled or broke and healed again. Caring didn't break you clean. It was a bone that didn't set, a cut that wouldn't close.
β
β
Victoria Schwab
β
Delilah Bard did not like horses. Sheβd never liked them, not when she only knew them for their snapping teeth, and their flicking tails, and their stomping hooves, and not when she found herself on the back of one, the night racing past so fast it blurred around her, and not now as she watched a pair of silver-scarred guards saddle up three for their ride to the port. As far as she was concerned, nothing with so little brain should have so much force. Then again, she could say the same about half the tournament magicians.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3))
β
Wait, so is it waves, or doors, or conversations?"
"It can be anything you like."
"You're a wretched teacher."
"I warned you. If you're not up to itβ"
"Shut up. I'm concentrating.
β
β
Victoria Schwab
β
Kell's eyes went to the palace on last time, and he thought he could almost make out the shape of a man standing alone on a high balcony. At this distance, he was little more than a shadow, but Kell could see the band of gold glinting in his hair as a secong figure came to stand beside the king.
Rhy raised his hand, and so did Kell, a single unspoken word between them.
Anoshe.
β
β
Victoria Schwab
β
It was better not to care but sometimes, people got in. Like a knife against armor, they found the cracks, slid past the guard, and you didnβt know how deep they were buried until they were gone and you were bleeding on the floor.
β
β
Victoria Schwab
β
Kell looked down at Delilah Bard, a cutthroat and a thief, a valiant partner and a strange, terrifying girl.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1))
β
She was Delilah Bard, and she would live or die on her own damnβ A fist connected with her stomach,
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
I am Delilah Bard, she thought as the ropes cut into her skin. I am a thief and a pirate and a traveler. I have set foot in three different worlds, and lived. I have shed the blood of royals and held magic in my hands. And a ship full of men cannot do what I can. I donβt need any of you. I am one of a damned kind. Feeling suitably empowered, she set her back to the ship, and gazed out at the sprawling night ahead.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
I am Delilah Bard, she thought as the ropes cut into her skin. I am a thief and a pirate and a traveler. I have set foot in three different worlds, and lived. I have shed the blood of royals and held magic in my hands. And a ship full of men cannot do what I can. I donβt need any of you. I am one of a damned kind.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
I am Delilah Bard , she thought as the ropes cut into her skin. l am a thief and a pirate and a traveler. I have set foot in three different worlds, and lived. I have shed the blood of royals and held magic in my hands. And a ship full of men cannot do what I can. I donβt need any of you. I am one of a damned kind.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))
β
That Iβm stronger than my odds,β she said, striding out of the tent. That I have crossed worlds, and saved cities. She entered the stadium tunnel. That I have defeated kings and queens. She adjusted the helmet and strode out into the arena, awash in the cheers. That I have survived impossible things. Rul stood in the center of the floor, a towering shape. That I am Delilah Bard β¦ She held out her spheres, her vision blurring for an instant before she let them go. And I am unstoppable.
β
β
Victoria Schwab (A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2))