Kingmaker Quotes

Two people can only live as one when each is prepared to give and receive trust and understanding. Above that lies respect. Without respect for how the other feels, no marriage is worthwhile.

Change has to come for life to struggle forward.

Happiness is a strange, frightening, fragile feeling when you're not used to it.

Very well. What do you do as a mercenary?” “I specialize in usurping thrones. They call me the kingmaker.” Bragging now?

Have I cheated death again? Hades must be allergic to me.

We had so many dreams as children. Where do they go when we grow? Are they swallowed up by the mundane things of everyday life? Or do we lose them, leave them behind us in the dust, for new children to find and take up?

Now that that's settled, you're coming with me." "Never in a billion suns. Not even if Zeus showed up as a swan and tried to peck me in your direction. I wouldn't go with you even if my other option was Hades dragging me to the Underworld for an eternal threesome with Persephone.

The ice inside me melts. Suddenly, I'm burning up and terrified, scared I'll be too weak to resist. Scratch that - I'm petrified I've already given in.

I conquered a kingdom and found a treasure." His voice turns gravelly, low. "I won't let you go. Not now. Not ever.

In this office we do not have problems. We have interesting developments. We have challenges. If we absolute must we may, on occasion, have a slight difficulty. But under no circumstances whatsoever do we have problems.

People talk about fight or flight? That's nonsense. It's fight and flight.

Be a Kingmaker, Not Just a King.

My soul is in your hands."  "Your soul is safe in my hands and in my heart.

The first rule of being a mercenary? Find out what the client wants, then convince him that, a) you can get it for him, and, b) you're the ONLY one who can get it for him. Second rule? Lie. Often. The truth rarely serves you well in this business -Cadeon Woede, mercenary, second in line to the throne of the rage demons, a.k.a. Cade the Kingmaker

Loyaute me lie - Loyalty Binds Me

You’re the shield, and I’m the sword.

I love you like a man insane.

I've known all sorts of fear - fear of pain, fear of discovery, fear of capture. This is new. This is the kind of fear that teaches me the difference between trying to stay alive, and wanting to live.

I feel no peace, I feel nothing. I think I will feel nothing forever.

Let go,” I demand. “No.” My eyebrows snap together. “Why not?” “Because your gut reaction is always to punch, and I don’t like being tickled.” Tickled? Tickled! Indignation swamps me. I’ll show him a tickle.

I'll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There's tens o'thousands dead on your account.

It never leaves, not with someone we love. Their presence burns too vivid in our memories. Happen that is as it should be, for otherwise we would too easy forget.

For some reason, the strength and deadliness he keeps so easily leashed make him the most compelling man I've ever met. I envy his self-control.

I will never let you go, and I will never leave you. I would defy creatures, and Gods, and terrible, brutal queens to keep you safe and by my side. I would move Mount Olympus itself to hold you in my arms and feel your heart beat against mine. You are my soul, and yes, I will fight for you and protect you until my dying breath.

That's what it comes down to for everyone. How much use we can be.

How can people be so blind?” I shrug. “Don’t overestimate the masses. They love you until they hate you. They hate you until they love you.

I was on the way to becoming a duchess, and I had made the Kingmaker angry. What more could a child of seven have accomplished in one day?

I will always come back to you.” …I lean forward and kiss him because he’s my hunger and my food, my thirst and my water, my air and my every breath.

She has a smile that grows slowly and then shines, like an angel’s smile.

Temporary homecomings are bittersweet. Sometimes it's better not to go back at all than to have to leave again.

When a crumbling house reaches a certain point, there’s no fixing it. You tear it down. You clear the rubble, and then you build something better.

I was taught to be queen by Margaret of Anjou, and perhaps I have taught you how to be queen in turn. This is fortune’s wheel indeed." With my forefinger I draw a circle in the air, the sign of fortune’s wheel. "You can go very high and you can sink very low, but you can rarely turn the wheel at your own bidding.

I don’t want to think about anything in my real life. That’s what books are for. To take you away . . .

I have seen statues that would look stodgy beside her, I have seen painted Madonnas whose features would be coarse beside her pale luminous loveliness.

Maybe I'll trust him to fight my monsters while I sleep. Maybe I don't have a choice. His voice is fierce in my ear. "You're mine now, Cat. Don't you dare die on me.

Never promise things you can't deliver," I whisper. "I can try," he whispers back, and I hate myself because I smile.

Trial by fire. It forges a heart of iron. And sets it alight.

Who are you to decide what needs to be done? That's subjective by nature. No two people think alike." "Someone has to decide. Without, rulers, there's chaos.

The warlord pierces me with a hard stare. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." "Or no way, " I retort.

My mother's story has no end. Her life was interrupted mid-sentence -a dangling participle. An infinite etcetera of dots, but no period.

She talks big, but she’s made of custard.” “Fluffy and full of cream?” Kato wiggles blond eyebrows at me. Carver grins. “Think she’s sweet, too?” My eyes spit fire. “Bite me. You’ll find out.

I'll show these people how a curtsy is done, even if I am wearing soggy boots and a bloody pair of pants. Literally. There's blood on them, and I can't get it out, no matter how hard I scrub. At least it's not mine.

Human rights and wrongs are not determined by Justice, but by Might. Disguise it as you may, the naked sword is still king-maker and king-breaker, as of yore. All other theories are lies and — lures

I don’t know why it’s not universally acknowledged that looking back is a terrible idea. It only makes going forward that much harder.

I dread this power he has over me. It makes me want to tell him all my secrets and see if he still wants me.

Make a decision, and don't turn back." "What if it's wrong?" "I don't know." He winks at me over his shoulder. "It's never happened.

Satisfaction is the enemy of success. I’ll be proud of myself when I’ve got the whole damn world at my feet.

Every choice sets the table. Sooner or later, we all sit down to a banquet of consequences

Richard looks into my eyes and once again I know us for the children that we were, who had to make our own destiny in a world we could not understand.

I want him everywhere. I burn for him in places he hasn't even touched.

Griffin leans closer, his voice dropping to a low, suggestive rumble only I can hear. "There are things I could boast about, but I'd rather show than tell.

Knowing you’re loved, truly loved, by at least one person makes all the difference in the world.

You are my heart. Even if you are a broken heart

You'll still be my light in the dark, Cat. Even if you fall.

I’m jealous,” I say, seizing her arm and pulling her close. “Any time anyone looks at you, or speaks to you, I’m jealous. I want all your minutes, and all your words. I want all of you, all the time.

I turn around from the window and for the first time I see him... It is Richard, smiling at my surprise. I run to him, without thinking what I am doing. I run to the first friendly face that I have seen since Christmas, and in a moment I am in his arms and he is holding me tightly and kissing my face, my closed eyes, my smiling mouth, kissing me till I am breathless and have to pull away from him.

Hades, Hera, and Hestia!" Flynn curses, pointing up. "What in the Underworld is that?" "A She-Dragon." Everyone turns to me, and as much as I love having four handsome men gape at me in stupefaction, right now, I could do without.

His tongue swirls against my skin, and I gasp. His voice rough with passion, he rasps, "You're living fire. I burn.

Why be one thing when you can be everything?

Unless they're utterly heartless, people put a certain value on human life. It keeps us from killing each other off for no reason. But for leaders like you and me, a moral high ground is too absolute. There are choices to be made.

And – I think you know, don’t you? – that I love you, Anne.’ I feel as if I have been living in a loveless world for too long. The last tender face I saw was my father’s when he sailed for England. ‘You do? Truly?’ ‘I do.’ He rises to his feet and pulls me up to stand beside him. My chin comes to his shoulder, we are both dainty, long-limbed, coltish: well-matched. I turn my face into his jacket. ‘Will you marry me?’ he whispers. ‘Yes,’ I say.

You’re intelligent, brave, skilled, and lethal. You’ve got Poseidon and Hades looking out for you. I don’t believe you’ll die young, and I don’t believe they’d let you. And even if they’re not paying attention, then I am. I won’t let you. I told you I was keeping you. I meant it.

If a kiss has a color, this one is the muted shades of the sky overhead, a ménage à trois of midnight and indigo and moonshine silver. If a kiss has a sound, this one is the concert of our breaths and sighs and moans. If a kiss has a taste, it tastes like this. Hunger flavored with yearning and spiced with desperation.

The man with the gray eyes is a born leader, and only an idiot would mistake him for anything else.

Power is not only in what we do, but in what we don’t do,” Anna says calmly.

When Gods dabble in the affairs of men, anything can happen.

Griffin’s eyes capture mine. He holds my face in his hands. “You. Belong. With. Me.

A crushed spark never ignites,” I tell him. “That’s not how you fan the flame.

I make a show of smoothing down my hair – a lost cause at this point. “Ah, that. It’s getting to the stage where it deserved a name. The Knotted Nest? The Twisted Tresses?” “What about the Terrible Tangle?” I nod. “That has serious possibilities.” “The Matted Mess?” he suggests.

try to smile back but feel my expression twist into a dash of murderous, a pinch of maniacal, and a sprinkle of watch your back. Oops.

No one’s ever called me anything special before, except Thanos, and I’m not sure “little monster” counts.

They think they know Leo Gallo. Anna is the only person who actually does.

She should know that you belong to me, little kitten,” he says softly. “That means she has no right to fuck with you. Because when she fucks with you, she fucks with me.

I’ve always found women just as beautiful as men—sometimes, even more so. I respect strong women the way I respect strong men.

The Innocent Mage is come , and we stand at the beginning of the end of everything

Who’s arguing now?” “Cat…” I smile innocently. It’s hard not to laugh. “Yes, Your Growliness?” He growls.

We were friends before.” Sort of. We never tried to kill each other.

It’s time to be the person you were meant to be, Cat. You don’t just have to make decisions and stand by them now. You have to live with them.

What's going on? Not much. My mother's falling to pieces, my sister is a selfish bitch and my father's committing slow suicide for sake of his kingdom. That's all.

Character, past, and environment all affect the choices we make. The trick is choosing a path and following it. Make a decision, and don’t turn back.

What’s wrong with me? I must be coming down with something, like empathy. Gah!

When you can manipulate reality, life is a game. I know this game. I play it all the time. I’ve just never played it with anyone else.

It’s funny how even the simplest words can cut if they’re said sharply enough.

The minute you cease being afraid of yourself, there’s nothing in this world that can stop you.

My mother was my first country. The first place I ever lived.” – “lands” by Nayyirah Waheed, Poet & Activist

I claim you for my very own. With my blood. With my bone. With my heart. With my soul. You are mine. Forever. In this world, and in the next

Trial by fire. It forges a heart of iron.

You like to pretend otherwise, but don’t you see? You’re the shield, and I’m the sword. Together, we’ll forge a new world.

Kato looks ill. “I… It… Me…” He stares at the massive snake. “Big.” I squeeze his arm. “Don’t worry. You’ll speak in complete sentences again soon.

there are kings and there are kingmakers. Regardless of what populist history might argue, you rarely have one without the other.

Richard thought he was a kingmaker, but I could win without him. I was Kai Young. I never lost.

I am caught. You caught me. Not the other way around. From the very first day. And from the very first day, I would have done anything for you—except let you go. I couldn’t. Not when deep down, I knew we were meant to be like this. To love like this.

Yet he’s beautiful. So fucking beautiful. He’s beautiful when he’s sad and when he’s scared. When he’s happy or when he’s angry. He’s a diamond with a hundred facets. Each one is pure and perfect to me.

I would carry myself with much more dignity than her. I wouldn't whisper with the king and demean myself as she did. I wouldn't send out dishes and wave to people like she did. I wouldn't trail all my brothers and sisters into court like she did. I would be much more reserved and cold. I wouldn't smile at anyone, I wouldn't bow to anyone. I would be a true queen, a queen of ice, without family or friends.

I sit on the bed and kick off my shoes, and he kneels before me and takes the riding boots, holding one open for my bare foot. I hesitate; it is such an intimate gesture between a young woman and a man. His smiling upward glance tells me that he understands my hesitation but is ignoring it. I point my toe and he holds the boot, I slide my foot in and he pulls the boot over my calf. He takes the soft leather ties and fastens the boot, at my ankle, then at my calf, and then just below my knee. He looks up at me, his hand gently on my toe. I can feel the warmth of his hand through the soft leather. I imagine my toes curling in pleasure at his touch. ‘Anne, will you marry me?’ he asks simply, as he kneels before me.

I know it’s unreasonable because I met her no more than an hour ago. We’ve had one conversation. Some people leave an impression. Lennix Moon Hunter has left more than an impression. She’s left her mark on me. And it’s shaped like a star.

In what world could you possibly think I would belong to you?” “In the one we make together.

That’s what books are for. To take you away . . .

he does not give a fuck about disappointing people. In fact, I think his greatest pleasure in life is defying expectations.

Anna is the only person I’ve ever met more intense than me. Sometimes she scares me a little. But mostly she’s my balance, my rock.

You will have everything you want in this world, Anna,” he says. “I knew it from when I first held you in my arms. I knew you would take it all, and hold it tight.

But never once like this, out in the open . . . as two people, falling in love.

That I love you, Cat. I fucking love you.

I shortened my name to Cat for a reason – as in Cataclysm.

I huff. Sort of. “Well, would Your Logicalness care to take me to breakfast and tell me about his plans?” … “Would your Nakedness care to get dressed first?” he asks.

Do you know what I have in my heart? I have hope. And I'll share it with the world.

It takes a certain dimension of balls to threaten Selena. She can be really scary in a mother-hen-meets-warrior-queen kind of way

I roll my eyes. "Oh, the woe of being adored." Beta Sinta grins. "It's a hard life.

Hope was what you found on the other side of suffering. And life was good, but it would never be the same.

On rare occasion, you come across someone who just gets you, and you don't have to figure out your place. Wherever you are is okay.

The sum of his life was a unique melody, hauntingly beautiful and powerful.

Fantasies are so much more than dreams—they’re a vision of the path you need to take to get what you want.

I’m yours, Leo,” she whispers. “I’ve always been yours.

I know it’s ridiculous because they’re just kids. But I want to be first in her eyes, the way she is in mine. Closer than blood.

We can never really see ourselves except reflected in other people’s eyes.

I’ll do anything for a compliment. I want praise. I want it badly. And I especially want it from this man, who doesn’t like anyone or anything.

We don’t have to fight, little kitten,” he says. His voice is smoother than melted butter. “If you’re an obedient pet, I could be a very kind master . . .

He lets me exhaust my anger on him, until I realize that I’m hitting the only friend I have, the only man who’s ever been good to me.

All the light went out of my life,” I whisper. “I’ve been so dark without you.

One thing I know for certain: no man on this planet ever accomplished a goddamn thing without believing he could.

Your looks are the least interesting thing about you.

I want you. I need you. For as many hours as possible, I don't want to think about anything but you.

Butterflies tickle my insides. “You either have an Olympian-sized sense of self-importance, or you’re overcompensating for a lack of confidence.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” I quote. “I love this country too much to settle for the lies written in our history books. I love the constitution too much not to hold the men who wrote it accountable for the truth of its principles.

Samuel became even more interested in politics than his father had been, served the Republican Party tirelessly as a king-maker, caused that party to nominate men who would whirl like dervishes, bawl fluent Babylonian, and order the militia to fire into crowds whenever a poor man seemed on the point of suggesting that he and a Rosewater were equal in the eyes of the law.

I don’t know if I ever heard Zoe laugh before this year. It’s a captivating sound, low and intimate, meant only for me. “I knew you were trouble,” she says. “You have no idea,” I tell her.

There are multiple roads. You alone choose the ones you take. Some lead to the same destination via different pathways. Others lead to similar or dissimilar outcomes, depending on where you turn.

Say yes,’ he whispers. ‘Marry me.’ I hesitate. I open my eyes. ‘You will get my fortune,’ I remark. ‘When I marry you, everything I have becomes yours. Just as George has everything that belongs to Isabel.’ ‘That’s why you can trust me to win it for you,’ he says simply. ‘When your interests and mine are the same, you can be certain that I will care for you as for myself. You will be my own. You will find that I care for my own.’ ‘You will be true to me?’ ‘Loyalty is my motto. When I give my word, you can trust me.

Men don't understand discretion. My goal is to survive on my weakest abilities. That saves other talents for when I really need them and doesn't reveal important skills to any idiot who might be watching.

A man truly falls in love with a woman from a distance, as an observer, as a spectator taking in her true essence when she is unguarded, when she is wholly and honestly unaware of his attention.  And she was.

Do what you need to do. Change your world,” he says softly, his eyes connected to mine so intensely there’s no hope of looking away. “I have to go make my world, but when the time is right, I’ll be back for you.

I’m… “ I stop, at a loss. Griffin lifts his eyebrows. “Inarticulate at the moment?” Scowling, I thwack him in the chest. “Overwrought?” he supplies, his mouth quirking up. I thwack him again. “Highly emotional?” Thwack. Thwack. “Apparently weak, because none of that hurt at all.

I swallow, thinking I might pity myself a little bit right now, too. “He abducted me. He threatened my friends. He kept me tied to him with a magic rope. I couldn’t even pee by myself. He’s awful.” “You’ll get over it.” Jocasta cheerfully throws my own words back at me. “See you at dinner.

I swallow, my throat painfully dry. If it were just me, I wonder how hard I’d fight, what extremes I’d go to to survive. But it isn’t just me, and extremes don’t even come close to what I’d do to protect the people I love. I

I thought you of all people would understand.” “Understand what? Being an idiot?” That seems to surprise him enough to add something new to his countenance. A trace of humor softens the stark lines of his face. “No.” A wry smile just barely curves his lips. “Maybe.” “I am an expert idiot,” I say. “I practice all the time.

Don’t overestimate the masses. They love you until they hate you. They hate you until they love you.

Young love!” my dad says, cheerfully. “Can I get you some orange juice, Miko?” And then, in an undertone, “Please don’t murder my son.

I won’t let Rocco see me squirm, though. Not for a second. “You keep staring and I’m gonna charge you for an Only Fans membership,” I say.

Good,” Dean breathes. “Because the way you look in that dress—I couldn’t stand to see you dance with anyone else.

I’ll stay right by you all the time,” he promises.

I turn back to Griffin. His expression is stony and unreadable, although if I had to take a wild guess, I’d say it was tending toward ominous.

Don’t you get it Cat? You’re the key. I knew it the day I laid eyes on you.

Stop looking for things that could go wrong instead of finding things that will go right.” I

I’ve always been good at denial. I didn’t know I’m such an expert that I can crawl into an abandoned room and put myself into a coma. “All

Unfortunately, ambition isn’t limited to the noble and sane. “No

His burning gaze snags on my braid, following it across my shoulder and over the swell of my breast. As his eyes dip, his lips part, and his fingers twitch on his thigh. My

The queen sees me coming, turns toward us and waits, with a killer's patience, for me to reach the chancel steps.

You’re impatient,” he says. “I like it.

Simon blurted, "Can I put the dead hand in my blood?" "May I put the dead hand in my blood," Adele corrected. "Yes, go ahead.

You will have to reconcile yourself, as I do, as Isabel does, to being the defeated.

I don’t think he means to kiss me. But one hand on my face becomes two, and then he pulls me toward him, our lips coming together in one smooth movement.

Not all of us get to be a rebel without a cause,” I say to him. Miles keeps his eyes locked on mine, his face unsmiling. “Oh, I’ve got plenty of causes,” he says.

Thank you.” I pause, wanting to say this right. “Thank you for everything, Snow. You helped me, when I didn’t want it or ask for it. When I wasn’t grateful or even deserving.

The wind that touched your skin might have blown all the way across the world to me,” Rafe says. “Maybe that’s why you smelled so good to me, the moment I got near you.

Everybody thinks they want Sabrina. The dose is the poison.

My advice to you is to guard yourself as you rise and destroy your enemies as you fall.

The minute you cease being afraid of yourself, there’s nothing in this world that can stop you.” *

He brought stability to your chaotic heart. Helped you to believe in your own goodness. In your fated path. But free will, little monster. You have to know yourself.

You’re mine,” he growls. “All mine.” “I only want to be yours,” I sob. “Don’t let him take me.” “I promised you,” Miles says. “I don’t make promises easily. And I never break them after.

This is from a movie, too,” he says. “Do you know it?” I shake my head. “I’ll play it for you next time.” I look up into his face. “How many next times will there be?” “Infinite,” he says.

have five tattoos myself: a swallow for my mother, a wolf for my father, a quote from my sister’s favorite book, a sprig of aconite for my brother. And a fifth that I’ve never shown to anyone.

The two women look at each other and in both faces there is a glimpse of the girls that they were. A little smile warms Margaret’s face and Jacquetta’s eyes are filled with love. It is as if the years are no more than the mists of Barnet or the snows at Towton: they are gone, it is hard to believe they were ever there. Margaret puts out her hand, not to touch her friend but to make a gesture, a secret shared gesture, and, as we watch, Jacquetta mirrors the movement. Eyes fixed on each other they both raise their index finger and trace a circle in the air – that’s all they do. Then they smile to each other as if life itself is a joke, a jest that means nothing and a wise woman can laugh at it; then, without a word, Margaret passes silently into the darkness of the tower. "What was that?" Isabel exclaims. "It was the sign for the wheel of fortune," I whisper. ‘The wheel of fortune which put Margaret of Anjou on the throne of England, heiress to the kingdoms of Europe, and then threw her down to this. Jacquetta warned her of this long ago – they knew. The two of them knew long ago that fortune throws you up to greatness and down to disaster and all you can do is endure.

almost throw him a grateful glance but then turn it into a scowl, which is easy since I’m squinting into the sun, and Flynn’s shock of auburn hair is so shiny it’s practically a weapon in its own right.

Men don’t understand discretion. My goal is to survive on my weakest abilities. That saves other talents for when I really need them and doesn’t reveal important skills to any idiot who might be watching.

Listen to your heart. You think it’s black. I don’t know everything you’ve been through, but I know enough to understand that your past filled you with hostility and hate. But you still laugh. You still love, and you protect the people you care about. You’re not who you think you are. You’re better, and you’re more.

I slap him again, even harder. So hard that my hand stings. A bright bead of blood rises on his lower lip. Dean seizes me by the back of the neck and kisses me hard. I taste the blood on his lip, like salt and iron.

I’ve never been hugged like this, by someone strong. Someone who could hurt me if he wanted to, but instead is using his immense power to give me that sense of protection and support that I’ve never known in all my life.

He’s barely finished himself inside me when my release hits. My thighs tense. The breath stalls in my lungs, and then I kick back my head and let out the loudest, throatiest, and most breathless moan in the history of all history, going boneless in a blissful rush. “Gods, I missed you,” Griffin rasps, holding me as I throb around him. The high-impact tremors fade into sweet, lingering aftershocks. I look up at him with heavy-lidded eyes. My lips part, but no words come out. Even the drag of frosty air over my kiss-swollen lips is almost too sensual to bear. Griffin quirks a dark eyebrow, looking smug. “That was easy.” I grin, falling in love with him all over again. “Then do it again.

Most deserve to be forgotten. The heroes will always be remembered. The best.” “The best and the worst.” So one of us is like to live in song. “And a few who were a bit of both. Like him.” He tapped the page he had been reading. “Who?” Ser Loras craned his head around to see. “Ten black pellets on a scarlet field. I do not know those arms.” “They belonged to Criston Cole, who served the first Viserys and the second Aegon.” Jaime closed the White Book. “They called him Kingmaker.

Cat,” I say. “You don’t know what a monster I can be, but I’ll be your monster. Everything I do will be for you. To protect you. To help you. To love you every day of my life. I’ll burn this whole fucking world down for you if that’s what you want.

I swear I will never trust Edward again. This is not kingly, this is not as Arthur of Camelot. This is behaviour as base as an archer’s bastard and I cannot meet his eyes when I see him stuffing his mouth at King Louis’ table and pocketing the gold forks.

I find I must prepare for my death. I don't fear it. Ever since I lost my son I have been weary to my soul, and I think, when it finally comes, it will be a lying down to sleep without fear of dreams, without fear of waking. I am ready to lie down to sleep. I am tired.

I didn’t have words that night for what I felt when he initiated me not just into sex, but into this world that is just ours. Just our two bodies, sun and moon, just our souls, earth and water. We are the sky and the sea, and the horizon is where our hearts meet. Every part of that world is made by and from and for just us two.

A heart of iron means I do not break. You cannot break me. I may not be the strongest, or the fastest, or the best, but I will fight. I will fight for everyone I love. I will fight for myself. You can beat me until I’m bloody. You can break my bones. You can tear my skin. You can burn me. You can crush me until I can’t breathe, and you’re sure I’m dead, and then do you know what?” Flynn looks at me, his mouth a compressed line. “What?” he finally asks. “I will get up, and I will fight some more.

I swallow, thinking I might pity myself a little bit right now, too. “He abducted me. He threatened my friends. He kept me tied to him with a magic rope. I couldn’t even pee by myself. He’s awful.” “You’ll get over it.” Jocasta cheerfully throws my own words back at me. “See you at dinner.” I gape at her as she leaves. It’s strange not having the last word.

Hate is an easier emotion to deal with than love. Hate is cold, with a strong, hard shell. Love is burning, with a thousand fragile cracks that lead straight to your soul.

Is this what living feels like? Beautiful and painful all at once?

Necessitas Non Habet Legem—Necessity Has No Law

You think I care about licking your foot?” he says. “I’ll run my tongue over every fucking inch of this body.

Did you catch me?” “No.” I shake my head. “But I did dig you out.” “Maybe next time . . . try to catch me,” Cat says.

I’m worthless. No one loves me. No one ever will.

I will do anything for Cat. Sacrifice anything. Pay any price. I’ll grovel forever if that’s what it takes to get her back.

I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you, Cat. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy. If you want me to come to Chicago with you . . . then that’s what I’ll do.

I do it because you matter to me,” Miles says. “I wouldn’t forget about you any more than I’d forget about breathing.

His gaze hits mine with the force of a battering ram. He looks… appalled. “I-I won’t do this. I can’t… be with you.

I’m kissing my best friend. After all this time, I finally know what it feels like to kiss Leo. It feels shocking, and enlivening, and absolutely fucking wonderful. It feels like two puzzle pieces clicking together. It feels like finally remembering something you forgot. It feels like coming home. For all the times I imagined it . . . this is better. This is exactly right.

I stop still with the shock and fell my head swim. Richard takes my hand. We stand for a moment, handclasped as if we are clinging to each other in this new and terrifying world. We don't notice the passing servants, or the courtiers hurrying by. Richard looks into my eyes and once again I know us for the children that we were, who had to make our own destiny in a world we could not understand.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Griffin asked me to take a chance. On him. On trust. On love. I did, and look where it got me. That my misery is my own damn fault doesn’t escape me. It just makes it worse.

Egeria smiles warmly. “Where did you learn court etiquette, Cat?” “In Castle Fisa.” “What were you doing there?” She sounds genuinely interested, and a little awed. “Mostly getting tortured,” I answer. “Loads of fun.

As he catches my eye he beams at me, his dark face bright with affection. Anyone can see it who cares to look at him, he is hopelessly indiscreet. He puts his hand to his heart as if swearing fidelity to me. I look to left and right, thank God no-one is looking, they are all getting on their horses and George the duke is shouting for the guard. Recklessly, Richard stands there, his hand on his heart, looking at me as if he wants the world to know that he loves me. He loves me. I shake my head as if reproving him, and I look down at my hands on the reins. I look up again and he is still fixing his gaze on me, his hand still on his heart. I know I should look away, I know I should pretend to feel nothing but disdain – this is how the ladies in the troubadour poems behave. But I am a girl, and I am lonely and alone, and this is a handsome young man who has asked how he may serve me and now stands before me with his hand on his heart and his eyes laughing at me. One of the guard stumbled while mounting his horse and his horse shied, knocking the nearby horseman. Everyone is looking that way, and the king puts his arm around his wife. I snatch off my glove and, in one swift gesture, I throw it towards Richard. He catches it out of the air and tucks it in the breast of his jacket. Nobody has seen it. Nobody knows. The guardsman steadies his horse, mounts it, nods his apology to his captain, and the royal family turn and wave to us. Richard looks at me, buttoning the front of his jacket, and smiles at me warmly, assuredly. He has my glove, my favour.

Besides, it’s the dreamers, the inventors and entrepreneurs who change the world the most. Gutenberg, Edison, Stephenson, Jobs—something about the present wasn’t good enough, so they made the future.” I almost choke on a jaded chuckle. “What do politicians make? They make war. They make profit off the misfortune of others. They make mistakes they won’t take responsibility for and decisions they never have to feel the impact of. No, thank you. Not for me.

We wait by the door for him to notice us and I think how wonderful it must be to be a man and put your initial on a command and know that at once, such a thing is done. I would send out commands all day just for the pleasure of it.

My eyes trip over a man and get stuck. He’s looking at me, and it’s hard not to look back. He’s striking in a dark, magnetic way, his size, weapons, and bearing all telling me he’s a tribal warlord. His build is strong and masculine, his gait perfectly balanced and fluid. He walks with predatory confidence, unhurried, and yet there’s no mistaking his potential for swift, explosive violence. It’s not latent or hidden, just leashed. Watchful, alert, he’s aware of everything in his vicinity. Especially me.

Me encanta tu fragrancia,” she moans, as she starts to cum. I’ve never heard Cat lapse into her native language. Her English is perfect and unaccented. That’s how I know she’s lost all control. And so have I. Her voice echoes in my head. Me encanta tu fragrancia. I need you. I need you. I

Now I understand Isabel's slavish loyalty to George. Now I understand the passionate bond between the king and the queen. Now I even understand the queen's mother Jacquetta dying of heartbreak at the loss of the man she married for love. I learn that to love a man whose interests are mine, whose passion is given freely and openly to me, and whose battle-hardened young lithe body lies beside me every night as his only joy, is to utterly change my life. I was married before; but I was never shaken and touched and puzzled and adored before. I was a wife but I was no lover. With Richard, I become wife and lover, counselor and friend, partner in all things, comrade in arms, fellow traveler. With Richard, I become a woman, not a girl, I become a wife.

The door opens, and I turn my head, my heart thudding at the sight of Griffin. Tall, broad, muscular but sleek, he stalks into the room like a predator, his gait balanced and sure, his glittering, gray eyes focused entirely on me. Inky hair, a hawkish nose, that stubborn jaw, and thick, black stubble make him look hard and intimidating. With his sword strapped on and his dark brows lowered, he’s a warlord on the prowl. I shiver. I couldn’t want him more.

With an offer like that, how can I refuse?” He gapes at me. Clearly, my reciprocating was the last thing he expected. I whip a dagger from my belt and plant it at his groin, pricking just enough to make him yelp. Carver freezes. I cant my head, saying coolly, “I haven’t been spanked much because I do the spanking.” Beta Sinta laughs, startling the birds in the branches above. “Carver,” he says. “She just handed you your balls.” Carver grins. “That’s all right, as long as I get to keep them.

They’re all okay, then?” I grin like an idiot. What is wrong with me? She rises from her chair, fluid and vaguely shimmering. Her grace is legendary. I’m agile and strong, but I’d rather move like sunbeams on water, like Selena. “In good health and arguing incessantly with Desma and Aetos. Those two are under the impression the Sintans abducted you.” She’s asking a question. I owe her an answer. “They did. Sort of.” Her sculpted lips purse. “Help me understand a ‘sort of’ abduction,” Selena says, pouring me a cup of water. Well, it sounds stupid when you say it like that. My throat is parched, so I drink before answering. “He’s Beta Sinta. He said he’d have you all arrested if I didn’t come.” “And you believed him?” It’s a loaded question coming from Selena. I nod. After nearly a month with him, I also know he would have done it because he felt he had to, not because he wanted to. “He needs a powerful Magoi to help him and his precious Alpha sister, Egeria.” Egeria is no Alpha. She sounds more like a buttercup. Beta Sinta on the other hand, he’s Alpha material. Fierce on the battlefield, bloody, focused, ruthless…fair? “Plus, he had a magic rope.” Selena laughs, and the sound is like wind chimes on a spring breeze. “You? Caught by a magic rope?” I flush. “Don’t remind me.” She clears her throat, taming more laughter, and asks, “Will you help him?” Selena may not know who I am, but I’m certain she knows what I am—the Kingmaker—even if we’ve never discussed it. “My abilities can be valuable in diplomatic situations,” I say carefully. “He came here to save you. He looked like he cared.” I shrug, glancing down. “I’m a weapon he doesn’t want to lose.” “I think there’s more.” My eyes snap back up. “Don’t infer something that isn’t there. We’re both monsters.” Her dark-blue gaze flicks over me, unnerving. “Monsters still mate.” I choke on my own spit and then cough. A faint smile curves her lips. “Why didn’t you just escape?” “The rope.” That stupid, infuriating enchanted rope that led me to make a binding vow to stay with Beta Sinta until his—or my, if it comes first—dying day. She looks incredulous. “You couldn’t find a way out?” “It was a bloody good rope!

There were multitudes of dependents fed at the great houses, and everywhere, according to means, a wide-open hospitality was maintained. Froude gives a notion of the style of living in earlier times by citing the details of a feast given when George Neville, brother of Warwick the king-maker, was made archbishop of York. There were present, including servants, thirty-five hundred persons. These are a few of the things used at the banquet: three hundred quarters of wheat, three hundred tuns of ale, one hundred and four tuns of wine, eighty oxen, three thousand geese, two thousand pigs, — four thousand conies, four thousand heronshaws, four thousand venison pasties cold and five hundred hot, four thousand cold tarts, four thousand cold custards, eight seals, four porpoises, and so on.

PANOTII LOOKS PUT OUT ABOUT BEING LEFT BEHIND AND dogs my steps as I stow his tack under the deep overhang on the south side of the wizard’s hovel. There’s plenty of grass here, water at the lake, and it’s not that cold yet, despite the shift in seasons. If the rains start before we get back, the horses can take shelter under the overhang. I’m not worried about them wandering off. Not one of them has stepped outside of the large makeshift corral of God Bolt pits since we got here. “You can’t come with us,” I tell him. “It’ll be cold and slippery. And big monsters will want to eat you.” He tosses his head, snorting. “Really big monsters. There might be Dragons. And the Hydra. And I can’t vouch for the friendliness of the Ipotane toward regular horses.” I blow gently into his nose. Panotii chuffs back. “You’ll be safe here, and if anyone tries to steal you, Grandpa Zeus will throw down a thunderbolt. Boom! No more horse thief.” “Zeus may have better things to do than babysit our horses,” Flynn says, stowing his own equine gear next to mine. I glance northward toward the Gods’ mountain home and speak loudly. “In that case, I’m announcing right now that I’ll make an Olympian stink if anything happens to my horse.” Flynn looks nervous and moves away from me like he’s expecting a God Bolt to come thundering down. “She’s not kidding.” Sunlight glints off Griffin’s windblown hair. Thick black stubble darkens his jaw. He flashes me a smile that brings out the slight hook in his nose, and something tightens in my belly. I turn back to Panotii and scratch under his jaw. “You’re in charge here.” His enormous ears flick my way. “You keep the others in line.” Panotii nods. I swear to the Gods, my horse nods. Brown Horse raises his head and pins me with a gimlet stare. I roll my eyes. “Fine. You can help. You’re both in charge.” Apparently satisfied, Griffin’s horse goes back to grazing, shearing the grass around him with neat, organized efficiency. Griffin and Brown Horse were made for each other. Panotii shoves his nose into my shoulder, knocking me back a step. Taking a handful of his chestnut mane, I stretch up on my toes to whisper into one of his donkey ears. “Seriously, you’re in charge. I’ll bet you can even rhyme.” Carver and Kato chuckle as they walk past. Griffin bands his arms around my waist from behind, surprising me. “I heard that.