Leigh Rivers Quotes

Her heart was a river that carried her to the sea.

Please choose me. Nobody ever chooses me.

Progress is a river. It cannot be called back once it leaps its banks.

Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Fucking sorry. That damn word echoes in my psyche—a curse that won’t fuck off.

Nina had grieved for her loss of power, for the connection she’d felt to the living world. She’d resented this shadow gift. It had seemed like a sham, a punishment. But just as surely as life connected everything, so did death. It was that endless, fast-running river. She’d dipped her fingers into its current, held the eddy of its power in her hand. She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.

No. You were mine when we were kids, and you’re mine now. You’ll always be mine.

Run, little stranger.

Losing your voice to everyone is one thing, but losing your voice to someone you loved – trusted – is ten million times worse. I’ve never been heard.

Tobes. Help me,” Base says into the phone pressed to his ear. “The siblings are fucking in the backseat, and I’m certain the mute just spoke.

At least I got to kiss her.

If she suddenly threw herself in a river or off a building or into traffic, there would be plenty of warning signs to point to. Did she seem depressed? She was distant. She didn’t make many friends. She was struggling in her classes. All true. But would it have mattered if she’d been someone else? If she’d been a social butterfly, they would have said she liked to drink away her pain. If she’d been a straight-A student, they would have said she’d been eaten alive by her perfectionism. There were always excuses for why girls died.

I watch him take the black one and write down one word that makes no sense. Mine.

She’s like my own sunrise. Beautiful. Perfect. She fills a part of me that’s been empty and dark for as long as I can remember.

Because I can’t talk? Because I can’t tell you how fucking breathtaking you are every second of every day? Because I can’t breathe without being near you? Someone like me… I’m different—I can’t be normal for you. I can’t defend you without using my fists or my bat, and I can’t touch you at the same time as telling you that you’re everything to me. I can’t whisper sweet nothings into your mouth and I can’t fucking marry you because not only am I your brother, but I’m defective.

My name is Kade Mitchell, son of Tobias Mitchell, and I will not be fucking silent anymore.

Believe me or don’t, but you’re the only person in my life, and you always have been. And when you take your last breath, or I take mine, that won’t fucking change. You. Are. Mine. My goddamn property, do you understand?

But as you leave that dark gap in the trees behind, remember that to use a thing is not to own it and should you ever take a bride, listen closely to her questions. In them you may hear her true name like the thunder of a lost river, like the sighing of the sea.

- What could a river want with a mirror? - That is a question for the river.

Sorry’s just a word to try to get out of something, to dodge trouble if you’ve been caught out. Sorry’s a five-letter disgrace that shouldn’t even need to be used. It should be abolished from the fucking dictionary.

I want your heart, every single fucking fragment that I’ve broken over the years. I have your past and your present, and I want to be a selfish asshole and have your future.

Don’t silence me like that, he signs furiously. Don’t ever fucking silence me, Olivia.

Are you going to be my forever, Freckles?

The first time I saw you, I was yours. I’ll always be yours, Freckles. Our girl will be proud of the woman you’ve become. You’ll both always be my girls.

I like rough kisses that hurt.

And I want to hear your voice while I’m bouncing all over your cock, big brother.

Malachi: Since you’re teaching me everything else, will you teach me how to say your name? I might fuck the pronunciation up a few times, but I want to know how to say it.

It seems she has no idea how much I’m obsessed with her. Not just with her looks, but her heart, her fucking soul.

Because you’re going to be my wife. You’ve already taken my heart, my body, and my butchered soul, so you’ll take my fucking last name too.

For those who crave darkness yet hide in the light. You can come out now. Tobias is home.

Malachi Vize—my new favorite mute psychopath—is waiting for you.

Stop saying that. We aren’t blood related. You aren’t my real sister, so what’s the goddamn problem?

Please choose me. No one ever chooses me.

Because you’re hiding, and I want to hide with you.” I caress her cheek and press my lips to her forehead, catching her off guard. “Let’s hide together, Freckles.

My soul is shattered and broken, and I lose all the pieces, unable to glue it back together. Look at me now, my little princess. Daddy's gone, and he's never coming back." - Kade Mitchell

Once the river was loosed, it could not be called back.

Naked. Exposed. Branded with my mouth and my initials burned into her, and little cuts from my knife. She looks perfect. She looks like mine.

She likes to be hunted and caught and fucked.

If someone found a way to remove you from existence, I would burn the world before making sure my soul found yours in the afterlife.

No one fucks Stacey and gets away with it. I can’t have her, but nobody else will.

Touch her again and I'll blow your fucking head off.

The only girl I've ever imagined giving my heart to. It might be a little black and a little jagged around the edges and my mind might be a little wild, but she owns them. Olivia owns my mind, body and soul.

No time for dramatics,” Tobias Mitchell says in a deep voice, standing above the dead body. He’s wearing the same uniform as his victim. He nods to the door. “Let’s go. The building’s on fire, if you didn’t notice.

Mani pārdod seksam un nāvei, lai aizsargātu visus, kurus mīlu.” Kade leans into me more, raising his other hand between us to tuck another strand of hair behind my ear. I tilt my head, utterly confused by whatever language he’s speaking. He licks his lips. “Tajā skaitā jūs, vasaras raibumi.

I love you more than everything: It shouldn’t have taken me losing you to realize that. I should’ve chosen you. Olivia

I close my eyes and make a wish. I wish someone would choose me.

Staying silent is like being in a mental prison.

It’s like I’m visiting heaven while living in hell. But I want to steal her and bring her to my chaos, set fucking fire to her world and keep her in mine.

For the good girls who like to dance in the dark while being watched by the devil.

I was taken into the arms of the devil and exposed to a world I didn’t belong in. With a desired thirst and need for destruction, our demons danced, and I lost myself. I lost myself in him.

But just as surely as life connected everything, so did death. It was that endless, fast-running river. She’d dipped her fingers into its current, held the eddy of its power in her hand. She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.

I’ll leave your hearing, so I can tell you when I win her back, so you can hear her moaning my fucking name. When I marry her. When she births my fucking children. And guess what? I’ll have all of that. You won’t. Because Stacey Rhodes has been mine since the day I fucking met her.

I helped him with his own darkness, and he made me feel alive, sustaining me with tender touches and words, stolen kisses and nights in his bed when no one knew. I was happy.

He interrupted my meal—maybe now he’ll know better than to take away my food, the fucking asshole.

But you are my sister. My dirty little sister who’s going to touch herself in front of me. Show your big brother what you sound like when you cum.

Because I love you. I’ve been in love with you for ages – it’s been all I’ve thought about. And I keep falling more in love with you every single fucking day.

I kiss her once, twice, three times. “We make our own timeline. If you feel a certain way, then you feel a certain way. If it helps, I like you too.

She feels like mine. Stacey Rhodes is mine.

There’s only one fucking room available.

Our broken puzzle pieces are finally firmly in place, and they’ll never be torn apart again.

We’re all broken in some way, Tobias. But we can also be fixed.

Marry him. Go live your life and raise our kids. Make sure he makes you happier than I ever can, but just know, once I’m out, I’m coming for you.” He swipes a tear sliding down my cheek. “Will you?” “Yeah. I’ll wait forever if I need to, because you’re mine.

remember that to use a thing is not to own it. And should you ever take a bride, listen closely to her questions. In them you may hear her true name like the thunder of a lost river, like the sighing of the sea.

We have an emergency announcement. Reports say that Tobias Mitchell has escaped his institution this afternoon and is currently at large. The murderer and psychopath was given a life sentence over twenty years ago.

I am, but a pretty little thing like you can call me Tobias.

Fuck everyone in this car.

Base is wearing a Batman mask, because he’s an idiot.

Those voices are calling me a little liar while a devil chuckles on my shoulder. I’m a sneaky prick, and I don’t care.

An evil smile crosses Tobias’s face. “Because, son,” he says, raising both brows, “I have Bernadette Sawyer.

I’m going to hunt down whoever is responsible. I promise you, little one.” I smile weakly. “You don’t need to hunt for him – he lives right under my roof.

Little does she know that I’m the monster that goes bump in the night.

You are also my priority. I would have always hunted for you to the ends of the fucking earth, little one.

Kade: Run and hide. Unless you want everyone to witness me fucking you? Having an audience won’t stop me – I’ll take you in front of the entire party.

I choose who I love, and I choose you”.

He’s the son of Tobias Mitchell. He doesn’t need help.

I shove at his chest again and again and again, until he snatches my wrists and pushes me into the wall. His mouth opens, as if he’s trying to say something, his lips shaping, no sound coming from them until he’s whispering, “Ol… Ol… N-N…

Your cum is leaking out of me,” she randomly tells me as she takes a picture of our boarding passes. The group of grannies nearby give us a horrifying look. “No, I’m serious. When I sneezed? Boom.

She’s like my own sunrise. Beautiful. Perfect. She fills a part of me that’s been empty and dark for as long as I can remember. Maybe I am falling in love with her. Should I tell her? Would that scare her?

It’s like I’m visiting heaven while living in hell. But I want to steal her and bring her to my chaos, set fucking fire to her world and keep her in mine. Not even the devil could take this moment from me.

But just as surely as life connected everything, so did death. It was that endless, fast-running river. She'd dipped her fingers into its current, held the eddy of its power in her hand. She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.

There was a time when one person was able to make me ignore that side of myself. I helped him with his own darkness, and he made me feel alive, sustaining me with tender touches and words, stolen kisses and nights in his bed when no one knew. I was happy. I thought I was safe. I thought I was free. Until I wasn’t.

Because I can’t breathe without being near you? Someone like me… I’m different—I can’t be normal for you. I can’t defend you without using my fists or my bat, and I can’t touch you at the same time as telling you that you’re everything to me. I can’t whisper sweet nothings into your mouth and I can’t fucking marry you because not only am I your brother, but I’m defective.

Small Town Rule #9: Someone is always in your business, but that’s okay because someone also always has your back. Seth

If possible was a river, it had long since leapt its banks and become a flood.

I can’t wait to see Stacey beat the shit out of Cassie.

Sit next to me in the car ride home.” She hums. “Why?” “So I can hold your hand.” I shrug and press my mouth to hers. “Or your thigh. Whichever is more accessible.

Her hand is in mine the whole way up to her hotel room, and I measure her from behind for the size of cage I could keep her in,

Help me,” Base says into the phone pressed to his ear. “The siblings are fucking in the backseat, and I’m certain the mute just spoke.

Moya vechnost.

She raised the long glass and peered back down at the harbor, at the passengers disembarking, but the image was blurry. Reluctantly, she released his hand. It felt like a promise, and she didn’t want to let go. She adjusted the lens, and her gaze caught on two figures moving down the gangplank. Their steps were graceful, their posture straight as knife blades. They moved like Suli acrobats. She drew in a sharp breath. Everything in her focused like the lens of the long glass. Her mind refused the image before her. This could not be real. It was an illusion, a false reflection, a lie made in rainbow-hued glass. She would breathe again and it would shatter. She reached for Kaz’s sleeve. She was going to fall. He had his arm around her, holding her up. Her mind split. Half of her was aware of his bare fingers on her sleeve, his dilated pupils, the brace of his body around hers. The other half was still trying to understand what she was seeing. His dark brows knitted together. “I wasn’t sure. Should I not have—” She could barely hear him over the clamor in her heart. “How?” she said, her voice raw and strange with unshed tears. “How did you find them?” “A favor, from Sturmhond. He sent out scouts. As part of our deal. If it was a mistake—” “No,” she said as the tears spilled over at last. “It was not a mistake.” “Of course, if something had gone wrong during the job, they’d be coming to retrieve your corpse.” Inej choked out a laugh. “Just let me have this.” She righted herself, her balance returning. Had she really thought the world didn’t change? She was a fool. The world was made of miracles, unexpected earthquakes, storms that came from nowhere and might reshape a continent. The boy beside her. The future before her. Anything was possible. Now Inej was shaking, her hands pressed to her mouth, watching them move up the dock toward the quay. She started forward, then turned back to Kaz. “Come with me,” she said. “Come meet them.” Kaz nodded as if steeling himself, flexed his fingers once more. “Wait,” he said. The burn of his voice was rougher than usual. “Is my tie straight?” Inej laughed, her hood falling back from her hair. “That’s the laugh,” he murmured, but she was already setting off down the quay, her feet barely touching the ground. “Mama!” she called out. “Papa!” Inej saw them turn, saw her mother grip her father’s arm. They were running toward her. Her heart was a river that carried her to the sea.

Words like “missing you” and “I didn’t think it was possible to be without you, and now there’s a huge wall between us” and “will you visit me? I’m sorry for yelling at court” and my least favorite, a very dark time for me, “I’m not comfortable around these people. They call me a weirdo like the kids at school did because I won’t talk. Please don’t leave me in here,” yet she didn’t reply, even when my letters grew more desperate. No reply.

You don’t need to apologise to me.” “Do you always do that?” he asks. I tilt my head. “Do what?” “Ignore your own demons to cater to everyone else’s? From what I’ve witnessed, you seem to run after those around you, be there for them, centre yourself in their trauma, and no one seems to do the same for you.

come with me," she said. "come meet them," Kaz nodded as if steeling himself, flexed his fingers once more "wait," he said. the burn of his voice was rougher than usual. "is my tie straight?" Inej laughed, her hood falling back from her hair. "that's the laugh," he murmured, but she was already setting off down the squat, her feet barely touching the ground. "Mama!" she called out. "Papa!" Inej saw the turn, saw her mother grip her father's arm. they were running toward her. Her heart was a river that carried her to the sea. Page 529

Barry crouches down to Cassie’s corpse and checks her pulse. “She’s dead.” Tobias frowns like a child just kicked his shin. “Of course she’s dead. Are your eyes working? Her brain is splattered on the ground, you fucking idiot.” Barry mutters to himself then looks up at Kade’s dad. “I was just stating a fact.” “A useless fact,” he counters. “Any others? You want to tell me the sky is blue while you’re at it?

I want to know if anything was ever real for you. Any of it. If you tell me you love me, that I mean the world to you, then I’ll admit that I feel the exact same. Because I do, Malachi. I love you so much it hurts.” I shut off the voicemail, and step forward, my body shaking with rage.

His hand freezes, then he drops it to his side. “You’re afraid of me.” I avert my eyes. “You are aware that you’re the only person in the world I’d never hurt, right?” “If that was the case, then you wouldn’t have walked out of my life when I needed you the most.” I shake my head. “You already did hurt me.

For the natural polytheist who finds her gods in the rivers and mountains, in the deep-rooted giants looming above the canopy and in the tiny creatures that move beneath them, ecology gives us a glimpse into a kind of living anatomy of the divine, a theology of physical as well as spiritual life. - Alison Leigh Lilly, "Anatomy of a God

Nina had grieved for her loss of power, for the connection she'd felt to the living world. But just as surely as life connected everything, so did death. It was that endless, fast-running river. She's dipped her fingers into its current, held the eddy of its power in her hand. She was the the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.

Promise me they’ll know who I am, the real me, the one you once fell in love with.” I nod, our noses touching as our foreheads meet, tears falling down both of our cheeks, my face contorting in ways it never has before. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more to help you.” Each breath shakes as I try to stop myself from hyperventilating. “I’m so...s...so sorry.” “You tried.” Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and press my lips to his one last time.

Angel?” My dad’s voice comes from the bottom of the stairs, and I somehow manage to perch on my elbows while Malachi bruises my thighs with his grip, sweat coating my skin as my dad stands with my discarded jeans in his hand, mortification all over his face. “Daddy?” I whisper, my eyes rolling, falling back as my spine tingles, my breasts turning tender as my brother keeps eating me out, despite my dad being present. He rushes up the stairs, stopping when he sees who’s destroying his baby girl’s pussy. “Malachi!” Dad grabs his shoulder and tries to pull him away from me, but my brother’s grip doesn’t falter; nor do the strokes of his tongue, and we’re both dragged across the floor while Dad tries to get him off me. My brother doesn’t stop, and my eyes close as my dad tries again. His mouth disconnects from my pussy, and I whimper from the loss, and the next thing, Malachi is being dragged off me, and Dad punches him. Malachi’s nose is bleeding when he stands up, gathering something in his mouth before he grabs Dad’s jaw and spits in his face. Your daughter tastes fucking delicious, he signs. Too bad she’s all mine.

Hey, Freckles.” I bite my lip and screw my face up as my ribs burn, taking a deep breath before continuing. “I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry for not knowing what you went through or giving you a chance to explain what happened. I should have heard you out. I should have stayed. But you need to listen.” I wince and pull the phone away, so she can’t hear my groan of pain. “They know who you are, and what we were. They’re going to come for you. Please. Please, baby, you need to run. Run, and don’t you dare turn back. Get away from all of them. You… you hear m-me?” My eyes close, and my phone slides out of my hand, but I quickly grab it. “Please hide, please.” My vision goes dark, and the tremble in my bones stops. “I n-never stopped loving you.” My heart is fucking sore, but I need to get this last part out. I know I’m dying. But the only thing I’m worried about is her getting the fuck away from those evil pricks. “I will… will always lo-love you, Freckles. Go, live your life and be free. Meet someone who can tr-treat you ri-ight. For-for-forget me.” I can’t hear anything, not even my heartbeat. “Pl-please for… forgive me. B-Be safe and ha-ha-happy. I love you. I…” The phone slides again, and I have no energy left to finish my sentence, but as long as she knows I loved her, that she meant the world to me, that she is fucking special and deserves everything that makes her happy – then I’ve said all I need to. A hand touches my face, but I can’t see through the blood in my eyes from the gaping wound in my head. Stacey? Is that you? Mum? But it’s Bernie’s voice in my ear. Faint, but enough that I can make out what she’s saying. “Oh, silly me. Did I forget to mention Stacey fled the country? New phone. ID. Everything. You’ll never find her, but guess what? I will.” She wipes my eyes with a cloth, and I can just make out a medic hovering over me. Archie lowers himself beside me as I try to drag air into my punctured lungs. “I did some digging and was able to lift some messages between you both – and her nickname. Freckles?” He laughs, and blood drops from my mouth as I attempt to move, to get up and snap his neck. “I’ll carve each freckle out of her skin.” “I’ll k-kill y-you.