Victoria Aveyard Quotes

The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.

Anyone can betray anyone.

Rise, red as the dawn.

Words can lie. See beyond them.

I told you to hide your heart once. You should have listened.

Flame and shadow. One cannot exist without the other.

If you know someone's fear, you know them.

No one is born evil, just like no one is born alone. They become that way, through choice and circumstance.

If I am a sword, I am a sword made of glass, and I feel myself beginning to shatter.

The gods rule us still. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind.

What I need and what I want are two very different things.

To look powerful is to be powerful.

In the fairy tales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again.

You should know the difference between secrets and lies.

There's nothing wrong with being different.

I see a world on the edge of a blade. Without balance, it will fall.

It's our nature. We destroy. It's the constant of our kind. No matter the color of blood, man will always fall.

Anyone, anything, can betray anyone. Even your own heart.

I will never make the mistake of loving you ever again." "So you choose him?" That's all this ever was. Jealousy. Rivalry. All so shadow could defeat the flame.

A lie will raise me up, and one day another lie will bring me down.

To stand in front of a person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun.

Those who know what it's like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light.

So you choose him?' 'Cal betrayed me, and I betrayed him. And you betrayed us both, in a thousand different ways.' The words are heavy as stone but right. So right. 'I choose no one.

I'm a Red girl in a sea of Silvers and I can't afford to feel sorry for anyone, least of all the son of a snake.

No heart can ever be truly understood. Not even your own.

There are worse lives to live. Don't feel sorry for me.

Red in the head, Silver in the heart

No one is born a monster. But I wish some people were. It would make it easier to hate them, to kill them, to forget their dead faces.

Many things led to this day, for all of us. A forgotten son, a vengeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. Together, they've written a tragedy.

I can’t believe I didn’t see him for what he was from the beginning: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And now I’m the sheep pretending to be a wolf.

You aren’t alone.” The hope in his eyes cuts deeply. “You have your crown.

You better hide that heart of yours, Lady Titanos. It won't lead you anywhere you want to go.

Kneel or bleed.

This was the shadow controlling the flame.

I'm an accident. I'm a lie. And my life depends on maintaining the illusion.

We seem weak because we want to.

I've been broken too many times to break again.

Strange, my enemies know me best, and my family doesn’t know me at all.

Now I'm in a king's cage. But so is he. My chains are Silent Stone. His is the crown.

I fear being alone more than anything else. So why do I do this? Why do I push away the people I love? What is so very wrong with me? I don’t know. And I don’t know how to make it stop.

I'll make the other scream for you, Mare, every last one. Not just your parents. Not just your siblings. But every single one like you. I'm going to find them, and they will die with you in their thoughts, knowing this is the fate you have brought them. I am the king and you could've been my Red Queen. Now you are nothing.

Not a god’s chosen, but a god’s cursed. That’s what we all are.

Every single thing I did, you stood behind me,” I say. “If I’m turning into a monster, then so are you.” “Love blinds.

Are you going to babysit me every day or just until I learn my way around?" "What do you think?" "Here's to a long and happy friendship, Officer Samos." "Likewise, my lady." "Don't call me that." "Whatever you say, my lady.

Don’t lie to a liar.

Mare?" "Are you afraid, Maven?" "I am. I'm afraid of failing. I'm afraid of letting this opportunity pass us by. And I'm afraid of what happens if nothing in this world ever changes. That scares me more than dying.

The thing with heat is, no matter how cold you are, no matter how much you need warmth, it always, eventually, becomes too much.

I am the king and you could've been my Red Queen.

Sometimes his silence is better than anyone else’s words.

I am a weapon made of flesh, a sword covered in skin. I was born to kill a king, to end a reign of terror before it can truly begin.

Love can be exploited, I guess, used to manipulate. It's leverage. But I would never call loving someone else a weakness. I think living without love at all, any kind of love, is weakness. And the worst kind of darkness.

They trained me for this. It's their own fault. They helped make their own doom.

Revolution needs a spark,” I murmur, repeating what Julian would say in our lessons. “And even sparks burn.

Sometimes I forget you have the legs of a child." "Better than the brain of one.

His lips are on mine, hard and warm and pressing. The touch is electrifying, but not like I'm used to. This isn't a spark of destruction, but a spark of life. As much as I want to pull away, I just can't do it. Cal is a cliff and I throw myself over the edge, not bothering to think of what it could do to us both. One day he'll realize I'm his enemy, and all this will be a far-gone memory. But not yet.

The person she loved is dead, stolen by someone else. Mine chose to walk away. Chose everything I hate over everything I am. I wonder which hurts more. Before

Don’t lie to a liar, and Maven is the grandest liar of all.

But I'm not a princess. I'm not the girl who gets saved.

There are pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction.

It isn't hard to let people die when their deaths give life to something else.

I will never submit again. I will never stop fighting.

Attend to your own fate, Mare Barrow.” “And that is?” “To rise. And rise alone.

As you enter, you pray to leave. As you leave, you pray to never return.

You are only a shadow, and who looks at shadows when they have flame?

I am different from what my world demands I be. And I am not worse for it.

I woke up this morning as one person, and now I'm supposed to be someone else entirely.

But I can’t shake the feeling that, while they stand with me, there’s no one beside me. Even with an army at my back, I am still alone.

Once, I was afraid of these walls, frightened by such beauty. But I see the cracks now.

We can’t choose who we love. I wish, more than anything, that we could.

Fire and lightning raised Maven up, and fire and lightning will bring him down.

It's cruel to give hope where none should be. It only turns into disappointment, resentment, rage -- all the things that make this life more difficult than it already is.

I’m starting to think you like prisons,” he says, idling knocking his knuckles against the wall. “And that you have the worst taste in men.

There is no greater pain or punishment than memory.

Red blood is just so hard to clean up" "You would know" I snap remembering Shade. "Because no matter how hard you try to hid it I see it all over your hands

Not all crowns are worn where people can see.

To rise. And rise alone.

I'm red, I'm nothing, and I can still make you fall.

One dark night I spilled my secrets to him, on a road thick with summer heat. I was the girl who tried to steal his money then. Now, winter looms, and I’m the girl who stole his life.

As beautiful as this world is, it's just as dangerous. People who are not useful, people who make mistakes, they can be removed. You can be removed.

You’ll find I’m remarkably good at giving orders, and particularly awful at following them.

But there's always something left to be broken.

My heart breaks for him; my heart hardens against him.

No matter how much I might want to feel him, I cannot. I must keep my eyes ahead, and away from the fire of a fallen prince. I must freeze my heart to the one person who insists on setting it ablaze.

Cal will never turn his back on his crown, on your father." "I know my brother. If it comes down to it, to saving your life or saving his crown, we both know what he will choose." "He would never choose me.

I could set the world on fire, and call it rain.

Ignorance is a burden I do not intend to carry.

Cal is built from his father’s dreams, and Maven from his mother’s nightmares.

If only no one had to fight at all." He shakes his head. "It does no good to dream.

The truth doesn't matter. It only matters what the people believe.

Never change, Evangeline.“ Her smile flashes, quick as a knife. „Of course not. Why change perfection?

Silvers don't mind pain, but we are proud. Pride, dignity, honor; those are things no ability can replace.

I thought I knew what heartbreak was. I thought that was what Maven did to me. When he stood and left me kneeling. When he told me everything I ever thought him to be was a lie. But then, I believed I loved him. I know now, I didn't know what love was. Or what even the echo of heartbreak felt like. To stand in front of a person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun.

Our paths may be horrible, but they're the paths we made for ourselves.

You want me to pin my entire operation, the entire revolution on some teenaged love story? I can't believe this.

No one notices, no one even cares, when I fade away again. I'm a shadow, and no one remembers shadows.

There is nothing so terrible as a story untold.

There are pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction. A ghost living inside a living boy I cannot begin to fathom. The ghost who sat by my bed while I dreamed in pain. The ghost who kept Samson from my mind as long as he could, I know, delaying an inevitable torture. The ghost who loves me, in what poisoned way he can. And I feel that poison working in me.

He loved the crown before he loved me, whether he knows it or not

And his eyes are worst of all. Her eyes, Elara's eyes. Once I thought them cold, made of living ice. Now I know better. The hottest fires burn blue, and his eyes are no exception.

If you die, I’ll kill you.” He smiles sadly. “Likewise.

What a difference a day makes.

Their Silver war is being paid for in Red blood.

Some say those are just stories, but I don’t believe that. The gods rule us still. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind.

Maven lies as easily as he breathes, and his mother holds his leash but not his heart.

I am only human, and humans are not supposed to deal with days like today.

I must freeze my heart to the one person who insists on setting it ablaze. Winding

She was happy, yes, in her own way, as best as she knew. But there’s a difference between a single candle in darkness and a sunrise.

Cameron, my heart is quite literally in this," he hisses through gritted teeth. Swooning words. A romantic declaration. I can barely stop my eyes from rolling. "Save it for when we get her back," I grumble.

I suppose I should get used to being alone too. Not in the world, but in here. In my heart. Part

Never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams. —HRC

But we all still have the ability to choose, in the end.

It's nice to hear that I'm not completely alone in feeling out of place." "That's something you should know about us Silvers. We're always alone. In here, and here," he says, pointing between his head and his heart. "It keeps you strong.

We can bomb and burn every inch of this country down, but that will never do the damage you two can do. A Silver prince turning against his crown, a Red girl with abilities. What will people say, when they see you standing with us?

With great effort, I push my fear away. Fear will get me killed.

I love your brother, Maven. You were right. You are only a shadow, and who looks at shadows when they have flame? Who would ever choose a monster over a god?

I am finally learning my lesson. Anyone can betray anyone.

Through it all, I stare at the boy on the throne. He maintains his mask. Jaw clenched, lips pressed into a thin, unforgiving line. Still fingers, straight back. But his gaze wavers. Something in his eyes has gone far away. And at his collar, the slightest gray flush rises, painting his neck and the tips of his ears. He's terrified. For a second, it makes me happy. Then I remember―monsters are most dangerous when they're afraid.

I’m safer than I’ve been in days, surrounded by the people I love most, and yet I’ve never wanted to cry more. For them, I hold back. I curl inward and bleed alone, inside, where no one else can see.

They don't know the meaning of danger or fear or pain. It's only their pride that can be truly hurt.

Killers don't have to make sense.

Change can be quick, or it can be slow. But the movement should always be forward

In what life can I trust anything out of your mouth ever again?

He can help me survive. Better yet, he might even help me live.

I can't let the mistakes I've made bury me.

In school, we learned about the world before ours, about the angels and gods that lived in the sky, ruling the earth with kind and loving hands. Some say those are just stories, but I don't believe that. The gods rule us still, they have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind.

When she moves, I realize her hair is different too. The gray ends are gone, replaced by a beautiful, familiar purple. I love it.

I could set this world on fire and call it rain"- Maven

Mare of the Stilts died the day she fell onto a lightning shield. Mareena, the lost Silver princess, died in the Bowl of Bones. And I don’t know what new person opened her eyes on the Undertrain. I only know what she has been and what she has lost, and the weight of it is almost crushing.

When his flame falls, my lightning rises, and so on.

You could have been my red queen.

Red Queen. The lightning girl. She lives. Rise, Red as dawn. Rise. Rise. Rise.

This started when I fell into the Spiral Garden, a body made of sparks, and now it ends at the Bowl of Bones. I'll leave as a corpse.

Why won't you leave me alone?" "Then I'd be alone, too.

You know people, you understand them, you see through them.

I don't like being your chess piece." "Everyone is someone else's pawn, Mare. whether we know it or not.

You wouldn't know hardship if it kicked you in the teeth, and believe me, it does that a lot. So excuse me if I don't feel sorry for either of you.

The smell made it really hard to be friends with you." "Probably why we stuck together. No one else could handle my stink or your attitude.

You're like Thomas was. You are the only person I care about, the only person who reminds me I am alive. Not empty. And not alone.

There is nothing so terrible as a story untold

And some will believe. The fools. But others will not. Red and Silver, high and low, some will see the truth.

And somehow everyone calls me a monster.

„Mare?“ The radio is in my hand before I can even think to ask for it. „I‘m here,“ I say, locking eyes with him across a canyon. „Is it too late?

Maven Calore is not his own self. He told me as much. He is a construct, a creation of his mother's additions and subtractions. A mechanical, a machine, soulless and lost. What a horror, to know that someone like this holds our fates in the palm of his quivering hand.

This world is Silver, but it is also gray. There is no black-and-white.

I am well accustomed to darkness by now. What's a few more miles? Nothing at all. I've always felt darkness all over me, stubborn as a stain. It follows wherever I go.

And you're late." "I prefer chronologically challenged.

You forged this crown yourself - now wear it. Or don't.

You came here with so many more followers, but you lost the ones you left with.

Boys do stupid things to feel like men, no matter how old they are.

It's possible the girl he thought he loved is gone. I know what that's like too, to love someone who doesn't really exist.

I am the king and you could've been my Red Queen. Now you are nothing.

Those who know what it's like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light

The sparks are gone, replaced by fierce, ugly tears that track down my face. Thunder rumbles somewhere far off and the air is warm. But the humid temperature is gone. The heat has broken and summer will soon be over. Time is passing. My life is moving on, no matter how much I want it to stay the same.

With my newly pale skin and darkened eyes and lips, I look cold, cruel, a living razor. I look Silver. I look beautiful. And I hate it.

The door swings inward as the first soldier rounds the corner, but my thoughts are only of Cal. It seems princes make me blind.

It frightens me about being alone with Cal, at least in daylight. But when night falls, there’s no one I’d rather see.

I will not be a red queen

Lightning has no mercy.

I ache for my ability the way I ache for Mare, for Thomas, for who I was supposed to be.

Only men can speak all day long and still think themselves silent.

Words can lie. See beyond them.

They don’t act out of need. They are driven by want. And what they want, they get.

Strange that she is both the anchor against the storm and the storm itself.

In the palace, during my imprisonment, I learned that Maven had been made by his mother, formed into the monster he became. There is nothing on earth that can change him or what she did. But Cal was made too. All of us were made by someone else, and all of us have some thread of steel that nothing and no one can cut.

Thinking all Silvers are evil is just as wrong as thinking all Reds are inferior.

You don't know how precarious things are, how close this world is to falling back into ruin.

I see you as you could become, no longer the lightning, but the storm. The storm that will swallow the world entire.

They've spent so long at the top, protected and isolated, that they've forgotten they can fall. Their strength has become their weakness.

The crushing weight of silence hangs heavy as always. For a moment it's too difficult to breathe, and I wonder if this is how I die. Drowned in this bed of silk, burned by a king's obsession, smothered by open air.

If there's one thing I should forget, it's him.

Maven stares after his fleeing brother. “He does not like to lose. And”—he lowers his voice, now so close to me I can see the tiny flecks of silver in his eyes—“neither do I. I won’t lose you, Mare. I won’t.” "You'll never lose me.

I have no illusions where Maven is concerned. I know his twisted heart, and that it feels something for me. Something he wants to get rid of, but can never part with.

They beg to a Silver king, and spit upon Red queens.

Even without her lightning, Mare Barrow still manages to strike me through.

The crown is in the heart, and the heart do not change

The words were only words. He could never part with her. So it was easy to push her into his path ― and push him off course. The equivalent of waving a red flag in front of a bull. She was his hurricane, and every nudge pulled him deeper into the eye of the storm.

There is no greater pain or punishment then memory.

But like my brother, I too have a crutch. Mine is not metal. It is flesh and fire and bronze eyes. If only I could cast him away. If only I was strong enough to let the prince go and do what he would with his vengeance. To die or live as he saw fit. But I need him. And I can’t find the strength to let him go.

Thank you,” I whisper. Words I never thought I would say to her. They unsettle us both.” “You want to thank me, Barrow?” she mutters, kicking away the last of my bindings. “Then keep your word. And let this fucking place burn.” (300)

Whispers are rare, dangerous, and powerful, even among the Silvers, even in the capital. The rumors about them vary, but it boils down to something simple and chilling: they can enter your head, read your thoughts, and control your mind.

Mare,” he whispers. “Choose me.” Choose a crown. Choose another king’s cage. Choose a betrayal to everything you’ve bled for. I find my thread of steel too. Thin but unbreakable. “I am in love with you, and I want you more than anything else in the world.” His words sound hollow coming from me. “Anything else in this world.” Slowly, my eyelids flutter open. He finds the spine to match my gaze. “Think what we could do together,” he murmurs, trying to pull me closer. My feet hold firm. “You know what you are to me. Without you, I have no one. I am alone. I have nothing left. Don’t leave me alone.” My breathing turns ragged. I kiss him for what could be, what might be, what will be—the last time. His lips feel strangely cold as we both turn to ice. “You aren’t alone.” The hope in his eyes cuts deeply. “You have your crown.

A king should know his people. That's why I sneak out,' he murmurs. 'I do it in the capital too, and at the war front. I like to see how things really are in the kingdom,instead of being told by advisers and diplomats. That's what a good king would do.

I am afraid of waking up to emptiness, to a place where my friends and family are gone and I am nothing but a single bolt of lightning in the blackness of a lonely storm. If I am a sword, I am a sword made of glass, and I feel myself beginning to shatter.

I was never yours, and you were never mine, Maven. And not because of him, either. I thought you were perfect, I thought you were strong and brave and good. I thought you were better than him." Better than Cal. Those are words Maven thought no one would ever say. He flinches, and for a second, I can see the boy I used to know. A boy that doesn't exist anymore.

It’s not something you can control, Mare,” he replies, still standing so far away. “We can’t choose who we love. I wish, more than anything, that we could.” I feel cracked open. My skin still runs hot from Cal’s embrace, remembering the feel of him only moments ago. But in the deepest part of me, in spite of every fiber of my being, I think beyond the clearing, to ice-colored eyes, an empty promise, and a kiss aboard a boat.

Another round," she goads, and holds out a hand for the cards. "I bet a week of laundry." Across from us, Cal stops his preparatory stretching to snort. "You think Mare does laundry?" "Do you, Your Highness?" I snap back, grinning. He just pretends not to hear me.

He leans forward slightly, lips pulling back against his even, white teeth. It’s so aggressive and animalistic I expect to see fangs. “I am your rightful king, Silver-born for centuries,” he replies, seething. “The only reason you’re still breathing is because I can’t burn the oxygen from this room.

Cal stares at the floor, silent for a long, stoic moment. "I never thought Maven would do that to her," he mutters finally. "She probably didn't either." Then you're both stupid, my brain screams. How many times doe one wicked boy have to betray you people before you learn?

Cal and Maven are deadly creatures, soldiers. But their battle isn't just on the lines. It's here, in a palace, on the broadcasts, in the heart of every person they rule. They will rule, not just by right of a crown, but by might. Strength and power. It's all the Silvers respect, and it's all it takes to keep the rest of us slaves.

I can't," I bite out, looking anywhere but his face. He responds quickly, with force. "Neither can I." "But I also can't - " Stay away. Keep doing this. Denying ourselves in the face of always-looming death. Tiberias hisses out a breath. "Neither can I.

My son the general!" King Tiberias booms, his proud voice cutting through the din of the party. For a second, when he pulls Cal close, putting an arm around his son, I forget he's a king. I almost understand Cal's need to please him. What would I give to see my mother look at me like that, back when I was nothing but a thief? What would I give now? This world is Silver, but it is also gray. There is no black-and-white.

To my dismay, he recovers quickly and smoothes his hair. "So you choose him?" That's all this ever was. Jealously. Rivalry. All so shadow could defeat the flame. I have to throw my head back and laugh, feeling the eyes of the brothers on me. "Cal betrayed me, and I betrayed him. And you betrayed both of us, in a thousand different ways." The words are heavy as stone but right. So right. "I choose no one.

I walked away from his offer. From him. I was torn apart by another betrayal—Cal’s betrayal, but also mine. I love you is a promise we both made, and we both broke. It should mean I choose you above all else. I want you more. I need you always. I cannot live without you. I will do anything to keep our lives from parting. But he wouldn’t. And I won’t.

Come forward, Mare." That is Maven's voice. Not Maven, but Maven. The boy I thought I knew. Gentle, tender. He keeps that voice stored away, ready to be used against me like a sword. It strikes me to my core, as he knows it will. In spite of myself, I feel the familiar longing for a boy who does not exist.

You believe you are the masters of the world, but your reign as kings and gods is at an end. Until you recognize us as human, as equal, the fight will be at your door. Not on a battlefield but in your cities. In your streets. In your homes. You don't see us, and so we are everywhere. ... And we will rise up, Red as the dawn.

It sets something off in Maven. He jumps out of reach, keeping his distance from all of us. The twitching returns in force, but his eyes blaze, all fire. No fear. "You think I can't lie through pain," he snarls, his voice thundering through the room. "You think I haven't done it a thousand times?" ... For a brief, empty moment I see nothing but darkness, and I try not to think of Maven. His words. What his life was and continues to be.

Can I help you with something?" he asks. His lips twitch, fighting a losing battle against a wretched, playful grin. I try to look cross with him, if only to keep up appearances. "You're supposed to be training." "Worried I'm not getting enough exercise? I assure you, Mare," he says, winking, "we are." It makes sense. Farley and Shade have been inseparable for a long while. Still, I gasp aloud, and swat his arm. "Shade Barrow!" "Oh, come on, everyone knows. Not my fault you didn't figure it out.

Maven is a talented liar, and I don't trust a single word he speaks. Even if he was telling the truth. Even if he is a product of his mother's meddling, a thorned flower forced to grow a certain way. That doesn't change things. I can't forget everything he's done to me and so many others. When I first met him, I was seduced by his pain. He was the boy in shadow, a forgotten son. I saw myself in him. Second always to Gisa, the bright star in my parents' world. I know now that was by design. He caught me back then, ensnaring me in a prince's trap. Now I'm in a king's cage. But so is he. My chains are Silent Stone. His is the crown.

For all his clever ideas, Maven has nothing to say to this. He just stares, his breath coming in tiny, scared puffs. I know the look on his face; I wear it every time I’m forced to say good-bye to someone. “It’s too bad we didn’t stay longer,” I murmur, looking out at the river. “I would have liked to die close to home.” Another breeze sends a curtain of my hair across my face but Maven brushes it away and pulls me close with startling ferocity. Oh. His kiss is not at all like his brother’s. Maven is more desperate, surprising himself as much as me. He knows I’m sinking fast, a stone dropping through the river. And he wants to drown with me. “I will fix this,” he murmurs against my lips. I have never seen his eyes so bright and sharp. “I won’t let them hurt you. You have my word.

If I could speak, I would tell Cal that I'm sorry, that I love him, that I need him. But the wind and the drop steal my breath away. I have no more words. His touch is achingly familiar, one hand at my neck, imploring me to look at him. Like me, he can't speak. But I hear his apology all the same, and he understands mine. We see nothing but each other. Not the lights of Corvium on the horizon, the ground ringing up to meet us, or the fate we're about to find. There is nothing but his eyes. Even in darkness, they glow.