What Sleeps Within The Cove Quotes

I alone determine what does or does not concern me. He is my friend,” I said, stressing the words as I narrowed my glare on the one who’d spoken. That was a warning I would not heed, a reality I could not give into.

Better to die free than live on your knees,

You don’t see it, but we do. She’s … softer somehow. Still Mab, but not quite the same as she is with us. You’re her favorite. You remind her of her husband.” “The husband that she slaughtered in cold blood in front of me?” I asked,

He loved your mate. For all the ways she reminded him of me.” My jaw slackened, hanging open as I stared after her. That wasn’t true in the slightest. Estrella was nothing like Mab. Before I could respond, Mab turned on her heel and made her way to the dais. “Clean up this fucking mess before dinner. I don’t want to see it again,” she called, waving her hand over her shoulder to accentuate the command. “And find me whoever released the God of the Dead from his cell. I’d like to have a Gods-damned word.

What happens to the souls who deserve to be brought to Tartarus and die before they can be delivered?” I asked, thinking of all those who had escaped punishment during Mab’s reign. “They linger in the Void, becoming something twisted and monstrous. They cannot move on to the afterlife, not when they are not worthy of The Father or The Mother’s embrace. The ferryman keeps them trapped within the river, so that they cannot harm the souls who deserve peace.

overhead

Estrella Barlowe will die here. The moment you pass through these gates, you can do so knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that your life has come to an end. There is not a single path in which the Fates let you leave here without knowing the touch of death.

There was no sun without her—no stars to light the night sky as silence pressed in on me.

I almost had you. When it was just me, with my mate as far away as she could possibly be. How long do you think you’ll continue to breathe when she returns?

Suffering to gain strength was a ridiculous excuse crafted by abusers and the privileged.

Caldris was mine and mine alone.

Then they are beyond your reach, and your own desperation for more power has brought your demise. If they are together in Tartarus, then you’ve already lost,” the Queen of Winter said loudly

I will not lose to that sniveling child and your Godsforsaken son that should have never been born,” Mab argued,

I do not know, Highness. I fear you greatly overestimate my closeness to my son. I am not his confidante, for I barely know him thanks to you,” Twyla said,

Does it pain you to know that I raised your son as my own? That he has served as my weapon and I know him far better than you ever will?” Mab asked, a cruel smile lighting her face. “And yet you still cannot find him now,” Twyla said back,

He’s gone after his little bitch of a fucking mate!” Mab yelled in the Winter Queen’s face.

Feeling what I did to him was the greatest aphrodisiac, far stronger than whatever magic lingered in this water, and I wanted the sense of his satisfaction when he brought me to orgasm.

I see you now, my shadows.” “A shadow cannot exist without his light,

Our love isn’t gentle or kind. It’s rough and all-consuming; it’s a raging inferno that destroys the world in its wake.

I waited centuries for you. Waited centuries for this, and you still somehow manage to exceed every hope and dream I had.

He did not suffer your absence all these years just to have you throw your life away now,” Eryx whispered,

The Queen of Winter is dead,” he said, his voice loud and ringing through the throne room as Mab’s stare turned to him. Her dark eyes widened as she realized what she’d done, what her rage had driven her to. She’d kept Twyla alive all these years for a reason, containing the magic of the Winter Court within her body and keeping it from Caldris. She shook her head, stepping back from Twyla’s body as the shadows in her hand dissipated. She gazed out at the onlookers watching in the throne room, seeing the threat of her undoing in each and every one of us. Eryx smirked at her when her stare turned back to him, as if she could feel the words he would speak. The condemnation that would come in them and the confirmation of everything she would lose. “Long live the King.

Caldris,” he breathed, my name coming out as a horrified sigh. “What have you done?” “Bold of you to assume I would do anything to harm my mate, Lunar Witch,

I was looking forward to watching you fall into insanity with me because of that stupid little bitch.

No one can know anything for certain when it comes to you. No one like you has ever existed before,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at me finally. “So I made an educated guess.

Why didn’t I burn?” I asked. “Because you, dear Tempest, were first born in the Cradle of Creation,” she said, stealing the wind from my lungs.

The last being Fenrir allowed to ride him was the very thing that existed before death. He was the embodiment of nothingness. A distinct lack of life. He is where death comes from. He is the Void.

You keep your mind closed to all but your mate, but your walls are weakened without your magic and I am stronger in the place I call home.

His other children. Rheaghan. My now dead brother. Mab. My cunt of a sister. I was going to be sick.

I didn’t intend to tell you at all until after you’ve won, but watching the three dance around answers irritates me greatly. I’d eat them if it wasn’t frowned upon.

Knowledge is power and not all here would see you stumble in the dark,

Everyone has their own motives, and you would be a fool to forget that. Everyone will use you to their own advantage, especially here. You are the tides, constantly shifting. We would all guide you in a direction that serves us. We were merely the ones fortunate enough to be tasked with it.

You won’t survive. The phoenix will not revive you in the morning if you die. You have a physical form here as a visitor for the trials. You are not a prisoner of Tartarus.” “Then I guess I’d better not fucking die, yeah?

Only those who hadn’t suffered could underestimate what the greatest pains were.

I’d give myself,” she sobbed, ignoring my mother’s shocked protest behind me. It felt like the brave thing to say, and I remembered being so proud of the words as I jutted my chin out and pursed my lips.

These were the scars I would gladly wear for the rest of my life, the ones written in vengeance and justice.

We thank you for your sacrifice, Macario Barlowe of Mistfell. May you find peace in your next existence, warmly embraced by The Father,” the High Priest said, his voice spreading through the gardens as he touched his dagger to my father’s throat.

She was a great and terrible beauty in a timeless way, the kind of breathtaking that men waged wars for.

You can never be certain with mixed bloodlinesss such as yours, but you are jusst as much mine as you are hisss. Perhaps more, looking at you now,” she said.

Staying in Tartarus for too long will have disastrous consequences. You are a shade, the undead, and therefore you are susceptible to the pull of the Five Rivers. Make sure you return before Tartarus traps you forever,” he said.

And the Wild Hunt rode.

But promise me, when the time is right, you’ll leave this place. Fly free, Little Bird,” he said, and my heart clenched as he lowered me to the ground and stood. He smiled at her one last time, his cheeks tipping up even from behind as he turned toward me slowly.

I was the daughter of Khaos. So chaos was what I would embrace.

She was not helpless or afraid. She was enough.

To who I had been, who I was now, and who I would one day become.

Fear is your worst enemy. Fear makes pain and suffering so much worse. If you can numb your mind to the agony of those fears, you will be able to numb your body some as well so that you can overcome whatever the river deems your challenge to be. I have seen people persevere through burning, drowning, being skinned alive—

The River of Pain,” she said finally, earning a scoff from me. “Of course it is,” I said, rolling my eyes as I took another step closer to the water. I’d endured enough pain in my life, and I was so fucking tired of it being the test for everything.

If I died, so be it. It was only a matter of time before I succumbed to the madness after losing my mate, and I wanted to do something that mattered before I went.

I forced myself to hold still through the agony, letting the power take root in my soul and flood my veins. I would never again be helpless. I would never again be afraid. I would take back what was mine and what Tartarus had stolen from me.

No. I was not just a tempest. I was the storm as something new surged through me.

Estrella has been chosen for a fate that you cannot even begin to imagine. There is more to her future than simply having the power to do as she pleases. She must prove herself to have inner strength as much as outer strength. She must prove that she is kind, but fair, that she cannot be controlled by the human sensibilities that are undoubtedly a part of her given her upbringing,

She is more than just a daughter of Khaos. She is the daughter of Khaos,” she said, a knowing grin spreading her lips wide. “Estrella is his chosen heir. She is chaos incarnate.

To relive this moment all over again, as an observer watching one of my worst memories unfold … This was true agony.

What am I to do with you, daughter?” he asked, watching as I tossed the collection of hair onto the sands before me in an offering. “Never before has someone taken their power back from Tartarus in the middle of the trials.

Many have entered into the Trials of the Five Rivers,” she said, looking to the cave ceiling. I followed that gaze, studying the turquoise snakes where they seemed to hang from the ceiling and stretch toward her. “Of those who have dared, none have been born here. You are just as much a part of Tartarus as any who reside here. Perhaps more so. Perhaps this place recognizes you, or perhaps you’re just stubborn enough to dare to try.

Embracing Aella.

What are you?” I asked, swallowing back that part of me, that tiny, insignificant voice that remembered what it had been like to deny myself answers. To avoid asking hard questions because sometimes ignorance was far better than truth.

I am your future and your past. I am what you were meant to be before your humanity tainted you.

My humanity protected me when Mab would have killed me,” I argued, dismissing the notion that to be human automatically meant weakness. It meant caring in a way that the Fae didn’t seem to understand, and I would never believe that love was weakness.

Every monster is the hero of their own story, and every hero the villain of someone else’s. You will always be Mab’s villain, just as she is yours,” the woman in the mirror answered.

You do not even begin to understand how deep our manipulations go, Estrella Barlowe,” Clotho said,

there was one thing I knew about my mate, it was that her ability to survive anything life threw at her was her true magic.

I’ve a name,” Holt snapped, turning to his horse. There weren’t enough horses to carry us, so I sighed as I guided Brann up to ride at my back. He shook his head, denying the ride. “She never referred to you by anything other than Huntsman,” Brann said. “What I allow Imelda to call me is none of your business, and you are not gifted the same courtesy,” Holt said, staring down at where Brann seemed determined to go his separate way. To escape the coming war, I had no doubt. The fucking coward.

Holt said, guiding his horse into a trot up the narrow path. I followed after him, leaving Brann behind. There wasn’t time to reason with him, to convince him that Estrella would want to find him with the rest of her loved ones when she emerged from Tartarus. If he didn’t already know that, if he didn’t want to be there when she walked the earth again, then he didn’t fucking deserve her in the first place. I had better things to do than babysit an immortal, stubborn witch. I had an army to gather for my mate. He could rot, for all I cared.

You cannot reach the apples without my help. You were the greatest betrayal of my life, and now it brings me great joy to know that you will never leave this place without me. You may want to return to your mate, but I will do everything in my power to make sure you never see him again. If I must suffer here, then I’ll at least do it with you at my side,” he said,

Sometimes a monster is exactly what the world needs to right the wrongs that have been committed for centuries. You have let your fear of what you could be hold you back for far too long. You didn’t even think to try to remove the snake from your mate’s heart because you feared you would fail.

And what would have happened if you succeeded? Who might you have saved in the process? Your fear of yourself is your greatest weakness. Be the fucking monster, Estrella. For they will judge you as one either way.

Because I’ve never won! I have never been able to fight back in any way that fucking mattered!” Estrella snapped, her

Our connection was all that mattered to me, feeling him inside my head and inside my body at the same time the most intimate of acts I could share with any person.

It would have been stupid, and it wouldn’t have taken even a flick of my finger to knock him on his ass, but sometimes, you just wanted to punch another man in the fucking throat and watch him choke.

From chaos, she was born.

And in chaos, she will reign.

Until chaos reigns,

Ready yourself tonight, Estrella Barlowe. For tomorrow, you die.

Some secrets are better left in the dark, Little Bird,

They have known of your existence since they drew their first breath. They have seen your destiny since the first thread was spun. They created your father from the darkness, not so that he might be born, but so that one day, you would be.

If you want the hind dead, then do it your fucking self. I will not be a man’s weapon to be used at will.

There is beauty in knowing who you are.

She’d been brave enough to know herself. She’d been brave enough to look at the adversity of her past and face life with her head held high. To do anything less would have been a disservice to her memory now that the life had been stripped from her too soon.

I stood beside his stone, drawing one of my swords from the scabbard strapped across my back. It felt heavy in my hand as he writhed on the table, desperately attempting to escape the iron that I grasped in my palm. I adjusted my grip slowly, pulling the curved sword back before I sliced it through the air and tore through the skin at the base of his shaft. The stone fell heavy to the rock where he would linger forever, and I grasped it with my free hand. Guiding it to his face, I sheathed my sword once more and gripped his aging face between my thumb and forefinger, pressing into his cheeks and wedging my fingers between his teeth until he opened his mouth. I shoved the stone into his open mouth, pushing it deeper and deeper until he gagged. Only then did I close his lips around it, pressing my palm to his mouth and holding it closed as I thought of stone once more.

The rock spread out from under my hand, closing his mouth permanently as it turned to stone.

We kept him safe for you all these years, Child of Chaos, so that you may find yourselves united as one in this very moment.

To die in this place was to be forgotten, to simply cease to exist and I refused to accept that. If my time came, I would die in a blaze of glory and do everything in my power to take my enemies down with me. That meant I needed to escape the pit of Tartarus. That meant I needed to survive whatever they put forth for me.

Joy became punishment. Pleasure became pain.

While they were unlucky enough that she would never be theirs to touch, it was fortunate for them that my little star loved to be watched. That she loved to come undone with an audience to bear witness to her pleasure.

Macha laughed, her head tipping back as she pressed a hand to her stomach. “Oh, Little Tempest. You will find that the moments when the Fates intervene and reknit things to suit their purpose have often led to great pain and destruction. All should fear their interest and curiosity—even those of us who are not the subject of it.

Do not worry for us tonight. It is I who must worry for you always, Tempest.