For The Throne Quotes
"Sleep had never come easily to Neve, not even in the cradle."
"Sleeping often seemed like a waste of time, hours that could be better spent working."
"Neve still had to wear her mind thin before it would accept respite, had to tie it up in knots until the threads wore out."
"Neve wasn’t much of a crier, but it was always things like this that brought her to weeping—wasted time, useless effort, reminders of how little she could do."
"If fate delivered you something awful, why would you decide you had to take it? What could ever make that decision fit comfortably in your mind?"
"Neve was very knowable. She wanted so little. Safety for her sister. Someone who loved her. A measure of control, as large a measure as she could get."
"I have heard the whispering in the branches, and they tell of one who becomes two, who become three."
"One to be the vessel—the Shadow Queen, the Dark-Holder."
"Two to make the doorway—the Shadow Queen and the Golden-Veined, Wood-Entangled."
"Three to make a throne—the Shadow Queen, the Golden-Veined, and the Holy Traitor, Blasphemy-Bound."
"Destruction and rebirth and peace and war, all of it twisted, none of it true."
"If I’m careful, I can keep the two from melding together."
"I don’t deserve your trust. I know that much. But, unfortunately, you’re going to have to give it to me."
"Maybe it’s unfair to claim I trusted you, since you were pretending to be someone else all along."
"And you swallowed the lies without question, didn’t you?"
"Did you want me to? You never asked me to stop any of it."
"You know that isn’t true. You made the choices that led you here, Neverah."
"You’ve gotten close already, up in your own world. It’s not so different down here."
"Power is pain, Shadow Queen, and monster in the eye of the beholder."
"You can pass us the story of your god’s dissolving, if you like."
"My sorrow is lessened by the presence of yours."
"The Wilderwood is a place of power and danger, not to be taken lightly."
"There is much to hold in this world. The two of you will have to decide who holds what, Shadow Queen."
"You don’t get to make me need you this much and then go kill yourself trying to tear open a door."
"You expect me to just sit by while you unravel?"
"She couldn’t quite categorize him, and Neve hated things she couldn’t quantify."
"Get on your knees," he said, and though the words were something she certainly would’ve given him an earful for in any other circumstance, Neve obeyed.
"Forgive me for the impropriety, Your Majesty," he hissed, then scooped her up.
"Why did you do that?" Neve asked, a whisper that carried in the empty plain.
"The sooner you can find Neverah Valedren, the better."
"I wasn’t going to do that. Not with the way you were looking at me."
"I think I can overcome my distaste for an hour or two."
"It was like watching someone be attacked by a swarm of wasps."
"It’s never been pleasant. But it’s been more than this."
"Because if I didn’t, it would’ve gone to the Kings."
"Humanity breeds cruelty in ways my kind does not understand."
"It’s a liberating thing to realize, Neverah."
"It’s not a problem, no." But the lie was in her tone, and Solmir heard it.
"I did," he said quietly. "So all your hatred is warranted."
"No one comes here for any reason other than wanting something."
"You don’t need a compass when you are yourself a map."
"I wasn’t thrilled, but I wasn’t the scorned, furious wretch I’m sure the story paints me to be."
"A door that could be opened by matched love."
"To become what the stars have promised, or to leave the burden to those who come after."
"The two of you have overturned worlds for each other, Neverah. It’s hard to get more matched than that."
"Someone pays for the mistakes we make, Neve. Either we do, or we leave it to those who come after us."
"I know you’re not going to believe me—you didn’t before—and I know me saying it doesn’t mean much, anyway. But you are good, Neve."
"I’ll let you become the monster you were always meant to be."
"You have to take in the power of a god to get through to the Tree anyway."
"It means things are going according to plan."
"The power of the Wilderwood, its magic… it came into me, partly, when I bled within the forest’s border."
"So all we ever wanted to do was save each other."
"If what every Old One in the Shadowlands has told me is true, nothing the stars didn’t lay out for us."
"I thought the only way to keep all of you safe, from me, from the monsters, was to leave."
"I choose to see it through. I choose to be the Shadow Queen."
"It appears you had a practical reason for holding it all, once-King."
"I changed my mind about sacrificing you."
"You always have a choice, I guess. But when it's death for you or death for someone you don't know, it seems so simple."
"I never had any intention of letting her be killed, not after we went to the Edge and saw those carvings, not after I got a chance to know her and Eammon."
"All I did the entire time we were sailing here, the entire time in the Rylt—tried to find a way to get all of us out of there alive."
"No matter what your forest told you, we aren’t hurting Neve."
"You don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t have to absolve me."
"I’m through running. I’ll be your damn vessel. But you have to let her go."
"A moment of quiet, the calm before a thundercrack."
"You tried so hard not to be a villain, and look at you now."
"He’s better than you. Better than you could ever hope to be."
"A frisson of disquiet curled in her middle, a splinter of doubt."
"I will speak plainly. You are making a mistake, Neverah."
"You want to think there is good in him. We want to think the best of those we care for."
"True. But some are in better shape than others."
"But we all have to pay for our mistakes, Neve."
"I’m not pretending. I was trying to give you a way to keep him."
"Stupid boy. He thought so highly of his soul."
"You’ve played your part to the letter, Shadow Queen."
"The Wilderwood had heard him. And it built in a failsafe."
"Your souls have to hold it in stasis, so it doesn’t leak out into the world again."
"We know who we are. Maybe that means we don’t need them."
"It will be like it was before the Shadowlands were made. Where it’s free."