The Ballad Of Never After Quotes
"There is a door deep inside the royal library of Wolf Hall that no one has opened for centuries."
"Dark was for stars and dreams and the magic that took place in between days."
"She wasn’t being followed. She’d heard no steps. Until..."
"Jacks sighed and leaned against a nearby bookshelf as if her feelings were the emotional equivalent of a sneeze—something to be gotten over quickly, or avoided simply by stepping out of the way."
"You need to stop holding me to human standards."
"Those things only happened because they served your twisted interests."
"But pretending would not erase or change anything."
"Happy endings can be caught, but they are difficult to hold on to. They are dreams that want to escape the night."
"It was tempting not to turn, but then two soldiers appeared by her side."
"You’ve been summoned to the receiving solarium," said the one on her right. "Prince Lucien has requested your immediate presence."
"But all she felt was a growing pit inside her."
"Tonight, the waiting hall outside it was full of life and light, candles dripping from chandeliers, chatting guests with painted cheeks, and loud laughs that edged on drunken."
"The moon spied through the towering windows, a waning crescent that added atmosphere but no illumination."
"Once, she might have run to him. Once, she might have wept for him. Now, she wanted to throw things at him. Sharp, hurtful things."
"Evangeline wanted to say as much, but she doubted Luc would take it well."
"You’re a little scary right now, did you know that?"
"Jacks hadn’t mentioned the debt in a while, but she felt a rush of fresh nerves as she wondered if he would collect soon—if this final kiss was what he’d referred to when he’d promised earlier that she would really start to hate him."
"She just wanted a break. A moment of peace before being confronted with another catastrophe."
"And she waited for Jacks to say that she owed him now."
"You need to go." The prince pulled a golden arrow from the quiver at his back. Moonlight glanced off the tip as he held it in his fist.
"All that Evangeline really wanted from her stepsister was an apology."
"She tried to shove up from the bench. The leg that had been struck by the arrow buckled, and she collapsed back down as more and more blood poured forth."
"And then his voice was in her head. Two more words she’d never heard. 'I’m sorry,' he said, just before it all truly went dark."
"But there was one thought brighter and more frightening than all the others. If she was injured, then so was Apollo."
"She was determined to hope for the best—maybe Apollo hadn’t forgiven her for the love spell, but the fact that he was here made her think that perhaps he wanted to."
"I'm disappointed you could forget what I am so easily."
"The truth is never what you want it to be."
"Because of the story curse, the words in most of these volumes change a little every time they are read."
"The last key wore the luck stone after she found it. She believed it would give her good fortune, and it did. But it also made her far too reckless and ultimately led to her death."
"Stories had always felt as if they were her friends."
"The author went on to curse the names of all the original Great Houses."
"Her heart was already so splintered with loneliness that for a second she thought this sharp little pang might shatter her apart."
"Only the prophesied key can find and reunite all four missing stones."
"Winning at love was less about succeeding in a battle and more about continuing to fight, to choose the person you loved as the one you were willing to die for, over and over."
"These stones have powers that call to one another. They long to be reunited."
"I don’t like it when you use your powers to control people."
"The world outside the windows was a wonderland of white and ice and pale blue winter birds with wings that turned to frosted lilac when they flew."
"Evangeline felt particularly bright, dressed in the pink velvet gown that she’d picked out last night."
"If anyone could have escaped death, it would have been Jacks."
"Inside this carriage, there was plush black carpet on the floor, thick black velvet cushions on the benches, black lacquered panels for the walls, and more hints of gold edging the icy windows in a decorative pattern of swirling thorns."
"It was as if this chill were a living thing."
"This place reminded her of those books, but instead of words, it was color and feeling and hope that had been vanquished."
"The archer wasn’t named, but she was still drawn to the idea that he was the Archer from The Ballad of the Archer and the Fox."
"The heated bricks at her feet had lost their warmth, and now they felt like ice."
"Jacks had repeatedly told her he didn’t care about anyone or anything. But it was hard to believe him right now."
"In a world where there were Fates and magic and curses and prophecies, Evangeline couldn’t help but believe there was also the potential for everyone to find a happily ever after."
"People like me, who aren’t from one of the Great Houses, don’t get invited to royal weddings in Valorfell."
"You might want to look toward the portrait door."
"Just let them go, Princess. All you’re going to do is embarrass yourself."
"You really do have terrible luck with boys, don’t you?"
"I’m not a human, Evangeline. And I’m not your friend, or your husband, or your lover."
"How can you keep mistaking me for someone who cares?"
"Go back to dinner, Giselle. Flirt with someone else until you find a nice husband."
"I’m just giving her what she wants. But don’t worry, she is not what I want."
"The world finally stopped spinning, and she regretted her lack of thinking."
"I’m not a bad person—but I don’t want to die."
"I was just like you once. I was married to a prince until I was accused of a crime I didn’t commit."
"Life is not a kind storyteller. And I’m not meant to be a savior."
"It’s not that I want to do this, but as soon as I saw you here, I knew—"
"There are heroes, and there are villains. She made her choice between the two, and she got the ending that came with it."
"We were all a little like you back then, stupid enough to believe that if we did the right thing, it would all work out."
"You should get some rest, Little Fox. You look exhausted."
"I feel fantastic," she said. At least she could lie now that the stone was gone.
"I would think that would make you happy, since you’ve been so afraid of opening the arch."
"But I need to open it to find the cure for the Archer’s curse."
"That would have clearly been a lapse of judgment."
"No, but it’s the truth. I am incredibly handsome."
"This isn’t real, Jacks. You and I, we’re under the influence of the mirth stone."
"This place, it’s the enchantment of a fairytale without any of the curses or the monsters."
"But there are still curses and monsters out there."
"I told you that you’d feel differently," she said.
"You were right," he answered. "I feel like leaving now."
"It’s a little late to worry about that," he said sharply.
"But you don’t have to worry, Evangeline. I have not been a monster for a long time."
"If I stepped foot in the Hollow, I would cease to exist at all."
"You'll still be a princess, and you'll still have Apollo."
"I want to return to the moment I met Donatella."
"Sorry to break your fairytale, Little Fox, but ballads don’t end happily, and neither do the two of us."
"I don't care what she wants!" roared the Fate. "I don't want her dead."
"That is not a small mistake to fix. If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you."
"Soon it would be nightfall. Soon she would forget him. She would forget this version of her life."
"Instead of time moving like sand slowly pouring through an hourglass, she felt as if the hourglass had cracked open and all the sand was quickly spilling out."
"I wish our story could have had another ending."
"She didn’t want the memories erased or rewritten; she wanted more of them."
"She wanted love that made her feel, love that made her want to fight and hope for the impossible."