Defy The Night Quotes
"The hardest part of this job isn’t the stealing. It’s the escaping."
"Several of the sectors have electricity in the wealthy areas, or so I’ve heard, but the spotlights here are brighter than any candle has ever been—even brighter than the bonfires the towns light to burn their dead."
"I flex my fingers and mentally adjust my estimate to three minutes—then bite my lip and think."
"If I’m caught with a pack full of Moonflower petals, King Harristan and his brother, Prince Corrick, will tie me down in the palace gardens and let the birds peck out my organs."
"He can scale the stone wall in half a minute. Thanks to his height, he can leap, catch the high spires with his treble hook, then brace against the wall to bounce to the top like a cat."
"Some people don’t have days. A few might not even have hours."
"My father would have called it a waste. A waste of good treatment when those who can’t afford it are dying."
"I clutch my father’s old apothecary pack tight under my arm, clinging to the darkness, waiting for an opportunity."
"In the Wilds, they call it the death rattle, because it means the end is near."
"I tug my pocket watch free and glance at the glittering diamonds embedded in its face."
"I’m full of sorrow now, but I know from experience that later it’s going to rearrange itself into rage."
"Resentment never bred because he always took me with him."
"Sometimes now, as King’s Justice, I’ll see a face and wonder if it was someone I knew as a child."
"Honestly, I don’t like dwelling on thoughts of the present either."
"They are acting out of desperation to help their families during a time of need."
"I think that very few people truly deserve what they get, Tessa. For good or for bad."
"I know who you are," Lochlan is snarling. Down the hallway, the other prisoners have been drawn to their own bars by the sound of the commotion, and those who can see begin yelling.
"We have a duty to be grateful for all our rulers do to provide for us."
"Partly relieved, because someone else’s downfall generally means your own isn’t imminent."
"Father would charge half and gave all the money to the thief. He always said it was more important to save everyone we could. That a few extra coins in his pocket wasn’t worth the cost of a few more bodies on the funeral pyre."
"Brutally. Publicly. Horribly. But it was effective."
"I don’t want to kneel to him. I want to spit at him."
"If they have to die, I can watch it happen. I can remember them. My soul burns with a promise that things will get better. That they have to get better."
"True strength is not determined by how brutal you can be. True leadership is not determined by killing those who oppose you."
"Maybe it’s time to make a difference another way."
"We can’t help anyone if we’re dead. Rebellion won’t stop the fevers."
"I may be wrapped up in sorrow, but I do know that I can’t afford to lose more than half a month’s income."
"She’s so good and kind and warm that it feels like a crime."
"No. I won’t. And we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t get used to this."
"It’s not Wes. It’s a corpse. A body. Not the rogue who used to tease me and help me and protect me."
"Despite all of the riches and perfection of this sector, I ache for the people dying in the Wilds."
"What Wes and I took... they could afford to lose it."
"The palace shouldn’t be white. It should be red with blood, or black with death."
"I’m not a killer. I heal people; I don’t harm them."
"I don’t want to be conscious. I don’t want any of this to happen."
"I’ve only ever seen you from a distance. This you, I mean."
"It was hard to drum up an appetite when the King’s Justice executed my best friend."
"She can hate me if she wants. I’m used to it."
"Kindness leaves you vulnerable, Tessa. I learned that lesson years ago."
"The Tessa I heard stories of could scale the sector walls without fear and pick window locks without leaving a scratch."
"Marvelous! Now, allow me to draw your attention to the wall hangings."
"Forgive me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"Truth, Tessa. If you will not give me the truth, you can spend the rest of your days in the Hold, and my brother's wishes be damned."
"It might be all the same to the night patrol, but it's different when someone just wants to survive."
"She hates that you lied. There's a difference."
"Forgive me, I should have started by saying that I owe you a debt of gratitude."
"It doesn't matter. There's nothing between us."
"Despite her ire, Tessa shifts slightly closer to the window to see better."
"Each spark that falls glitters on the surface of the pond before drowning."
"It’s too dark to see the woven branches that support the torches, and starlight twinkles beyond the suspended flames."
"He said as long as the torches kept burning, so would his love for her."
"This bickering reminds me of the way we’d tease each other."
"Everything was so awful. I just wanted to help people."
"I can barely negotiate a reasonable price out of Allisander Sallister for Moonflower petals as it is."
"If you want to leave, I’ll call the carriage to stop."
"I let you think I died because I wanted you to stay out of the Royal Sector."
"It’s easy to love your king when everyone is well fed and healthy. A bit harder when everyone is... not."
"Maybe I can show the king how badly his people are suffering."
"I can’t tell who’s real and who’s the illusion."
"This wasn’t just an attack on the Hold. This was a rescue mission."
"I’ve learned enough now to know it’s not as simple as us versus them."
"I’m hopeful. I’m terrified. I’m... I don’t know what I am."
"The King’s Justice cannot be lenient to those who attack a building in the center of the Royal Sector."
"Enough people are dying in Kandala. We shouldn’t be killing our own people."
"I see you. I see what this is doing to you. Has done to you."
"I could have stabbed him too, but I don’t say that."
"I wish my head would empty itself of thoughts, that I could wrap my mind up in the darkness that lets me be who I need to be."
"Cruel Corrick, the most feared man in the kingdom, and somehow also the most alone."
"They’re getting money from somewhere. These Benefactors must be well funded."
"Sometimes I try to ask questions and they have other ideas."
"Every hour I spend here seems to turn my thoughts upside down and inside out, until I have no idea what’s right and what’s wrong."
"I don’t want you to need me to do this anymore. This can’t be how Father would have wanted us to lead."
"Am I speaking to my brother, or am I speaking to the king?"
"Forgive me, Your Majesty. I had no idea this was an official meeting."
"That girl didn’t want you to kill those prisoners—"
"We can’t afford to appear weak now, of all times."
"I have always worked in your interest, Harristan. Always."
"I commit very little treason on the toilet, but if you want to be absolutely thorough—"
"I wanted to request additional reports on the fevers—"
"I will take your involvement to my grave, Quint."
"I ignore the pain in my arm and spring to my feet, only to find a crossbow leveled at my chest."
"Forrest is panting, his breath coming in rapid, panicked gasps."
"My hands are still sticky with the patrolman’s blood."
"This is different. The night patrol would have killed that boy."
"Did we do the wrong thing? The right thing? I have no idea."
"I don’t know how to fix everything I’ve done wrong, Tessa."
"I’m worried more about what they’d do to you."
"I should have listened to you in the beginning."
"I knew I should have killed this man when I had the chance."
"Hope can be powerful, but it’s worthless without action."
"He saved my boy. He saved a lot of you, too."
"I suddenly feel like I have a foot planted in each world, and I’m not sure how to move forward."
"King Harristan’s voice was so gentle when he spoke to me... 'The King’s Justice cannot be lenient to those who attack a building in the center of the Royal Sector. Surely you know this'."
"I stopped the attack, but I didn’t stop anything else."
"Corrick looks at Lochlan. 'Fetch a crossbow. Do it now.'"
"My pulse tumbles along, begging me for action, but there’s no action to take."
"I’m all right,' I say to him, and my voice trembles. 'I can walk.'"
"Smuggling. Sedition. Treason. I’ve heard the words before, on a nearly daily basis, but they’ve never carried so much weight."
"I never realized it, but the straw on the cell floors is truly torture."
"I’ve stopped hoping he would send for me, and I’ve begun dreading it."