Fireborne Quotes
"The line between us, of shared emotions and thoughts that are usually latent in the saddle, goes taut."
"Memories of the old life have a way of intruding and twisting."
"All that I am belongs to Callipolis. By the wings of my dragon I will keep her."
"They told us to fire low, but not that low. It’s risky for the audience."
"You want to impress the people, not roast them."
"What would it have been like, to receive a note of good luck from him this morning?"
"But confidence has never been something Lee’s been short on, notes from Atreus or no."
"Men and women of Callipolis, welcome to the quarterfinal Firstrider Tournament."
"May the most virtuous Guardian rule. But today, I say: May the best riders win."
"With violent flares of emotions, the walls break down, and you share everything."
"The ministry would like to remind Antigone sur Aela of the intensely public nature of the obligations of riders of the Fourth Order."
"Let everything that intimidates me about the Fourth Order be another test, another training hurdle, another set of skills to master."
"The revolutionary regime that struggles to undo their centuries’ worth of wrongs."
"I like to think that everyone had to get here on their own merits. No matter where they came from."
"Even if some fools are misinterpreting it—how could Atreus allow such a thing?"
"Don’t tell me a few dead fishermen were enough to turn your stomach."
"You’ll all be given a second chance to remember if you have more food."
"If there’s more, and you fail to remember it, you will meet a fate similar to this man’s."
"It might be enough, but there’s really no way of knowing up front how much we would have."
"This kind of operation is only as successful as it can be harsh."
"I’ve got to speak with the others. Cor can wait with you here—"
"It’s our best option. Even if there isn’t enough, this is—fairest."
"They’ll think we’re lying about giving it back, that we’re just collecting it for ourselves."
"The official announcement will be in the Gold Gazette tomorrow."
"Raids will be conducted throughout the summer, and confiscated copies will be destroyed."
"He inhales slowly. 'Well, here we are,' he says. Like here is the utter end, and he’s seen it coming all along."
"Lee doesn’t run. Lee stays. Even when it hurts him most."
"Because you’ve been given this power, and you have a responsibility to use it."
"For those three hours, we lie side by side, wrapped in the blanket, almost like lovers except it’s something more intimate than that."
"Annie," he says, when it’s time for me to leave. "If I don’t . . . if I can’t . . ."
"Longing for me. So much longing that it looks like despair."
"I realize he’s never looked more like his father, and I don’t care."
"All the same, for the immeasurable space of what must be a half hour between her departure and Atreus’s arrival, the storms of my mind are stilled."
"It won’t change anything," I add. "But I need to know."
"Did you enjoy your tearful goodbyes?" Power asks."
"I’ve never seen the place before, but I’ve read of it."
"This place is perfectly designed for a private duel."
"The realization fills me with sudden relief—and then, as I mark the emotion, sorrow."
"We resume walking the edge of the pool, but we’re silent now."
"There is a sadness shared between us, mingled with resolve."
"I hope that, if ever we meet in any afterlife, we will meet as we were, before."
"The whole point of Atreus’s system is that anyone can be worthy."
"Maybe one day," he says. "But for now, I’m pretty sure the point is that some people aren’t anymore."
"I remember what it felt like, a month ago, when I finally won against Annie in our final tournament: that eruption of violence that came with Pallor’s sparking."
"It feels like I’ve spent a lifetime resisting it."
"But Julia can, and she is the one who does first."
"I feel the blast sear through the left arm of my armor and flamesuit, burning skin."
"It is the sound of a dragon who has felt the bond with its rider break in the only way it can be broken."
"What’s left beneath, still raw, doesn’t know what claim to place on this boy, whom I’ve just sent to hell and back."
"Our claim on each other is the same as it’s always been."
"Together we’ll defy them, step by step through this fire, to the end."