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41 " How did Val know? How did she always know the way to Veronyka’s heart—and why did she always do damage when she got there? "
― Nicki Pau Preto , Heart of Flames (Crown of Feathers #2)
42 " To admit that sometimes being kind is better than being cruel? "
― Nicki Pau Preto , Crown of Feathers (Crown of Feathers, #1)
43 " Love and politics are like oil and water - they don't mix. "
44 " If I am to become naught but ruin, may it be so that you can build anew upon the ashes. "
45 " She didn’t want to be a queen. She didn’t want a war. She wanted peace. She wanted to protect others like her, to make the world safe for animages again. Veronyka wanted to fly in a flock, to be part of the Phoenix Rider resurgence, to stand among her fellows with pride and confidence, not above them. "
46 " Life was easier when you didn't care - or so he'd thought. He'd spent so much time afraid of hurting, of losing everything again, that he'd forgotten life wasn't worth living - worth saving - if you had nothing to live for. "
47 " They are day and night and scattered light; sun and moon and distant stars.They are life and death and what is left; all and nothing and everything in between. "
48 " I thought I had failed and I was ready to give up hope. But then there was you. "
49 " A surge of anger blossomed in her stomach. She would fashion a new crown and take the feathers from this phoenix’s corpse if she wanted. She was Avalkyra Ashfire. She was a queen. None would shine brighter or burn hotter than her. "
50 " What had she done all her life when the world refused to give her what she needed? What she deserved? She had taken it. "
51 " Pyraean folktales claim that during the Dark Days, every time a Strix fell from the sky, a deathmaiden was born. They were shadows made solid, darkness personified, who took on the form of the dead and haunted battlefields. Instead of letting the dead find their place among the stars, the deathmaidens tried to ensnare the lost souls and lead them into the endless black abyss of the dark realms. "
52 " None of them were truly related to her, but they were still her family. "
53 " The only name in the world that could inspire love, loyalty, and most of all, hatred, from the Feather-Crowned Queen herself. Pheronia Ashfire. "
54 " If you don't eventually bend, Val, you'll break. "
55 " No matter the cost, she couldn’t give up now, not when the possibilities unfurled before her. If she could make this work, she would be the first Phoenix Rider in history without a bond. If anyone could do it, Avalkyra Ashfire could. "
56 " Veronyka didn’t know the man who owned it would never return, thanks to a quiet knife in the dark delivered by Avalkyra’s steady hand. "
57 " Of course, old habits were like phoenixes—rising again and again—and the next thing she knew, they were locked together like snarling beasts. Avalkyra was fighting for something beyond measure—their future—and Veronyka was fighting because she was angry and afraid and knew that if Avalkyra wanted the box, it was worth fighting for. "
58 " If Pyra had to burn for Veronyka to be by Avalkyra’s side, so be it. "
59 " A sense of tightness, of long-awaited justice, expanded in Avalkyra’s chest. This is how it was meant to be: Avalkyra standing proud, a queen once more, and her loyal subjects bowing before her. "
60 " Something powerful happened, however, when a shadowmage was invited in. Knowledge of shadow magic made a mind more susceptible to influence, and if that person chose to welcome that magic inside . . . well, it made putting a bind much easier. Avalkyra had put binds on her entire patrol, and she would do it again, one by one. "