Home > Work > The Queen of All that Lives (The Fallen World, #3)
21 " Freedom or death. "
― Laura Thalassa , The Queen of All that Lives (The Fallen World, #3)
22 " The fool I was who first laid eyes on her all those years ago did one thing right— he saw redemption within his reach, and he snatched it up for himself. And then he sabotaged it again, and again. "
23 " If that is what is needed of me, then that is precisely what I will do. Even if it breaks me. "
24 " Can’t I touch my wife?” He said those words once before, and this time around they level my heart. Even after all these years, he remembers them. "
25 " How benevolent of them. And where was their compassion when they bombed thousands of innocents that day?” “Some sacrifices needed to be made—” “Then you die.” I snap. “If you think sacrificing any life is necessary, then I want to see you give yours up first. "
26 " I am chaos. I am the undoing of man. And all the world will fall to my feet. "
27 " I am a thing made of lace and blood. Swathed in silk and dripping with the dark deeds of men. "
28 " It’s a hurt so vast I can’t see any end to it. I could fit entire galaxies into the space it’s carved out for itself inside me. "
29 " Why did he do this? Why?WHY? “You bastard,” I whisper. "
30 " That life might be what I want, but my existence really was never about what I wanted. I was woken to save the world. "
31 " A hundred years of life to become whatever it is you want. And a hundred years of death to become whatever it is they want. "
32 " I am alive. Alive in a way I haven’t been in decades. To think I lived without this for so long. Unfathomable. "
33 " Those grave robbers resurrected more than an ancient queen when they took Serenity. My heart and my spirit slept with my wife, and those two have now woken. Just as I feared they would. "
34 " Montes was right. We might be monsters, but we’re not evil. Not like this. "
35 " Was this what love was like? Not just something to fight and die for, but something that didn’t draw attention to itself unless you looked for it? "
36 " I allow her to pull away. “You gave them an entire continent.” “I did.” “You’re going to lose the respect of your people.” I capture her hand. Still alive. It’s going to take several minutes to believe it.“And you’ll win it back for me. "
37 " Redemption has always been within my reach. I’m just too damn guilty to accept it. "
38 " Ever since the day my father died I’ve understood. So long as the king lives, I will never be free of him. "
39 " Rather than answering me, he grabs his shirt from the bed and pulls it on. I bid goodbye to his abs as he buttons it up. "
40 " I’m still the King of the East, you’re still married to me, and the world’s still at war. Good and evil have little to do with it.” Now I lean forward, until there are only inches between our faces. “They have everything to do with it. So which are you?” He leans forward, closing the last of the distance between us, and just as his lips meet mine, he says, “Both. "