Character Aesthetic: Bryce Quinlan

“...There's nothing wrong with a party girl. I don't get why the world thinks there is...Its easier for me---when people assume the worst about what I am. It lets me see who they really are”

Character Aesthetics: Bryce Quinlan

“That's the point of it, Bryce. Of life. To live, to love, knowing that it might all vanish tomorrow. It makes everything that much more precious.”

The Court of Dreams.

“The people who knew that there was a price, and one worth paying, for that dream. The bastard- born warriors, the Illyrian half breed, the monster trapped in a beautiful body, the dreamer born into a court of nightmares...And the huntress with an artist's soul.”

Character Aesthetic: Cassian

“This could be . . . a very bad idea," I admitted, my grip tightening on his hand.

"Oh, it most certainly is," Cassian said with a faint smile as we continued down and down into the heavy black and thrumming silence. "But this is war. We don't have the luxury of good ideas–only picking between the bad ones.”

Character Aesthetics: Victor Vale and Eli Cardale

“All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective.”

Character Aesthetic: Magnus

“I’ll never marry. No man could want me in battle, and I wouldn’t want anyone who might keep me away from my duty.”

“Don’t be so hasty to rule out gentlemen’s understanding,” Magnus said. “There are some who admire a capable girl. One of them might be closer than you think, if you’d take the time to notice what’s before you.”

He leaned closer. For a second, I didn’t dare breathe. Since our moment in the library, Magnus had returned to his old, harmless flirtation. I’d half hoped it would stay that way.

He sighed gently and said, “Can’t you see the way Palehook looks at you?”

He laughed. I was so relieved that I joined him.

“Remember who you are. Nikolai knew. He was a king who had only begun to make mistakes. He was a solider for whom the war would never be over. He was a bastard left alone in the woods. And he was not afraid to die this day.”

Character Aesthetic: Darrow of Lykos

Break the chains, my love.

Character Aesthetic: Locke

Because you’re like a story that hasn’t happened yet. Because I want to see what you will do. I want to be part of the unfolding of the tale.

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

Valerian’s hair shines like polished gold. Nicasia’s limbs are long and perfectly shaped, her mouth the pink of coral, her hair the color of the deepest, coldest part of the sea. Fox-eyed Locke, standing silently behind Valerian, his expression schooled to careful indifference, has a chin as pointed as the tips of his ears. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest, with black hair as iridescent as a raven’s wing and cheekbones sharp enough to cut out a girl’s heart. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

“You’ll never be our equal,” Nicasia says.

Character Aesthetic: Jesper Fahey

“There’s a wound in you, and the tables, the dice, the cards—they feel like medicine. They soothe you, put you right for a time. But they’re poison, Jesper. Every time you play, you take another sip. You have to find some other way to heal that part of yourself.” She laid her hand on his chest.

“Stop treating your pain like it’s something you imagined. If you see the wound is real, then you can heal it.”

Character Aesthetic: Jude x Cardan

Our eyes meet, and something dangerous sparks.

He hates you, I remind myself.

“Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.”

I feel those words, feel them like a kick to the stomach. He sees my expression and laughs, a sound full of mockery. I can’t tell which of us he’s laughing at.

He hates you. Even if he wants you, he hates you.

Maybe he hates you the more for it.

After a moment, his eyes flutter closed. His voice falls to a whisper, as though he’s talking to himself. “If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.”

He drifts off to sleep, but I am wide awake.