Aquila of Books

"It hurts that I can be so full of him while he's so empty of me."

“And he did not want to be loved as a second choice, as a surrender. He had spent his whole life not being loved at all, and he had thought being loved enough would satisfy him. It would not. He did not want to be loved enough. He wanted to be loved overwhelmingly...He had never been chosen, so he has never had a chance to know this about himself before now: he wanted to be chosen first."

Mehmed's laugh filled the room. It used to fill Radu, too, until he could feel it in his viens. But the feelings he had now were echoes of the ones he had before. He did not know if they would grow again.

He wouldn't die a lie.

"Break my heart. Break it a thousand times if you like. It was only ever yours to break anyway

"Flowers need plenty of water and sunshine to grow. Love, too, needs attention and affection, or else it slowly withers away from neglect. Once love's gone, it's as brittle as a dried-out leaf. You pick it up, only to discover thats it's turned to ash beneath your once-careful touch, gone on a swift wind forever. Do not turn your back in a love that could jump the barrier between life and death."

“If I end my life defending those who need it most, then I will consider it a death well spent.”

“Break my heart,” he said. “Break it in pieces. I give you permission.”

“When you lose someone and it still hurts, that’s when you know the love was real.”

"Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve struck my heart, and now I have to let you go because you’re not mine to keep. I need someone that I can be strong for. But I need someone who can also be strong for me.”

"Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be. To much fear and you're paralyzed. Too little fear and you're arrogant."

"Things would be easier for him if he stopped letting himself get attached. Stopped falling in love. It was a weakness."

I ground my teeth as I bit back words I knew would hurt. That was the danger with knowing and loving others. You always knew things about them to throw back in their faces.

There’s still this thing that happens after you break up with someone. It barely takes any time to work. All you have to do is continue with your life, and then when you find yourself in a room with her again. It’s as if you’re a different person. Maybe your posture is a little more confident. Maybe your laughter is louder. You’re wearing perfume she’s never smelled before and you have a new way of pinning back your hair. You don’t even have to say anything because your presence alone is enough to say Look at who I am without you.

A protector-that's who he was, and would always be. What I had wanted when I was cold and hard and joyless; what I had needed to melt the ice of bitter years on the cusp of starvation. I didn't have the nerve to wonder what I wanted or needed now. Who I had become.

She wouldn't wish love on anyone. It was the guest you welcomed and then couldn't be rid of.

Love is so painful, how could you ever wish it on anybody? And love is so essential, how could you ever stand in its way?