I am a walking bruise, an open sore.

Maven:

"The guards keep shoving, never letting him catch his balance. It’s a pitiful sight. He starts whispering to himself, harried words between peals of sharp laughter. 'I did as you said,' he mutters to no one. 'I did as you said.'" - Evangeline, about Maven.

“'Can I make a request?' At that Cal nearly rolls his eyes. He fixes Maven with a look of pure derision. 'You can try.' 'Bury me with my mother.'”

“The last person who loves you isn’t standing in this room. He’s out there. And you burned that bridge to ashes.” - Mare, to Maven, about Cal.

"'When I was a boy, your little brother. Always trailing at your heels, eager to spend every moment I could with you. I used to ask to sleep in your room, didn’t I?'"

“'So when she cut you out entirely, took my love for you, twisted everything—you didn’t notice. You didn’t care.'”

“'It didn’t surprise me. You were used to it, having whatever you wanted. Seeing only what you wanted to see. In the end, I realized you knew what was happening to me, what Mother was doing. It was in pieces, in slow shifts, but you still saw it—and you did nothing to stop her.'”

"Despite the walls my mother built around me, Cal always manages to weasel through. His hunting eyes fill me with sorrow."

"It would hurt him deeply, wound him forever, if I let him glimpse what little is left of me. That I’m still here, in some forgotten corner, just waiting to be found. I could ruin him with one glance, one echo of the brother he remembers. Or I could free him of me. Make the choice for him. Give my brother one last proof of the love I can no longer feel, even if he never knows it."

"Despite all my mother’s fine work, I can’t find it in myself to land that final blow."

"'Good-bye, Maven,' Cal says, his voice broken. He isn't really speaking to me. The farewell is for another boy, lost years ago, before he became what I am now. Cal lets go of him, the Maven I was. The Maven I still am, somewhere inside, unable or unwilling to step into the light."

“'Good-bye, Cal,' I say to no one. Weakness, my mother answers."

Cal:

"But I can’t bear it. I can’t bear the weight of killing him. Not Mavey."

"Next to her, Maven’s eyes were open. So blue, so wide. So empty. (...) I’m ashamed to say I reached for him first. His wrist, his neck, searching for a pulse that wasn’t there. He already felt cold."

"I’m sorry races through my head, a hundred times, a thousand times."

"Elara’s headstone is unmarked, a single gray slab already worn smooth by the wind. There will be no record of her here. Not her name, not her house. Not a word of who she was in life. She doesn’t deserve a memory. She stole so many others’. I refused to give Maven the same treatment. He deserves something at least."

"MAVEN CALORE Beloved son, beloved brother. Let no one follow."