The Cruel Prince

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.”

“Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?” Cardan asks, leaning back in the elaborately carved chair, the warmth of his words turning the question into something like a compliment.“No” I say, glad to be annoyed back into the present. “Tell me.”"I can't.”

“If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back.”

“What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”

“So I am to sit here and feed you information,” Cardan says, leaning against a hickory tree. “And you’re to go charm royalty? That seems entirely backward.”I fix him with a look. “I can be charming. I charmed you, didn’t I?” He rolls his eyes. “Do not expect others to share my depraved tastes.”

“Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”

“I am going to keep on defying you. I am going to shame you with my defiance. You remind me that I am a mere mortal and you are a prince of Faerie. Well, let me remind you that means you have much to lose and I have nothing. You may win in the end, you may ensorcell me and hurt me and humiliate me, but I will make sure you lose everything I can take from you on the way down. I promise you this is the least of what I can do.”

“Father, I am what you made me. I’ve become your daughter after all.”

“I have lied and I have betrayed and I have triumphed. If only there was someone to congratulate me.”

“Let's have a toast. To the incompetence of our enemies.”

“Nice things don’t happen in storybooks,” Taryn says. “Or when they do happen, something bad happens next. Because otherwise the story would be boring, and no one would read it.”

“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.”

“There’s always something left to lose.”

“But kissing Locke never felt the way that kissing Cardan does, like taking a dare to run over knives, like an adrenaline strike of lightning, like the moment when you've swum too far out in the sea and there is no going back, only cold black water closing over your head.”

“That’s what comes of hungering for something; you forget to check if it’s rotten before you gobble it down”

“I love my parents' murderer; I suppose I could love anyone.”

“Before, I never knew how far I would go. Now I believe I have the answer. I will go as far as there is to go. I will go way too far.”

“You really do want me,' I say, close enough to feel the warmth of his breath as it hitches. 'And you hate it.”

“There you are," Cardan says as I take my place beside him. "How has the night been going for you? Mine has been full of dull conversation about how my head is going to find itself on a spike.”

“Desire is an odd thing. As soon as it’s sated, it transmutes. If we receive golden thread, we desire the golden needle.”

“The odd thing about ambition is this: You can acquire it like a fever, but it is not so easy to shed.”

“Show your power by appearing powerless.”

“He's flint, you're tinder.”

“I am tired of caring,” I say. “Why should I?”“Because they could kill you!”“They better,” I say to her. “Because anything less than that isn’t going to work.”

“Cardan looks at me as though he's never seen me before. He looks at me as though no one has ever spoken to him like this. Maybe no one has.”

“But I will not stand in front of your happiness. I will not even stand in front of misery that you choose for yourself.”

“We don't need to be good. But let's try to be fair.”

“I get why he chose her. I just wish she had chosen me.”

“He rises from the throne. “Come, have a seat.” His voice is replete with danger, lush with menace. The flowering branches have sprouted thorns so thickly that petals are barely visible.“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” he asks. “What you sacrificed everything for. Go on. It’s all yours.”