Taryn Duarte Quotes

“Let's start with a love story.

Or maybe it's another horror story. It seems like the difference is mostly in where the ending comes.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“You're awful.' He said it as though he was delighted. 'And the worst part is that you believe otherwise.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“He's handsome, but that makes his horribleness worse, somehow. As though he's taken something nice and made it awful. Being the single focus of his attention made me feel like a bug that a child was going to burn with a magnifying glass.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“He also says you fall in love a lot.'

That surprises a laugh out of him, although he doesn't deny any of it. 'There are certain expectations of a prince in Court.'

'You cannot be serious,' I say. 'You feel obliged to be in love?'

'I told you- I am a courtier, versed in all the courtly arts.' He's grinning as he says it, though, acknowledging the absurdity of the statement.

I find myself shaking my head and grinning, too. He's being ridiculous, but I am not sure how ridiculous.

'I do have a bad habit, he says. 'Of falling in love. With great regularity and to spectacular effect. You see, it never goes well.'

I wonder if this conversation makes him think of our kiss, but then, I was the one who kissed him. He'd only kissed back.

'As charming as you are, how can that be?' I say.

He laughs again. 'That's what my sister Taryn always says. She tells me that I remind her of her late husband. Which makes some sense, since I would have been his half brother. But it's also alarming, because she's the one who murdered him.'

Much as when he spoke about Madoc, it's strange how fond oak can sound when he tells me a horrifying thing a member of his family has done.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Boldness is rewarded. But what about all those girls, all those obedient girls who trusted and loved and wed and died? Weren't they bold, too?”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Everyone makes mistakes. They trust the wrong people. They fall in love.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“How does it feel?' he asked. 'To be stuck in a fairy tale?'

'How does it feel to be one?' I countered...”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Fairy tales are full of girls who wait, who endure, who suffer. Good girls. Obedient girls. Girls who crush nettles until their hands bleed. Girls who haul water for witches. Girls who wander through deserts or sleep in ashes or make homes for transformed brothers in the woods. Girls without hands, without eyes, without the power of speech, without any power at all.

But then a prince rides up and sees the girl and finds her beautiful. Beautiful, not despite her suffering, but because of it.

And when I saw that note in my bag, I thought that maybe I was no longer stuck in a fairy tale, maybe I could be the hero of one.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“You must be particularly kind to people. Other kids can act like monsters, but not you.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“She turned to me, head tilted, her expression pure confusion. As though I had no reason to be afraid of a broken heart. She had no idea how dangerous a broken heart could be.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.

Be good, but not too good. Be pretty, but not too pretty. Be honest, but not too honest. Maybe no one got lucky. Maybe it was too hard.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Jude never loved Locke.” My face feels hot, but my shame
is an excellent cover to hide behind. “She loved someone else.
He’s the one she’d want dead.”
I am pleased to see Cardan flinch. “Enough,” he says before
I can go on. “I have heard all I care to on this subject—”
“No!” Nicasia interrupts, causing everyone under the hill to
stir a little. It is immense presumption to interrupt the High
King. Even for a princess. Especially for an ambassador. A
moment after she speaks, she seems to realize it, but she goes
on anyway. “Taryn could have a charm on her, something that
makes her resistant to glamours.”
Cardan gives Nicasia a scathing look. He does not like her
undermining his authority. And yet, after a moment, his anger
gives way to something else. He gives me one of his most
awful smiles. “I suppose she’ll have to be searched.”
Nicasia’s mouth curves to match his. It feels like being back
at lessons on the palace grounds, conspired against by the
children of the Gentry.
I recall the more recent humiliation of being crowned the
Queen of Mirth, stripped in front of revelers. If they take my
gown now, they will see the bandages on my arms, the fresh
slashes on my skin for which I have no good explanation.
They will guess I am not Taryn.
I can’t let that happen. I summon all the dignity I can
muster, trying to imitate my stepmother, Oriana, and the way
she projects authority. “My husband was murdered,” I say.
“And whether or not you believe me, I do mourn him. I will
not make a spectacle of myself for the Court’s amusement
when his body is barely cold.”
Unfortunately, the High King’s smile only grows. “As you
wish. Then I suppose I will have to examine you alone in my
chambers.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“But love was also transforming. I knew that from fairy tales. It could turn you back from a cat or a frog or a beast. Probably it could turn you into those things, too.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“All stories are lessons.

Fairy tales have a moral: Stay on the path. Don't trust wolves. Don't steal things, not even things you think no normal person would care about. Share your food but don't trust people who want to share their food with you; don't eat their shiny red apples, nor their candy houses, nor any of it. Be nice, always nice, and polite to everyone: kings and beggars, witches and wounded bears. Don't break a promise.

Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I like stories,' he said. 'And perhaps I like you as well.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Faeries despise humans as liars, but there are different kinds of lying. Since you and I first came to Faerie, Jude, we've lied to each other plenty. We've pretended to be fine, pretended the possibility of being fine into existence. And when pretending seemed like it might be too hard, we just didn't ask each other the questions that would require it. We smiled and forced laughter and rolled our eyes at the Folk, as though we weren't afraid, when we were both scared all the time.

And if there were hairline cracks in all that pretending, we pretended those away, too.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Does that mean you're going to leave her alone now?'

Cardan leaned in close, close enough that I could feel his breath on my cheek. 'It's much too late for that.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“We- the Folk- don't love like you do,' Locke said. 'Perhaps you shouldn't trust me with your heart. I might break it.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“There it is. That temper you try to hide. You know what fascinates me about you? You're a hungry person sitting in front of a banquet, refusing to eat.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Aren't you ever careless?' he asked.

'Always, with you.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“To show you what you would not otherwise believe,' Locke said. 'Envy. Fear. Anger. Jealousy. They're all spices.' He laughed at my expression. 'What is bread without salt? Desire can grow just as plain.'

'I don't understan-'

He put a finger against my mouth. 'Not every lover can appreciate such spices. But I think you can.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I think I understand now what you meant when you said I have to give up my mortal qualms. And I am willing to do that. But I want you to marry me.'

'Ah.' He sat down on the couch, looking stunned with lack of sleep. 'And so you came here in the middle of the night?'

'I hope that you love me,' I tried to sound the way Oriana did when she forbade us to do things- stern, but not unkind. 'And I will try to live as the Folk do. But you ought to marry me even if neither of those things were true, because otherwise I might ruin your fun.'

'My fun?' he echoed. Then he sounded worried. Then he sounded awake.

'Whatever game you are playing with Nicasia and Cardan,' I said. 'And with me. Tell Madoc we're to be wed and tell Jude about your real intentions or I will start shaping stories of my own.'
...
I realised that Locke might teach me lessons, but he wasn't going to like what I did once I learned them.

'You promised-' he began, but I cut him off.

'Not a marriage of a year and a day, either,' I said. 'I want you to love me until you die.'

He blinked. 'Don't you mean until you did? Because you're sure to.'

I shook my head. 'You're going to live forever. If you love me, I will become a part of your story. I will live on in that.'

He looked at me in a way he'd never done before, as though evaluating me all over again. Then he nodded. 'We will marry,' he said, holding up his hand. 'On three conditions. The first is that you will tell no one about us until the coronation of Prince Dain.'

That seemed like a small thing, the waiting.

'And during that time, you must not renounce me, no matter what I say or do.'

I know the nature of faerie bargains. I should have heard this as the warning that it was. Instead, I was only glad that two of his conditions seemed simple enough to fulfill.

'What else?'

Be bold, be bold, but not too bold, lest that your heart's blood should run cold.

'Only this,' Locke said. 'Remember we don't love the way that you do.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I used to wish that Madoc never went looking for those girls, and now all I wish is that we could be together again as we once were.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“This will be over quickly, he'd said. But not everything is better for being fast.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Once upon a time, there was a girl named Taryn and she had a faerie lover who came to her at night. He was generous and adoring, but visited only in the dark. He asked for two things: one, for her to keep their meetings secret, and two, never to look upon his face fully. And so, night after night she took delight in him but, after some time had passed, wondered what his secret could be.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I pictured Locke's heart shot through with an arrow and then shook my head to get rid of the image. It wasn't like me to think things like that.

It especially wasn't like me to have a brief jolt of satisfaction from it.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I can show you a version of yourself, Taryn. One you've never imagined. It's terrible to be a girl trapped in a story. But you can be more than that. You can be the teller. You can shape the story. You can make all of Faerie love you.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Why are you looking at Jude like that?' I asked.

'I can't help it,' he said, never taking his gaze from you. 'I'm drawn to trouble.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“I suppose that's one good thing about being obedient and faithful and good. People think you will never surprise them.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“... jealousy wasn't a spice to me then. It was the whole meal and I was gagging it down.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters