The Cruel Prince Quotes

“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It's disgusting, and I can't stop.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Let's have a toast. To the incompetence of our enemies.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“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.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I love my parents' murderer; I suppose I could love anyone.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

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

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

“Clap her in chains," says Randalin.
Never have I so wished there was a way for me to show I was telling the truth. But there isn't. No oath of mine carries any weight.
I feel a guard's hand close on my arm. Then Cardan's voice comes.
"Do not touch her."
A terrible silence follows. I wait for him to pronounce judgement on me. Whatever he commands will be done. His power is absolute. I don't even have the strength to fight back.
"Whatever can you mean?" Randalin says. "She's-"
"She is my wife," Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd.
"The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“He's flint, you're tinder.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“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.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I get why he chose her. I just wish she had chosen me.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Cardan grins at me as though we've been great friends all our lives. I forgot how charming he can be--and how dangerous that is.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“It's shocking," he says, as though he's giving me some great compliment. "I know humans can lie, but to watch you do it is incredible. Do it again.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Nicasia's wrong about me. I don't desire to do as well in the tournament as one of the fey. I want to win. I do not yearn to be their equal. In my heart, I yearn to best them.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I recall that your hands were on her, but her eyes were on me,' Cardan returns.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“She's looking around the forest, as though if she can prove it isn't magic, then nothing else is, either. Which is stupid. All forests are magic.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Get down here before you’re recognized.”
“Playing hide-and-seek under the table? Crouching in the dirt? Typical of your kind, but far beneath my dignity.”
He laughs unsteadily, like he expects I am going to laugh, too. I don’t. I ball up my fist and punch him in the stomach, right where I know it will hurt. He staggers to his knees. The goblet drops to the dirt, making a hollow clanking sound. “Ow!” he shouts, and lets me tug him under the table.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You think I don’t deserve him,” I say to Cardan.
He smiles slowly, like the moon slipping beneath the waves of the lake. “Oh no, I think you’re perfect for each other.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“I am the Queen of Elfhame.
Even though I am the queen in exile, I am still the queen.
And that means Madoc isn't just trying to take Cardon's throne.
He's trying to take mine.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“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 in to something like a compliment.

'No,' I say, glad to be annoyed back in to the present. 'Tell me.'

'I cannot,' he says, then frowns.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“It's you I love," he says. "I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn't have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Tell me again what you said at the revel," he says, climbing over me, his body against mine.

"What?" I can barely think.

"That you hate me," he says, his voice hoarse. "Tell me that you hate me."

"I hate you," I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. A litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you."

He kisses me harder.

"I hate you," I breathe into his mouth. "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“I missed you," I whisper against his skin and feel dizzy with the intimacy of the admission, feel more naked than when he could see every inch of me. "In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you."

"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned." He pulls my body against his, cradling my head against his chest. We are still lying on the floor, although a perfectly good bed is right next to us.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I hate you," I whisper before he can speak.

He tilts my face to his.

"Say it again," he says as the imps comb my hair and place the ugly, stinking crown on my head. His voice is low. The words are for me alone.

I pull out of his grip, but not before I see his expression. He looks as he did when he was forced to answer my questions, when he admitted his desire for me. He looks as though he's confessing.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“What was it like?" I ask. "Being a serpent."

He hesitates. "It was like being trapped in the dark," he says. "I was alone, and my instinct was to lash out. I was perhaps not entirely an animal, but neither was I myself. I could not reason. There was only feelings--hatred and terror and the desire to destroy."

I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. "And you." He looks at me, his lips curving in something that's not quite a smile; it's more and less than that. "I knew little else, but I always knew you."

And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“You didn't hear the story I told," he goes on. "A shame. It featured a handsome boy with a heart of stone and a natural aptitude for villainy. Everything you could like."

She laughs. "You really are terrible, you know that? I don't even understand why the things you say make me smile."

He lets himself lean against her, lets himself hear the warmth in her voice. "There is one thing I did like about playing the hero. The only good bit. And that was not having to be terrified for you."

"The next time you want to make a point," Jude says, "I beg you not to make it so dramatically."

His shoulder hurts, and she may be right about the iron poisoning. He certainly feels as though his head is swimming. But he smiles up at the trees, the looping electrical lines, the streaks of clouds.

"So long as you're begging," he says.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“It's ridiculous the way everyone acts like killing a king is going to make someone better at being one," Vivi says. "Imagine if, in the mortal world, a lawyer passed the bar by killing another lawyer.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I hate the way I cling to him, the nails of one hand digging into his back, my thoughts splintering, and the single last thing in my head: that I like him better than I've ever liked anyone and that of all the things he's ever done to me, making me like him so much is by far the worst.”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“And I decided to play the hero. See how it felt. To try."

"And?" she asks.

"I didn't like it," he admits. "Henceforth, I think we should consider our roles as monarchs to be largely decorative. It would be better for the low Courts and the solitary Folk to work things out on their own."

"I think you have iron poisoning," she tells him, which could possibly be true but is still a hurtful thing to say when he is making perfect sense.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“Never? Never is like forever - too big for mortals to comprehend.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince