Sara Raasch Quotes & Sayings

Use id not a right, Queen Meira --it is a privilege. — Sara Raasch

I want to be someone worthy of you. — Sara Raasch

Magic is all about choice. Choosing to use it, choosing to surrender it, choosing to take it from the chasm --choosing to let it break in defense of a kingdom. — Sara Raasch

Like he sees me, truly sees me, no matter how I am... Like he sees all the sacrifices he's made and doesn't regret a single one. — Sara Raasch

No apologies. No matter what happens, I will never, not in a thousand tragic outcomes, ever regret loving you. — Sara Raasch

If stubborness were all that was needed to be a good queen, I'd rule the world. — Sara Raasch

You are not what you've done. Who you are right now, this moment, is who you choose to be. — Sara Raasch

It is amazing what you can hide when no one knows what to look for. — Sara Raasch

Lay your head upon the snow," he sings, uncertain at first, but with more confidence as he loses himself in the lyrics.
"Lay sorrow in the ice. For all that once was calm, sweet child, will belong to you tonight. Lay your heart upon the snow. Lay your tears in the ice. For all that once was still, sweet child, will belong to you tonight. — Sara Raasch

Actions are always far easier than words. — Sara Raasch

Readiness is a type of choice, being prepared and accepting of things to come... — Sara Raasch

I close my eyes, back straight, face impassive. When I look, I will see someone capable and composed, a warrior and a leader all in one. — Sara Raasch

Like he's staring at me because he wants to, not because he's questioning himself. — Sara Raasch

I am mistakes and victories and death and life. I am competent and powerful and strong, and whatever this war brings my way --even death-- I will face it like the queen I am. — Sara Raasch

The most powerful magic of all is choice. — Sara Raasch

The library door is already open when I dash in, but the room is empty. Books line shelves three floors high, and windows just as tall let in rays of dying sunlight. Three balconies wrap above me and a grand piano stands in the center of the bottom level, but there are no people, not even a servant dusting old books in a corner. — Sara Raasch

They make decisions; they mold your future. The trick is to find a way to still be you through it all. — Sara Raasch

Leaders are valued for the wring things. — Sara Raasch

Congratulations, everyone," I announce as I open the door to Noam's study. "You've finally broken Meira, the crazy, orphaned soldier-girl. She's snapped, all thanks to the mention of floral arrangements. — Sara Raasch

Feeling like you're enough has nothing to do with actually being enough --you choose whether or not you are. — Sara Raasch

In a burst of movement I'm up the crates, scaling the wall, and rolling onto the tiles of the roof next to me, a handful of stories in the air. — Sara Raasch

Flags snap in the breeze above us, banners with a lavender stalk in front of a golden maple leaf on a green background. — Sara Raasch

All those practice fights when it was just us, two children pretending to be soldiers. Or two soldiers pretending to be children. — Sara Raasch

Just someone who gets bounced around in whatever position needs to be filled, used and used like a candle on a moonless night until I burn away into a puddle of compliance and obedience. — Sara Raasch

I take the chakram, my eyes on Mather. "I'm not me without it, am I?"
A smile flips across his face before he shakes his head. "You're perfect the way you are. — Sara Raasch

Death has a way of finding those who welcome it. — Sara Raasch

Every moment we have is one more moment that can't be taken from us. — Sara Raasch

We need to face what we are. All of what we are, especially the parts that hurt. — Sara Raasch

You're impossible," I growl, and rip open the book. Theron laughs and scoots a little closer to me. "Impossible, endearing. Synonyms, really. — Sara Raasch

When Angra conquered my kingdom sixteen years ago, he did so by breaking our Royal Conduit. And when a conduit is broken in defense of a kingdom, the ruler of that kingdom becomes the conduit themselves. Their body, their life force - it all merges with the magic. No one knows this, save for me, Angra, and the woman whose death turned me into Winter's conduit: my mother. — Sara Raasch

Soon he'll know the blizzard started with me. — Sara Raasch

You've fought for Winter so spectacularly, and I am more proud than I have ever been to call you my son. But don't forget to fight for yourself as well--there is no shame in that — Sara Raasch

We'll handle the future one thing at a time. — Sara Raasch

I drop down the tower and roll on the roof, breaking into a run, the cold night air blowing me faster, the darkness and gleaming stars taking me somewhere I don't have to feel. — Sara Raasch

...As if it's all so easy. If it's so easy, why don't we talk about it more?"

"It hurts too much," Mather says. Just that simple.

That makes me stop. I meet his eyes, a long, careful gaze. "Someday it won't hurt."

The promise we refugees always make one another - We'll be better . . . someday. — Sara Raasch

I was right --skirts are inventions meant to make running harder. — Sara Raasch

It feels so wrong and yet so wonderful, how much I need to smile at him. Something — Sara Raasch

When someone goes on a long journey, those who stay behind wish them the energy of a wildfire. The power to take things that try to hinder you --- wind, thrashing enemies --- and use them to make you stronger. The power to burn so brightly that all who look will wonder how darkness ever existed in the same world as you." She puts a hand on my shoulder, but her resolve breaks, her eyes glassy. "Scorch this world, Winter queen. — Sara Raasch

Lifetimes have changed in what feels like a heartbeat. — Sara Raasch

That's how we all are, too hard for what we should be. We should be a family, not soldiers. But all that really connects us is stories, and memories, of what should be. — Sara Raasch

And Giselle just saw the Cordellan heir give away pieces of Winter.
Theron had no right to do this. — Sara Raasch

I know he sees it, because for the briefest moment he drops his expressionless mask and the look in his eyes shows me he feels the same way. A mirror of every part of myself I can't bear to face. — Sara Raasch

A blade is a blade. Blood can be drawn all the same. — Sara Raasch

Everything really is about choice, even beyond the magic's rules. — Sara Raasch

Horrible things don't happen in crowded places; they happen in the hollows of the world, where it's just a victim and an attacker and no one to hear any screams. "Hang — Sara Raasch

No one should be forced to be something they aren't. — Sara Raasch

In the face of all that has happened, it feels good, really good, to just breathe for a moment. — Sara Raasch

The Winter we know has always been one of our own creation, a kingdom built on dreams. So you're right, Feige. We're all Children of the Thaw. Our own hybrid of the past and the future. — Sara Raasch

He is an anchor too. Something to hold on to when all other things drag me down. — Sara Raasch

Dendera silences me with a hand on my cheek. "You listen to me, Meira Dynam. Yes, you have made mistakes, but I have watched you succumb to this role over the past few months, and that, I believe, is the biggest mistake you have made. The biggest mistake we all made. We've all been afraid, and Meira, you look at me. You saved us. You, this beautiful, wild girl before me - you saved us. So be you again, and whoever that is will be exactly what we need. — Sara Raasch

So tired of Noam and Herod and Sir and Angra and all these arrogant, puppet-master men who hold all the strings and refuse to give them up. — Sara Raasch

You've always been /everything/ to me. I didn't know how to handle how much I needed you growing up---snow, I still don't, all right? — Sara Raasch

It's a weapon we have, and we need all the weapons we can get — Sara Raasch

And I had one of the guards tend to this." Mona lifts my chakram. "It's sharpened." Mona is my favorite. — Sara Raasch

White strands stream around me, some matted with sewer muck, but most tossing in the wind. A living snowstorm, a vibrant white reminder that they haven't enslaved every Winterian. — Sara Raasch

Aren't you affected by Simon's magic?"...
"Took you this long to ask me that?"
She clucks her tongue. "You're not the brightest flame in the fire, are you?"
"Don't make me hit you in a library. — Sara Raasch

Someday we will be more than words in the dark. — Sara Raasch

You don't know anything, Meira, and I'm sorry if this...is hard for you to accept, but it will happen. You wanted to matter to Winter? This is how Winter needs you. — Sara Raasch

I'm not just me anymore. I'm a whole kingdom, and I can't make mistakes. — Sara Raasch

traditional Winterian clothing for women consists of pleated, ivory, floor-length dresses, most of the men wear blue tunics and pants under lengths of white fabric that wrap in an X around their torsos. — Sara Raasch

It makes me feel both strong and weak at the same time, like I could lean too much on him, on the support he's offering, and lose myself behind him. After — Sara Raasch

LIke we had never loved each other at all. — Sara Raasch

Fear is a seed that, once planted, never stops growing. — Sara Raasch

Sometimes placing our belief in something bigger than ourselves helps us get to a point where we can be enough on our own, magic or no magic. — Sara Raasch

Isn't this a little... morbid?"...
"Morbid?" I mange half a smile. "Or cathartic?"
"Most cathartic things are morbid," he amends. "Healing through melancholy."
I roll my eyes. "Leave it to you to find something poetic about slicing off the heads of snowmen. — Sara Raasch

She drew a breath and her lips parted in two words that rebounded through his body.
"Kiss me," she said.
So he did the only thing he could do... — Sara Raasch

I don't need made-up strength. I'm strong enough on my own - me, Meira, no magic or conduit or anything. — Sara Raasch

Rares claps his hands. "When you're finished, dear heart, feel free to leave the books on the table, as disorganized as you possibly can." He motions to a table behind me, situated in a break in the rows of books. "The librarian in residence in charge of the Library of Clarisse is an offensively irritable man, and I would like nothing better than to make unnecessary work for him. — Sara Raasch

He stares into the sky, his eyes absent and empty, an expression that branded its horrible meaning into my mind long, long ago. A candle without a spark, a sky without a sun, the look people get when they cease to be people, start being bodies. — Sara Raasch

Just because it wouldn't cure everything doesn't mean it wouldn't make things better than they are. — Sara Raasch

You'll only regret the time it took you to make the decision. — Sara Raasch

There will always be a they in your new life, Meira. They make decisions; they mold your future. The trick is to find a way to still be you through it all." "Are — Sara Raasch

Even the smallest of groups could inflict damage. — Sara Raasch

The others set up all this because they want me to know that what I did was important - important enough to burn coal.

But it doesn't feel important. Not like it should.

I'm reminded now, watching the coals burn, of why I never feel like I truly belong to Winter. I want to understand all this as deeply as Sir and Alysson and everyone else, a reminder of a time when everything was how it should be, but all this is wasted on me, someone whose only connection to Winter lies in stories told by others. I thought that if I had a hand in saving Winter, I'd feel like I deserve it, the kingdom everyone else remembers. I thought I could fill the void left by my lack of memories with purpose. That's what I've always told myself: if I matter to Winter, Winter will matter to me. And today I mattered to my kingdom.

Then why don't I feel anything more for the fire pit than the slight burn on my finger? — Sara Raasch

I refuse to let him go, not like this, not while I will always, always need him. — Sara Raasch

Silence is infinitely easier than talking. — Sara Raasch

There will always remain differences that can't be glossed over with smooth words. — Sara Raasch

It doesn't matter what I would do with magic, because leaders are valued for the wrong things. — Sara Raasch

Anything that lives here has to be just as harsh and determined as the sun, born of a fiery stubbornness that is either extremely brave or extremely stupid. — Sara Raasch

I wanted a life of my own, a life where I could feel myself being a part of Winter. And that, to me, came though fighting for it. — Sara Raasch

The question tumbles out of my mouth like a smooth stone in a stream, its edges worn clean by how often I roll it around in my head. — Sara Raasch

I miss him. So much my chest aches, and I can't believe the ache hasn't killed me yet. — Sara Raasch

All I ever wanted was for you to look at me. — Sara Raasch

No matter our dire circumstances, no matter our shared upbringing, no matter the chill his smile sends over my body, he's still him, and I'm still me, and yes, he needs to have a female heir someday, but with a proper lady, a duchess or a princess - not the girl who spars with him. — Sara Raasch

Holding on to some part of your past even if it means also holding on to the pain of never again having it. That pain is less horrible than the pain of forgetting. — Sara Raasch

Same tall build, same golden hair, same dark-brown eyes. But this man isn't old enough to have gray in his hair; he's only a few years older than me, and his skin is smooth, sporting just a patch of stubble on his chin. He's much more handsome than Noam too, not quite as harsh, like he's more apt to sing a ballad than lead a kingdom. — Sara Raasch

I'm Hannah's daughter. I'm Winter's conduit. I'm a warrior, a soldier, a lady, a queen, and most of all, as I plunge across the snowfield toward Jannuari's silent ruin, I'm Meira. — Sara Raasch

I have no idea how to go about bridging the distance between us- I just keep telling myself, maybe foolishly, that when he's ready, he'll talk to me again. — Sara Raasch

Knowing is a worldwide pursuit. — Sara Raasch

Summer Kingdom farthest west, Autumn next, then Winter, and finally the Spring Kingdom on the Destas Sea. — Sara Raasch

I can weave threads of myself into a tapestry already designed by others. — Sara Raasch

I just like imagining the possibilities. That's part of freedom too --getting to dream, and knowing it could happen if I want it to. — Sara Raasch

cup my hands over my face and exhale, inhale, exhale again. Just keep breathing. No matter what happens, no matter who turns on me, no matter what pompous swine thinks he has power over me, I am still me. I will always be me. Who — Sara Raasch

I'm at the center of this, a weird possessive feud between the Winter king and the Cordellan prince. — Sara Raasch

I wanted to be a soldier. Someone who would earn standing in Winter. Someone Sir would look at with pride. Someone Mather would look at and - — Sara Raasch

What's rare is to have a good, strong man, as opposed to a good, weak man. Those are the ones who ruin the world. Men who mean well, but buckle under others' opinions until their good intentions destroy an untold number of lives." My — Sara Raasch

He couldn't stand being around her when she had...Theron.
He wasn't king anymore. He wasn't an orphan anymore. He wasn't in Meira's life anymore.
None of this was the freedom he thought he'd wanted. — Sara Raasch

My bare arms are only a relief for the first few minutes before the unobstructed sun finds my fair skin, and I swear I can hear the rays chuckle with delight at such a tasty meal. — Sara Raasch

He didn't want to fight for her. He wanted her to want him, and she didn't. — Sara Raasch

One flake falls, twisting down through the empty sky. One frozen speck of snow. Then another, and another, and before I know it the roads will be covered in dozens of distinct flakes. All these little pieces combining to create one giant, volatile snowstorm, something beautiful and dangerous and epic — Sara Raasch