Celaena Quotes & Sayings

She tore off his grip, and then she was walking out the kitchen door, across the courtyard, through the ward-stones, and along the invisible barrier- until she found a spot just out of sight of the fortress.
The world was full of screaming and wailing, so loud she drowned in it.
Celaena did not utter a sound as she unleashed her magic on the barrier, a blast that shook the trees and set the earth rumbling. She fed her power into the invisible wall, begging the ancient stones to take it, to use it. The wards, as if sensing her intent, devoured her power whole, absorbing every last ember until it flickered, hungry for more.
So she burned and burned and burned. — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena?" Sam asked into the dark. "Should I worry about going to sleep?"
She blinked, then laughed under her breath. At least Sam took her threats somewhat seriously. — Sarah J. Maas

Right," Chaol said. "So you're just ... memorizing that information now?"
"If you're suggesting that I have no reason to be here and to leave, then tell me to go."
"I'm just trying to figure out what's so boring that you dozed off 10 minutes ago."
She propped herself up onto her elbows. "I did not!"
His eyebrows rose. "I heard you snoring."
"You're a liar, Chaol Westfall." She threw her paper at him at ploppedback on the couch. "I only closed my eyes for a minute."
He shook his head again and went back to work.
Celaena blushed. "I didn't really snore, did I?"
His face was utterly serious as he said, "Like a bear. — Sarah J. Maas

Last night ... I'm sorry if I was too forward with you." He paused. "Celaena, you're grimacing."
Had she been making a face? "Er- sorry."
"It did upset you, then!"
"What did?"
"The kiss!"
... "Oh, it was nothing," she said, thumping her chest as she cleared her throat. "I didn't mind it. But I didn't hate it, if that's what your thinking!" She immediately regretted saying it.
"So, you liked it?" He grinned lazily.
"No! Oh, go away!" She flung herself onto her pillows, pulling the blankets over her head. She was going to die from embarrassment. — Sarah J. Maas

Rumor has it she was your Champion this fall. Do you wish to deal with this?"
Dorian said smoothly, "You will find, Rolfe, that one does not deal with Celaena Sardothien. One survives her."
...
Aelin and Aelin looked at each other. The one in black grinned up at the newcomer. "Oh, you ARE gorgeous, aren't you?"
...
Aelin and Lysandra fixed the warrior with an unimpressed look that would have sent lesser men running. — Sarah J. Maas

He opened his mouth, but stopped as he beheld her smile. Though she had no regrets about her choice, she felt something strangely like disappointment when he said, As you wish. — Sarah J. Maas

You could rattle the stars,
that's what scares you the most — Sarah J. Maas

The rest of the world quieted into nothing. In that moment, after ten long years, Celaena looked at Chaol and realised she was home. — Sarah J. Maas

That was all Celaena needed to hear before she tossed the ring to Maeve, before Rowan rushed to her, his hands on her cheeks, his brow against her own. "Aelin," he murmured, and it wasn't a reprimand, or a thank-you, but ... a prayer. "Aelin," he whispered again, grinning, and kissed her brow before he dropped to both knees before her. — Sarah J. Maas

Sam glanced at her, a hint of amusement shining in his eyes.
Celaena smiled at him, and the world, for one flickering heartbeat, felt right. — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena had a sudden moment of clarity then, as her hair ripped from her braid and the wind tore at her clothes. Of all the girls in all the world, here she was on a spit of beach in the Red Desert, astride an Asterion horse, racing faster than the wind. Most would never experience this - she would never experience anything like this again. And for that one heartbeat, when there was nothing more to it than that, she tasted bliss so complete that she tipped her head back to the sky and laughed. — Sarah J. Maas

The magic was boiling her blood. The darkness - it would be a relief compared to the hell smoldering in her veins. The Valg prince advanced, and part of her was screaming - screaming at herself to get up, to keep fighting, to rage and roar against this horrible end. But moving her limbs, even breathing, had become a monumental effort.
She was so tired. — Sarah J. Maas

Because I am lost," she whispered onto the earth. "And I do not know the way. — Sarah J. Maas

Fleetfoot just zoomed on by, a blur of gold.
A moment later, when the little librarian came waddling into view and asked if they'd seen a dog, Celaena only shook her head and said that she had heard something
from the opposite direction. And then she told him to keep his voice down, because this was a library.
His eyes shooting daggers at her, the man huffed and scuttled away, his shouting a bit softer.
When he was gone, Dorian turned to her, brows high on his head. — Sarah J. Maas

I am Celaena Sadorthien and I will not be afraid — Sarah J. Maas

After a moment, his father looked up from the list and surveyed her. "Well done, Champion. Well done indeed."
Then Celaena and the King of Adarlan smiled at each other, and it was the most terrifying thing Dorian had ever seen.
"Tell my exchequer to give you double last month's payment," the king said. Dorian felt his gorge rise- not just for the severed head and her blood- stiffened clothing, but also for the fact that he could not, for the life of him, find the girl had loved anywhere in her face. And from Chaol's expression, he knew his friend felt the same.
Celaena bowed dramatically to the king, flourishing a hand before her. Then, with a smile devoid of any warmth, she stared down Chaol before stalking from the room, her dark cape sweeping behind her.
Silence. — Sarah J. Maas

Are you as deft at handling your sword as Captain Westfall?"
"Better," he whispered in her ear. — Sarah J. Maas

She brought her mouth close to his ear. "My name is Celaena Sardothien," she whispered. "But it makes no difference if my name's Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I'd still beat you, no matter what you call me." She smiled at him as she stood. He just stared up at her, his bloody nose leaking down the side of his cheek. She took the handkerchief from her pocket and dropped it on his chest. "You can keep that," she said before she walked off the veranda. — Sarah J. Maas

Tall, broad-shouldered, every inch of him seemingly corded with muscle, he was a male blooded with power. He paused in a dusty shaft of sunlight, his silver hair gleaming. As if his delicately pointed ears and slightly elongated canines weren't enough to scare the living shit out of everyone in that alley, including the now-whimpering madwoman behind Celaena, a wicked-looking tattoo was etched down the left side of his harsh face, the whorls of black ink stark against his sun-kissed skin. — Sarah J. Maas

He brushed his lips against hers. "I love you," he breathed against her mouth. "And from today onward, I want to never be separated from you. Wherever you go, I go. Even if that means going to Hell itself, wherever you are, that's where I want to be. Forever." Celaena — Sarah J. Maas

But Celaena had stood in front of the that wooden door to the bedroom, listening to Yrene wash her clothes in the nearby kitchen. She found herself unable to turn away, unable to stop thinking about the would-be healer with the brown-gold hair and caramel eyes, of what Yrene had lost and how helpless she'd become. There were so many of them now - the children who had lost everything to Adarlan. Children who had now grown into assassins and barmaids, without a true place to call home, their native kingdoms left to ruin and ash.
Magic had been gone all these years. And the gods were dead, or simply didn't care anymore. Yet there, deep in her gut, was a small but insistent tug. A tug on a strand of some invisible web. So Celaena decided to tug back, just to see how far and wide the reverberations would go. — Sarah J. Maas

Father, brother, lover - he'd never really declared himself any of them. Certainly not the lover part, thought if Celaena had been another sort of girl, and if Arobynn had raised her differently , perhaps it might have come to that. He loved her like family, yet he put her in the most dangerous positions. He nurtured and educated her, yet he'd obliterated her innocence the first time he'd made her end a life. He'd given her everything, but he'd also taken everything away. She could no sooner sort out her feelings toward the King of the Assassins that she could count the stars in the sky. — Sarah J. Maas

Roland gave her a courtier's smile. "And what sort of work do you do for my uncle?
"
Dorian shifted on his feet and Chaol went very still, but Celaena returned Roland's smile and said, "I bury the king's opponents where nobody will ever find them. — Sarah J. Maas

Sam," she said.
"I'm trying!"
"Sam," she repeated.
"No," he spat, hearing her tone. "No!"
He began screaming for help then. Celaena pressed her face to one of the holes in the grate. Help wasn't going to come-not fast enough.
"Please," Sam begged as he beat and yanked on the grate, he tried to wedge another dagger under the lid. "Please don't."
She knew he wasn't speaking to her.
The water hit her neck.
"Please," Sam moaned, his fingers now touching hers. She'd have one last breath. Her last words.
"Take my body home to Terrasen, Sam," she whispered. And with a gasping breath, she went under. — Sarah J. Maas

She knew the gold in her eyes had shifted to flame, because when she looked to Maeve, the queen's face had gone bone-white. And then Celaena set the world on fire. — Sarah J. Maas

Afraid she and I had a summer romance?" That insufferable grin was still there.
"I hope you did. I certainly enjoyed myself this summer."
The smile faded at that. "What do you mean?"
She brushed an invisible fleck of dust off her red gown. "Let's just say that the son of the Mute Master was far more welcoming than the other Silent Assassins. — Sarah J. Maas

So," Celaena said, spitting blood onto the stones, "do you want to explain yourself first, or should I? — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena." He stopped a few feet from the guards. His eyes were rich, molten brown. "Yes?" Her heartbeat steadied. "You look rather pretty today," was all he said before the doors opened and they walked forward. — Sarah J. Maas

What's your name?" he asked above the roar of the music.
She leaned close. "My name is Wind," she whispered. "And Rain. And Bone and Dust. My name is a snippet of a half-remembered song."
He chuckled a low, delightful sound. She was drunk and silly, and so full of the glory of being young and alive and in the capital of the world that she could hardly contain herself.
"I have no name," she purred. "I am whoever the keepers of my fate tell me to be."
He grasped her by her wrist, running a thumb along the sensitive sknin underneath. "Then let me call you Mine for a dance or two. — Sarah J. Maas

She had often wished for adventure, for old spells and wicked kings. — Sarah J. Maas

She had seen hundreds of doors in the castle - doors of wood, of bronze, of glass - but never one of solid iron. This one was ancient, from a time when an iron door meant something. So was this supposed to keep someone out - or to keep something in? Celaena — Sarah J. Maas

We'll never be a normal boy and girl, will we?" she managed to say.
"No," he breathed, eyes blazing. "We won't."
And then the music exploded around them, and Chaol took her with it, spinning her so that her cloak fanned out around her. Each step was flawless, lethal, like that first time they'd sparred together so many months ago. She knew his every move and he knew hers, as though they'd been dancing this waltz together all their lives. Faster, never faltering, never breaking her stare.
The rest of the world quieted into nothing. In that moment, after ten long years, Celaena looked at Chaol and realized she was home. — Sarah J. Maas

He whispered her name, her true name, and she screamed as he - Celaena awoke with a gasp, clutching the Eye of Elena. — Sarah J. Maas

If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it- to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger. — Sarah J. Maas

Her salary as King's Champion was considerable, and Celaena spent
every last copper of it. Shoes, hats, tunics, dresses, jewelry, weapons,
baubles for her hair, and books. Books and books and books. So many
books that Philippa had to bring up another bookcase for her room. — Sarah J. Maas

She would fill the world with it, with her light-her gift. She would light up the darkness, so brightly that all who were lost or wounded or broken would find their way to it, a beacon for those who still dwelled in that abyss. It would not take a monster to destroy a monster-but light, light to drive out the darkness.
She was not afraid. — Sarah J. Maas

So I'm just here for decoration?"
"Be grateful I consider you a worthy accessory. — Sarah J. Maas

She did not know how long she fell with them.
But then there was a rushing, roaring below - a frozen river. Whispers and foggy light were rising to meet them. No, not rising - this was the bottom.
An end to the abyss. And an end to her, perhaps, at last.
She didn't know if the Valg princes' hissing was from anger or pleasure as they slammed into that frozen river at the bottom of her soul. — Sarah J. Maas

Kaltain just squeezed Elide's fingers. "You find Celaena Sardothien. Give her this. No one else. No one else. Tell her that you can open any door, if you have the key. And tell her to remember her promise to me - to punish them all. When she asks why, tell her I said that they would not let me bring the cloak she gave me, but I kept a piece of it. To remember that promise she made. To remember to repay her for a warm cloak in a cold dungeon. — Sarah J. Maas

What are you doing?"
Celaena lifted another piece of paper. "If His Pirateness can't be bothered to clean for us, then I don't see why I can't have a look."
"He'll be here any second," Sam hissed. She picked up a flattened map, examining the dots and markings along the coastline of their continent. Something small and round gleamed beneath the map, and she slipped it into her pocket before Sam could notice.
"Oh, hush," she said, opening the hutch on the wall adjacent to the desk. "With these creaky floors, we'll hear him a mile off." The hutch was crammed with rolled scrolls, quills, the odd coin, and some very old, very expensive-looking brandy. She pulled out a bottle, swirling the amber liquid in the sunlight streaming through the tiny porthole window. "Care for a drink? — Sarah J. Maas

I'm happy for you, my friend."

Celaena smiled back. "I think... I think I'm happy for me, too."

And she was. For the first time in years, she was truly happy. — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena couldn't recall a time when she didn't want to beat in the girl's face with a brick. — Sarah J. Maas

His breath was warm on her neck as he bent his head, resting his cheek against her hair. Her heart beat so quickly, and yet she felt utterly calm - as if she could have stayed there forever and not minded, stayed there forever and let the world fall apart around them. She pictured his fingers, pushing against that line of chalk, reaching for her despite the barrier between them. — Sarah J. Maas

She scanned the night sky until she located the Stag, the Lord of the North. The unmoving star atop the stag's head - the eternal crown - pointed the way the way to Terrasen. She'd been told that the great rulers of Terrasen turned into those bright stars so their people would never be alone - and would always know the way home. She hadn't set foot there in ten years. While he'd been her master, Arobynn hadn't let her, and afterward she hadn't dared.
She had whispered the truth that day at Nehemia's grave. She'd been running for so long that she didn't know what it was to stand and fight. — Sarah J. Maas

One last time - you have to wear this mask one last time, and then you can bury Celaena Sardothien forever. — Sarah J. Maas

Because hers was not a story of darkness. — Sarah J. Maas

And from today onward, I want to never be separated from you. Wherever you go, I go. Even if that means going to hell itself, wherever you are, that's where I want to be. Forever. — Sarah J. Maas

She knew he meant it. He'd burn the library, the city or the whole world to ashes if she asked him. It was their bond, marked by blood and scent and something else she couldn't place. A tether as strong as the one that bound her to her parents. Stronger, in some ways. — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena threw her weight into the dagger she held aloft, and gained an inch. His arms strained. She was going to kill him. She truly going to kill him.
He made himself look into her eyes, look at the face so twisted with rage that he couldn't find her.
"Celaena," he said, squeezing her wrists so hard that he hoped the pain registered somewhere- wherever she had gone. But she still wouldn't lossen her grip on the blade. "Celaena, I'm your friend."
She stared at him, panting through gritted teeth, her breath coming quicker and quicker before she roared, the sound filling the room, his blood, his world: "You will never be my friend. You will always be my enemy."
She bellowed the last word with such soul-deep hated that he felt it like a punch to the gut. She surged again, and he lost his grip on the wrist that held the dagger. The blade plunged down. — Sarah J. Maas

This was the least she owed those murdered in Endovier and Calaculla - the least she could do, after so long. A monster to destroy monsters.
The flames on her left hand burned brighter as Celaena stepped beyond the archway and into the beckoning abyss. — Sarah J. Maas

I am Celaena Sadorthein and I will be not afraid — Sarah J. Maas

So she's not with him?"
"No."
Otho shrugged. "That's strange."
"Why?" Chaol had the sudden urge to strangle him.
"Because it looks like he's in love with her," he said, and walked away.
Chaol's eyes lost focus for a moment. Then Celaena laughed, and Dorian kept staring at her. The prince hadn't once taken his eyes off her. Dorian's expression was full of
something. Joy? Wonder? His shoulders were straight, his back erect. He looked like a man. Like a king. — Sarah J. Maas

He was aching to learn what Celaena's lips felt like, what her bare skin smelled like, how she'd react to the touch of his fingers along her body. — Sarah J. Maas

If it won't respond to humans, then it will have to be killed," Dorian said offhandedly, and a spark went through Celaena. "Kill it? Kill it? For what reason? What did it do to you? — Sarah J. Maas

You can't go."
"Give me a reason why I shouldn't."
"Because I'll miss you, damn it!" she hissed, splaying her arms. "Because what's the point in anything if you just disappear forever?"
"The point in what, Celaena?" How could he be so calm when she was so frantic?
"The point in Skull's Bay, and the point in getting me that music, and the point in ... the point in telling Arobynn that you'd forgive him if he never hurt me again."
"You said you didn't care what I thought. Or what I did. Or if I died, if I'm not mistaken."
"I lied! And you know I lied you stupid bastard! — Sarah J. Maas

It would have been nice, she supposed. It would have been nice to have one person who knew the absolute truth about her
and didn't hate her for it.
It would have been really, really nice.
She walked away without another word. With each step she took back to her room, that flickering light inside of her guttered.
And went out. — Sarah J. Maas

For a heartbeat, the silence peeled back long enough for that question to worm its way into her skull, into her skin, into her breath and bones. And in the dark, she remembered. — Sarah J. Maas

He shook the hair out of his face. "I'm not interested in court ladies," he said thickly, and kissed her. His mouth was warm, and his lips were smooth, and Celaena lost all sense of time and place as she slowly kissed him back. He pulled away for a moment, looked into her eyes as they opened, and kissed her again. It was different this time - deeper, full of need. — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena," Chaol said gently. And then she heard the scraping noise as his hand came into view, sliding across the flagstones. His fingertips stopped just at the edge of the white line. "Celaena," he breathed, his voice laced with pain - and hope. This was all she had left - his outstretched hand, and the promise of hope, of something better waiting on the other side of the line. — Sarah J. Maas

Then she ripped everything from that well inside her, ripped it out with both hands and her entire raging, hopeless heart.
As she fell, hair whipping her face, Celaena thrust her hands toward the skinwalkers.
"Surprise," she hissed. The world erupted in blue wildfire. — Sarah J. Maas

Can I be honest with you?" Chaol leaned closer, and Celaena leaned to meet him as he whispered: "You sound like a raving lunatic. — Sarah J. Maas

She was tired in her bones, but she rallied her energy one last time and told him of they years in Rifthold, of stealing Asterion horses and racing across the desert, of dancing until dawn with the courtesans and thieves and all the beautiful, wicked creatures in the world. And then she told him about losing Sam, and of that first whipping in Endovier, when she'd spat blood in the Chief Overseer's face, and what she had seen and endured in the following year. She spoke of the day she had snapped and sprinted for her own death. Her heart grew heavy when at last she got to the evening when the Captain of the Royal Guard prowled into her life, and a tyrant's son had offered her a shot at freedom. She told him what she could about the competition and how she'd won it, until her words slurred and her eyelids drooped. — Sarah J. Maas

His eyes blazed with hunger that matched her own, and she kissed him again, tugging him into her bedroom. He let her pull him, not breaking the kiss as he kicked the door shut behind them.
And then there was only them, and skin against skin, and when they reached that moment when there was nothing more between them at all, Celaena kissed Chaol deeply and gave him everything she had. — Sarah J. Maas

My name is Celaena Sardothien," she whispered, "and I will not be afraid. — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena opened her arms wide, Goldryn burning bright in one hand. "Behold my power, Maeve. Behold what I grapple with in the deep dark, what prowls under my skin."
Celaena exhaled a breath and extinguished each and every flame in the city.
The power wasn't in might or skill. It was in the control - the power lay in controlling herself. — Sarah J. Maas

As she walked through the foggy streets toward the ramshackle docks, Celaena had prayed Yrene Towers wasn't foolish enough to tell anyone - especially the innkeeper - about the money. Prayed Yrene Towers seized her life with both hands and set out for the pale-stoned city of Antica. Prayed that somehow, years from now, Yrene Towers would return to this continent, and maybe, just maybe, heal their shattered world a little bit. — Sarah J. Maas

In the garden, the Captain of the Guard stared up at the young woman's balcony, watching as she waltzed alone, lost in her dreams. But he knew her thoughts weren't of him.
She stopped and stared upward. Even from a distance, he could see the blush upon her cheeks. She seemed young - no, new. It made his chest ache.
Still, he watched, watched until she sighed and went inside. She never bothered to look below. — Sarah J. Maas

The doors to his father's council room were thrown open and Celaena prowled in, her dark cape billowing behind her. All twenty men at the table fell silent, including his father, whose eyes went straight to the thing dangling from Celaena's hand. Chaol was already striding across the room from his post by the door. But he, too, stopped when he beheld the object she carried.
A head.
The man's face was still set in a scream, and there was something vaguely familiar about the grotesque feature and mousy brown hair that she gripped. It was hard to be certain as it swung from her gloved fingers. — Sarah J. Maas

Her hand rose to her lips and she stared up at the stars, feeling her heart grow, and grow, and grow. — Sarah J. Maas

Because she wasn't human, Chaol realized, gaping at her from where he still crouched over Fleetfoot.
No - she wasn't human at all.
Celaena was Fae. — Sarah J. Maas

The creature took Aelin's face in its hands, and her sword thudded to the ground, forgotten.
Rowan was screaming as the creature pulled her into its arms. As she stopped fighting. As her flames winked out and darkness swallowed her whole. — Sarah J. Maas

Celaena stood in the tomb, and knew she was dreaming. She often visited the tomb in her dreams - to slay the ridderak again, to be trapped inside Elena's sarcophagus, to face a featureless young woman with golden hair and a crown far too heavy for her to bear - but tonight... tonight, it was just her and Elena, and the tomb was filled with moonlight, not a sign to be seen of the ridderak's corpse. — Sarah J. Maas

No matter what happens," she said quietly, "I want to thank you."
Chaol tilted his head to the side. "For what?"
Her eyes stung but she blamed it on the fierce wind and blinked away the dampness. "For making my freedom mean something. — Sarah J. Maas

I can wait," he said thickly, kissing her collarbone. "We have all the time in the world. — Sarah J. Maas

She batted her eyelashes & readjusted her shackles as if they were lace gloves. — Sarah J. Maas

You, Celaena Sardothien, are charged with the deaths of the following people ...
And then he began a long recitation of all those lives she'd taken. The brutal story of a girl who was now gone. — Sarah J. Maas

What is that?" Manon asked, sniffing subtly. Kaltain just squeezed Elide's fingers. "You find Celaena Sardothien. Give her this. No one else. No one else. Tell her that you can open any door, if you have the key. And tell her to remember her promise to me - to punish them all. When she asks why, tell her I said that they would not let me bring the cloak she gave me, but I kept a piece of it. To remember that promise she made. To remember to repay her for a warm cloak in a cold dungeon." Kaltain — Sarah J. Maas

Nehemia looked after Cain, and her dark eyes narrowed. "Something about him makes me want to beat in his face." Celaena laughed. "I'm glad I'm not the only one." Chaol — Sarah J. Maas

He'd loved her so much that she still felt the echoes of it, even now. — Sarah J. Maas

When Sam had died, she had tucked him into her heart, tucked him alongside her other beloved dead, whose names she kept so secret she sometimes forgot them. But Nehemia - Nehemia wouldn't fit. It was as if her heart was too full of the dead, too full of those lives that had ended well before their time. — Sarah J. Maas

Apparently, a woman can only go so long without a sword between her hands. — Sarah J. Maas

Where will we go?"
"I hear hell is particularly nice at this time of year. — Sarah J. Maas

He'd been about to turn away when she lifted her face to the moon and sang.
It was not in any language that he knew. Not in the common tongue, or in Eyllwe, or in the languages of Fenharrow or Melisande, or anywhere else on the continent
This language was ancient, each word full of power and rage and agony.
She did not have a beautiful voice. And many of the words sounded like half sobs, the vowels stretched by the pangs of sorrow, the consonants hardened by anger. She beat her breast in time, so full of savage grace, so at odds with the black gown and veil she wore. The hair on the back of his neck stood as the lament poured from her mouth, unearthly and foreign, a song of grief so old that it predated the stone castle itself.
And the the song finished, its end as butal and sudden as Nehemia's death had been.
She stood there a few moments, silent and unmoving. — Sarah J. Maas

Thank you," Archer said again. She kept walking, listening for any sign of him moving to attack her back. "I knew you were a good woman," he said. Celaena halted. Turned. There was a hint of triumph in his eyes. He thought he'd won. Manipulated her again. One foot after another, she walked back toward him with predatory calmness. She stopped, close enough to kiss him. He gave her a wary smile. "No, I'm not," she said. Then she moved, too fast for him to stand a chance. Archer's eyes went wide as she slid the dagger home, jamming it up into his heart. He sagged in her arms. She brought her mouth to his ear, holding him upright with one hand and twisting the dagger with the other as she whispered, "But Nehemia was. — Sarah J. Maas

Alone in the hallway, Celaena watched the shadows cast by the torches. It hadn't been the mere impossibility of a relationship with Ilias that had made her pull away.
No; it was the memory of Sam's face that had stopped her from kissing him. — Sarah J. Maas

It was the least she could do. For Nehemia - for. . . a lot of other people. There was nothing left in her, not really. Only ash and an abyss and the unbreakable vow she'd carved into her flesh, to the friend who had seen her for what she truly was. — Sarah J. Maas

Dance with me, Celaena, he said again, his voice rough. When her eyes met his she forgot about the cold, and the moon, and the glass palace looming above them. The secret library and the king's plans and Mort and Elena faded into nothing. She took his hand and there was only the music and Chaol. — Sarah J. Maas

She would tuck Sam into her heart, a bright light for her to take out whenever things were darkest. — Sarah J. Maas

I claim you, Rowan Whitethorn. I don't care what you say and how much you protest. I claim you as my friend. — Sarah J. Maas

She had lied to him. She had wanted to save lives, yes. But she had gone out there with no intention of saving her own. — Sarah J. Maas

He won every game, yet she hardly noticed. As long as she hit the ball, it resulted in shameless bragging. When she missed - well, even the fires of Hell couldn't compare to the rage that burst from her mouth. He couldn't remember a time when he'd laugh so hard. — Sarah J. Maas

A cluster of giggling women sat nearby, tittering about how the Crown Prince was gone on holiday to the Sorian coast, and how they wished they could join the prince and his dashing friends, and on and on until Celaena contemplated chucking her spoon at them. — Sarah J. Maas

Enough! We have enough enemies as it is! There are worse things out there to face!"
Celaena slowly turned to him, her face splattered with blood and eyes blazing bright. "No, there aren't," she said. "Because I'm here now. — Sarah J. Maas

So maybe it was the gods at work. Maybe it was some force beyond them, beyond mortal comprehension. Or maybe it was just for what and who Celaena would never be. Yrene — Sarah J. Maas

I don't think you realize who you're dealing with."
The man clicked his tongue, "If you were that good, you would be more than just Captain of the Guard."
Chaol let out a low, breathy laugh. "I wasn't talking about me."
"She's just one girl."
Though his guts were twisting at the thought of her in this place, with these people, though he was considering every possible way to get himself and Celaena out of here alive, he gave the man a grin.
"Then you're really in for a big surprise. — Sarah J. Maas

The world slowed to the beat of an ancient, ageless drum.
Celaena behold the room.
The blood was everywhere.
Before the bed, Nehemia's bodyguards lay with their throats cut from ear to ear, their internal organs spilling out onto the floor.
And on the bed ...
On the bed ...
She could hear the shouts growing closer, reaching the room, but their words were somehow muffled, as though she were underwater, the sounds coming from the surface above.
Celaena stood in the center of the freezing bedroom, gazing at the bed, and the princess's broken body atop it.
Nehemia was dead. — Sarah J. Maas

She'd awoken that morning feeling . . . clear. The grief and pain were still there, writhing inside her, but for the first time in a long while, she felt as though she could see. As though she could breathe. — Sarah J. Maas

If she picked Roland over you, that makes her the greatest fool who ever lived. — Sarah J. Maas

She watched him, her head angled. He sometimes felt that she looked at him the way a cat regards a mouse. He just wondered how long it would take for her to pounce. — Sarah J. Maas

Are you married?"
"No."
She picked at her nails. "I'm not married, either. — Sarah J. Maas