Oraya Quotes

“Fear is a collection of physical responses, I told myself.

Fear is accelerated heartbeats and rapid breaths and sweaty palms. Fear is a doorway to anger, and anger is a doorway to power.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I didn't like feeling things. Emotions were ever-shifting and devoid of logic, and they gave me no way to sink my blade into them.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“There are moments in one's life that remain permanently distilled in memory. Some wither within minutes, and others are carved forever into our souls.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“The line between anger and sadness is so thin. I had learned that fear can become rage, but rage can so easily shatter into devastation. The fractures spiderwebbed across my heart.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“You aren't my prisoner,' he said. 'You're my queen.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“And then I realised. I realised that fear, when embraced, hardens and sharpens.

That it becomes rage.

That it becomes power.

I would not die here.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“You are more than what he made you,' he said. 'Do you understand? That isn't the strength. The shit her tried to carve out of you is. You have every reason to keep going. Now more than ever. And I say this knowing- knowing how stupid it is for me, of all people, to say it.'

He wasn't talking about the Kejari. He was talking about something bigger. And his fingers clutched mine, trembling, as he hissed, 'So don't you fucking dare stop fighting, princess. It would break my damned heart.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I love you. I loved you from the first moment.' Bubbles of blood formed at the corners of his mouth. His gaze drifted past me, to the night sky. Then it dragged back to me- the movement slow, laborious, like he was working very hard to make sure I was the last thing he saw. 'So many mistakes in the end,' he choked out. 'Never you.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I'm not marrying you,' I spat.

'Yes, you are.'

'Fuck you. I am not.'

A muscle feathered in his cheek.

'It's the only way I can keep you alive. If you're not my wife, you're my enemy. And I can't justify letting you go.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“Think about this. Power is a bloody business. You know that as well as I do. We have teeth, you and I. Now is the time to use them. We'll rip apart the worlds that subjugated both of us, and from the ashes we'll build something new. And there is no one I would rather have beside me to do that with than you, Oraya. No one.' His voice lowered to a plea. His gaze dipped- to my mouth- before flicking back to my eyes. 'And when I leave this room, and come back with a priestess, you will marry me. You will do it because I can't kill you. I tried. I can't. A world without you would be a dark, depressing place. And I've already inflicted enough pain without committing that fucking injustice, too. So let me save you.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“Oraya of the Nightborn,' he murmured. 'I give you my body. I give you my blood. I give you my soul. I give you my heart. From this night until the end of nights. From daybreak until our days are broken. Your soul is my soul. Your heart is my heart. Your pain is my pain. I bind myself to you.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I'm coming for you, Oraya.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“Fear is the fucking KEY to it, Oraya! Raihn's voice, booming with fear of his own, filled both of our minds. USE IT. Pretend that you're throwing me out the fucking window. Pretend that you're dragging Mische out of that burning apartment.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“You were fucking magnificent, Oraya,' he murmured. 'I hope you know that.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I can't take credit for everything that you've become, Oraya. Even if sometimes I wish I could. But if I'm responsible for just one small piece of that, it will have been the greatest accomplishment of my life.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“Don't be so quick to throw away your humanity, Oraya,' he said. 'You might find you miss it once it's gone.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I've lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“You're safe,' he whispered against my skin.

And then he bit.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“He smelled like the sky- he tasted like falling.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“You don't even know, Oraya.' The corner of his mouth, where a little smudge of blood remained, curled as he shook his head. 'The things I've thought about. "Want" doesn't even fucking cover it. I have a list.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“You are the most stunning thing I've ever seen, Oraya.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“Don't fucking touch her,' he growled...”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“We'll probably die tomorrow,' I said. 'Show me something worth living for.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“But reality, of course, was different than fantasies. More treacherous, and more exhilarating.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I would beg,' he murmured. 'For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“If we fight, we fight to the end. Whatever end that might be Whoever's blood needs to spill to win it.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“Breathe, Oraya. Come back to me. Please.'

He said this like he cared.

Like he fucking cared.

I hated him.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“Maybe that was why I picked you, too. Because right away, I liked you, princess. I was curious about you. You reminded me of me. Someone different. After a few hundred years, everyone seems the same. Not you. Not from that first night...”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night

“I awoke to soft kisses over my cheek, my ear, my neck. These last months, waking up always felt like a battle, as if I was being dragged back to the land of the living kicking and screaming. This was not a battle. This was a gentle summons, sweet and tender.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King

“He never sounded more affectionate than when he was insulting me.”
― Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent and the Wings of Night