The Serpent and the Wolf

“Just because this is all you have ever known, it does not mean it is all you will ever be.”

“Remind me who I am. Where I am. Because I think you are the only one who really knows.”

“This is my line, Vaasalisa. Do not threaten my country.”

“You are my wife, and everything begins and ends with that.”

“For you, Vaasa. She thought if you were brave enough to be here, she should be, too.”

“Would you like to stay? This shower is big enough for two, and it isn’t a bed, so if we’re going by the aforementioned rule, it wouldn’t technically be breaking our agreement if I took you in here.”

“Being the ruler of anything is a corrupting job, and no man walks out of it the same as when he walked into it. If you value anything about yourself, which I gather you do, given the seeming resilience of your ego, you’ll settle for being a councilor and mind your own.”

“I know you speak four languages, and that men threw themselves at your father to get you in their homes and their beds. Never once did he concede. Which means you were useful, and that he honed you no differently than a blade.

“Then it’s one less thing we’ll have to argue about. Marital spats are no fun, or so I’ve heard. Not that my wife has been around long enough for me to discover their level of joy.”

“I wanted my wife to know everything she needs to in order to lead confidently at my side.”

“Dismissing your emotions doesn’t make them disappear, it only gives them reason to rise later without your consent.”

“This has nothing to do with how much I’d like to have you in my bed, though I do hope you’ll find interest in that, too, Wild One.”

“I believe you said a powerful man who has drunk wine all night and watched strangers dance with his wife will want her in his bed.

“I have collected a thousand words, and yet I cannot find a single one to tell you what comes alive inside of me when you are near.”

“These knots are well done. You’ll have to teach me so we can switch places next time.”

“I want to live, Reid. I want to live long enough to see more of the world before Dominik erases all the color from it.”

“You can inherit someone’s eyes, or their hair or their nose, but you cannot inherit their faults. You learn them. Which means you can unlearn them, too.”

“I know you don’t want a nation or a throne, I know you don’t want this life. So if I have to wait until the end of this decade, I will. I will find you and then you can choose what life we live. Any life you want.”