The Things Gods Break

“My son told me that some things, no matter if they are destined to face imminent doom, are too precious not to be protected.”

“What I can promise is my heart, no matter where or when I am. And nothing—not time, not death, not the heavens or the hells, not even the Fates—can take it away from you.”

“Perhaps the Fates have bound us together, and even separated by time and a corporeal form, I can feel that.”

“No matter when, no matter how, I love you. I love everything about you—the way you care, the way you fight, the way you make me laugh with a dark sense of humor that matches my own, your strength, the way you kiss and do a whole lot of other things, even the way you keep secrets for my own good. But especially the way you love.”

“My test is to survive the poison of evil that can affect all mortals.”

“You didn’t say anything about zombies, asshole!”

“I always loved being a father. I miss it. Miss my children sorely. I guess I just…wanted to give you those happy memories that you craved and remember myself what it felt like—being a father with his daughter—even for a second.”

“Stubborn is kind of adorable on you.”

“I am telling you that the version of me standing before you is the future of the girl in your bed right now. I’m telling you that if you do this, as hard as it will be for both you and for her, you will still win my heart in the end. But more importantly, she’ll live through the games, and we will both be exactly where we need to be when they’re over.”

“When you find yourself questioning anything in there, especially what you have to do, hold on to this. It will feel the same no matter what is happening. It will ground you to reality. And when you get out, I’ll put the pieces back together.”

“I know you, Hades. You can’t burn down the world, because you love me, and that would hurt me. You would never hurt me. Not if you could help it. That’s why you hate what you’re doing to…her…me…for the Crucible.”

“We must bind her powers. She can’t be allowed to finish what your father wanted to do to Hades.”

“Life is never without problems. Whatever trouble I get into, I promise you I can get myself out. I don’t need you for that. I just need you to wait and hold me afterward.”

“I’ve wanted you all my life. Loved you for I think at least half as long. I’m not even sure when the loving started. It crept up on me between your sporadic, confusing-as-fuck visits. And I think your curse doesn’t work on me, because I was already half in love with you the day you tried to throw a rock at Zeus’ temple.”

“Lyra and Boone are bound by a fated line.”

“Break my trust, even once, and I’ll throw you down here and forget where I put the key or that you even exist.”

“Don’t worry about me, Thantophile. If you burn down the world, we’ll take care of them down here. All souls come to us eventually anyway.”

“I made sure he couldn’t. It would have broken his trust in you. My Hades has never trusted easily, and doubting you, I suspect, would be the end of something important.”