“Fear motivates, more than love or ambition or joy. Fear is more powerful than anything else in the world. I have spent so long yearning for thingsfor love, for acceptancethat I do not really need. ...”

“The irony of life is that those who wear masks often tell us more truths than those with open faces.”

“Why cant I be like that? Why cant I be the father who just shrugs off the love of his daughter? Why cant I be the Lead Inquisitor who enjoys watching his pleading victims burn at the stake? Why can...”

“Enzo inherited a throne. Giulietta relied on her royal blood. Queen Maeve rules Beldain because she was born to it. But true rulers are not born. We are made.”

“I have spent my entire life thinking of the Inquisitors as things, soulless creatures. But they are just men. Men can be swayed, and I have the power to do it.”

“Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, so she destroyed them all.”

“Fear motivates, more than love or ambition or joy. Fear is more powerful than anything else in the world. I have spent so long yearning for thingsfor love, for acceptancethat I do not really need. ...”

“Dont be afraid, he says with a half smile. Youre with me. His hand tightens around my wrist, tugging me down again playfully. And this time, I feel safe enough to take a deep breath of my own and d...”

“No. I cannot let him control me.You are mine, Adelina, Enzo growls. Turn your powers against your own fleet.”

“Theres no way you can kill someone and get to the other side of the experience unchanged.”

“Why do we electrocute men for murdering an individual and then pin a purple heart on them for mass slaughter of someone arbitrarily labeled enemy?”

“He had also learned that there is no use murdering people; there are always so many left, and if you tried to murder them all you would never get anything else done.”