Wren Quotes

“I feel a little pummelled by Oak's beauty.

If I look at him too long, I want to take a bite out of him.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Madoc seemed like the sort to roast him over a fire, consume his flesh, and call it love. By then, I had become familiar with love of that kind.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“You will not always be so small or so frightened,' she told me. 'You are a queen.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“You cannot outrun fate.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“The money,' I ask. 'Was it real?'

'Oh, yes,' the Prince confirms. 'My sister would be wroth with us otherwise.'

'Wroth.' I echo the archaic word, although I know what it means. Pissed off.

'Super wroth,' he says with a grin.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Nothing he says is a lie, but all his words are riddles.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I have struck the Prince of Elfhame.

Oh, I am in trouble now.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“In that moment, I hated him for being so precious to them, for being cosseted and treated as though he was deserving of protection when I had none.

Maybe I still hate him a little. But he was kind when we were children. It's possible there's a part of him that's still kind.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Have you ridden before?' he asks me, and I return him the look he deserves.
...
'No? And yet you would look so well with your hair whipping behind you.' Oak says. 'Wild as the Folk of old.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“There are rumours that Cardan never wanted the throne, that he will hand it over to Oak willingly at some vague future time. But when I think of High King Cardan with his black curls and cruel mouth, the way he behaves- silly and dangersome all at once- I don't believe he would relinquish power. He might, however, trick Oak into going on a quest he wouldn't return from. Build him up with stories of honour and valiant deeds.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“The prince opens his tawny fox eyes and looks around. When he sees me, he slumps back down, as though relieved that I am still here.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“We learned something of her capabilities.'

'And you want me to tell you that was worth you being poisoned?' the knight demands.

'I'm always being poisoned. Alas, that it wasn't blusher mushroom,' the prince said nonsensically.

Tiernan nods his chin at me. 'That girl thinks you're a fool for even being here.'

I scowl, because that's not what I meant.

'Ah, Lady Wren,' Oak says, a lazy smile on his mouth. Marigold hair brushing his forehead, half-hiding his horns. 'You wound me.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Unglamoured, my skin is the pale blue-grey of hydrangea blooms, smeared with dirt along one cheek and across my nose. My hair is so woven with leaves and twigs and mud that it would be almost impossible to know that underneath it is an even darker blue. I have the same pointy chin I had when I thought I was mortal. A thin face, with large eyes, and an expression of startlement, as though I expect someone else when I look in the mirror.

At least my eyes could pass for human. They're green, deep and dark.

I smile a little to see the awfulness of my sharp teeth. A mouth full of knives. They make even the Folk flinch.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I became a snarling beast, clawing and biting, barely aware of anything but pain.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I am not yet in pain.

But I do not doubt that I will be.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“...my will was an inconvenience to be cleared away like a cobweb.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“He ought to have been taught better than to let his emotions show on his face. Instead, he assumed that others would care about his feelings, so he didn't bother to hide them.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“... his kindness was jarring and made me wonder what he wanted in return for it. I was used to tricks, to games.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Do you want to play a game?' He shuffled closer, eyes bright. Reaching into his pocket, he produced some little metal figures. Three silver foxes resting in the middle of his callused palm. Inset chips of peridot sparkled in their eyes.
...
'How do we play?'

'You throw them.' He formed a cage of his hands with the foxes inside, shook it up, and then tossed them into the grass. 'If they land standing, you get ten points. If they land on their backs, you get five points. If they land on their side, no points.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“HIs words stood as a reminder, though, that no matter how soft he seemed or how young, he was as capable of cruelty as the rest.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I ran anyway. And clutched his fingers as though he could drag me into a world where other kinds of games were possible. Hope lit my heart.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“...it was as important to be a good winner as a good loser.

I wanted Oak to give me an opportunity to be a good winner.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Behind the abandoned house, two faerie horses chew on dandelions as they wait for their riders. Slight as deer, with a soft halo of light surrounding their bodies, they glide between the trees like ghosts.

Oak goes to the first. Her coat a soft grey, her mane braided into something that looks like netting, and which is hung with gold beads. Tooled leather saddlebags rest against her flanks. She nuzzles into his hand.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“If Oak is the sunlight filtering through trees in the woods, all shifting gold and shadow, then Tiernan seems like those same woods in winter, the branches barren and cold.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“The stick creatures come into view, beasts of branches and twigs- some shaped like enormous wolves, others like spiders, and one with three snapping heads, like nothing I have seen before. A few in vaguely human shapes, armed with bows. All of them crawling with moss and vine, with stones tucked into packed earth at their centres. But the worst part is that among those pieces of wood and fen, I see what appears to be waxy mortal fingers, strips of skin, and empty mortal eyes.

Terror breaks over me like a wave.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“...seeing the stick creatures with their bits of flesh made me all too aware of how easy it would be to harvest human parts from cities like she might take rocks from quarries, and carve armies from forests.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Do not fall under Prince Oak's spell,' he warns as the knight climbs up the rocks to us. 'He's not what he seems.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I note how stiff they are with each other, how carefully they keep separate, as magnets must keep a safe distance or be slammed together by their very nature.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“We walk, fading stars overhead, brine in the air.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“...warm, buttery sunlight flows into the room like yolk from a cracked egg...”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir