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448 pages, ebook
First published September 14, 2021
“I think that very few people truly deserve what they get, Tessa.” He pauses, and for the briefest moment, sadness flickers through his eyes. “For good or for bad.”
“True strength is not determined by how brutal you can be,”
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“It’s easy to love your king when everyone is well fed and healthy. A bit harder when everyone is not.”
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“When there are calls for revolution,” I say to him, “we should be riding at the front, not hiding in the shadows.”
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“I hate the king,” I whisper. “I hate the prince. I hate what they’ve done. I hate what Kandala has become.”
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“There are too many layers here. I thought it was as simple as right or wrong . . . but it’s not.”
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“All this time I’ve thought that the people within the gates were the most powerful, but maybe I was wrong. We all have power.”
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“We buy what we can from the taxes we collect, and we distribute it among the people. But there is never enough: not enough silver, not enough Moonflower.”
“I’m not a killer. I heal people; I don’t harm them.”
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“I keep notes in my father’s notebooks of what cures the fevers—the Moonflower—and what doesn’t: everything else.”
“We don’t discuss what could happen, because I’m right. The king wouldn’t care that we’re stealing to help people. If we’re caught, we’ll be executed right next to the smugglers.”
“I wonder if this is why it’s so easy for the royal elites to ignore the people outside the walls of this sector. Are we all invisible to them?”
“Kindness leaves you vulnerable, Tessa. I learned that lesson years ago.”
“I have heard every manner of scream without flinching. I have listened to promises and threats and curses and lies—and occasionally, the truth.
I have never hesitated in doing what needs to be done.”
“to my face, I’m Your Highness, or Prince Corrick, or sometimes, when they’re being especially formal, the King’s Justice.”
“Because despite all outward appearances, I’m not cruel. I don’t delight in pain. I don’t delight in any of this.”
“I’ll never be free of this. Of who I am. This will be my life as King’s Justice: Cruel Corrick, the most feared man in the kingdom, and somehow also the most alone.”
Character Dynamics
“I wish Weston were here. I’m better with the medicines, with the dosages and the treatments and our patients, but he’s better in the face of violence and danger. He’s cool and reserved when I’m hot and rattled.”
“They respect my brother—as they should.
They fear me.
I don’t mind. It spares me some tedious conversations.”
“But we’re still taking action. We’re not backing down from that horrible king and his awful, cruel brother. We’re saving the people who need saving.
Fight back. We are.”
“I did what I could,” I say to her now, and my voice almost breaks. I have to take a shuddering breath. “I do what I can. And every day, I regret that it’s never enough.”
“Mind your mettle, Tessa.”