Kestrel Quotes

“She turned to look at him, and he was already looking at her. “I’m going to miss you when I wake up,” she whispered, because she realized that she must have fallen asleep under the sun. Arin was too real for her imagination. He was a dream.
“Don’t wake up,” he said.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Marry him,” Arin said, “but be mine in secret.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“An emotion clamped down on her heart. It squeezed her into a terrible silence. But he said nothing after that, only her name, as if her name were not a name but a question. Or perhaps that it wasn’t how he had said it, and she was wrong, and she’d heard a question simply because the sound of him speaking her name made her wish that she were his answer.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Arin. I've wanted to do this for a long time."

Her words silenced him, steadied him.

Anticipation lifted within her like the fragrance of a garden under the rain. She sat at the piano, touching the keys. "Ready?"

He smiled. "Play.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“If I die, you'll survive. If you die, it will destroy me.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“She’d felt it before, she felt it now: the pull to fall in with him, to fall into him, to lose her sense of self.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“He'd believed it. She couldn't believe that he believed it. Sometimes, she hated him for that.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“She said, I'm going to miss you when you when I wake up.
Don't wake up, he answered.
But he did.
Kestrel, beside him on the grass, said. "Did I wake you? I didn't mean to."
It took him a velvety moment to understand that this was real. The air was quiet. An insect beat it's clear wings. She brushed hair from his brow. Now he was very awake.
"You were sleeping so sweetly," she said.
"Dreaming" He touched her tender mouth.
"About what?"
"Come closer, and I will tell you."
But he forgot. He kissed her, and became lost in the exquisite sensation of his skin becoming too tight for his body. He murmured other things instead. A secret, a want, a promise. A story, in its own way.
She curled her fingers into the green earth”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“Little Fists, what's wrong?”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“Kestrel's cruel calculation appalled her. This was part of what had made her resist the military: the fact that she could make decisions like this, that she did have a mind for strategy, that people could be so easily become pieces in a game she was determined to win...”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse

“She'd betrayed her country because she'd believed it was the right thing to do. Yet would she have done this, if not for Arin?
He knew none of it. Had never asked for it. Kestrel had made her own choices. It was unfair to blame him.
But she wanted to.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“Someone was coming through the velvet.

He was pulling it wide, he was stepping onto Kestrel’s balcony—close, closer still as she turned and the curtain swayed, then stopped. He pinned the velvet against frame. He held the sweep of it high, at the level of his gray eyes, which were silver in the shadows.

He was here. He had come.

Arin.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“A dagger wants flesh, her father would say. Find it.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“She would have stopped him. She would have wished herself deaf, blind, made of unfeeling smoke. She would have stopped his words out of terror, longing. The way terror and longing had become indistinguishable.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse

“Nothing is ever black and white, Nila. You should know that bu now. Its all how you survive the grey." -Kes”
― Pepper Winters, Third Debt

“Kestrel, you are not a basket.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“—El dios de los tontos te quiere a su lado, Arin. ¿En qué estabas pensando para venir a la capital?”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Kestrel pensó que tal vez había estado equivocada, y Risha también, sobre el perdón, que no era barro ni roca sino que se parecía más a las flotantes esporas blancas. Se soltaban de los árboles cuando estaban listas. Eran suaves al tacto, pero había que dejarlas ir, de modo que pudieran encontrar un lugar en el que sembrarse y crecer.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Kiss

“Kestrel was no longer afraid.
And she believed Arin. She believed everything he had ever said to her.
She believed his silence on the other side of the wall, which said that he would stay there as long as she needed.
When Kestrel went inside, she carried his song with her. It was a candle that lit her way and kept watch while she slept.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Curse

“Roncaste tan fuerte que la gente de mis sueños se quejó.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Sin embargo, Kestrel estaba despierta y reconocía el sabor de sus propias mentiras.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Una valoriana resuerda sus deudas.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Niégalo todo hasta que los dioses acaben contigo.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“—El beso fue muy dulce —añadió el jefe de los espías—.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Levantó la mirada hacia la carpintería con volutas del techo y procuró cuidarse mucho de no insultar al dios de los perdidos.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“—El dios de la suerte debe de amarte —comentó Tensen.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Dioses de la locura y las mentiras. Arin había enloquecido.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Recordó el castigo del dios de la música, al que habían encerrado en el cuerpo de un árbol durante un ciclo del panteón: cien años de silencio.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“—¿Y cuando crezca y sea lo bastante grande como para comerse a un hombre?
—Entonces haré que lo cuide Arin.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“—¿Cómo conseguiste sobrevivir con esa boca que tienes, esclavito? ¿Le rogaste a tu dios de la suerte?”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime