The Winner's Crime Quotes

“If you won’t be my friend, you’ll regret being my enemy.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“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

“Sometimes you think you want something,” Arin told him, “when in reality you need to let it go.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

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

“I don’t mind being a moth. I would probably start eating silk if it meant that I could fly.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“There was dishonor, she decided, in accepting someone else’s idea of honor without question.”
― 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

“He did not want her to know.
He did not want her to see.
But:
Look at me, he found himself thinking furiously at her. Look at me.
She lifted her eyes, and did.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“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

“His dear face, dear to her, dearer still. how could she love his face more for its damage? What kind of person saw someone's suffering and felt her heart crack open even wider, even more sweetly than before?
There was something wrong with her. It was wrong to want to touch a scar and call it beautiful.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Her fierce creature of a mind: sleek and sharp-clawed and utterly unwilling to be caught.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“You snored,” Kestrel said. “I did not.” “You did. You snored so loudly that the people in my dreams complained.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“She breathed in the cold, and it felt free, so she felt free, and it felt alive, so she felt alive.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“You can't see both sides of one coin at once, can you, child? The god of money always keeps a secret.
The god of money was also the god of spies.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Brother, you are mad,” said the queen. “He loves me,” Roshar protested. The cub was sleeping huddled against Rosher’s leg. “And when it has grown, and is large enough to eat a man?” “Then I’ll make Arin take care of him.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“So you give me nothing.”
“When have I ever given you anything?”
Softly, Arin said, “You gave me much, once.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“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

“Sometimes you think you want something,” Arin told him, “when what you need is to let it go.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Arin hadn’t fallen asleep on the deck of his strangely still ship, yet, it felt as if he’d been dreaming. As if dreams and memories and lies were the same thing.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“The guard hit Kestrel across the face. “I said, what did you give him?”

You had a warrior’s heart, even then.

Kestrel spat blood. “Nothing,” she told the guard. She thought of her father, she thought of Arin. She told her final lie. “I gave him nothing.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Kestrel’s laugh was white in the cold. “We could gamble for your coat.”
“Ah, love, why don’t we skip to the part where you win and I give it to you?”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Sometimes, Arin almost understood what Kestrel had done. Even now, as he felt the drift of the boat and didn't fight its pull, Arin remembered the yearning in Kestrel's face whatever she'd mentioned her father. Like a homesickness. Arin had wanted to shake it out of her. Especially during those early months when she had owned him. He had wanted to force her to see her father for what he was. He had wanted her to acknowledge what she was, how she was wrong, how she shouldn't long for her father's love. It was soacked in blood. Didn't she see that? How could she not?

Once, he'd hated her for it. Then it had somehow touched him. He knew it himself. He, too, wanted what he shouldn't. He, too, felt the heart chooses its own home and refuses reason. Not here, he'd tried to say. Not this. Not mine. Never. But he had felt the same sickness.

In retrospect, Kestrel's role in the taking of the eastern plains was predictable. Sometimes he damned her for currying favor with the emperor, or blamed her playing war like a game just because she could. Yet he thought he knew the truth of her reasons. She'd done it for her father. It almost made sense. At least, it did when he was near sleep and his mind was quiet, and it was harder to help what entered. Right before sleep, he came close to understanding. But he was awake now.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Her blood felt laced with black powder. How could she have forgotten what it was like to burn on a fuse before him?”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Once, he'd hated her for it. Then it had somehow touched him. He knew it himself. he, too, felt how the heart chooses its own home and refuses reason.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“How did you ever survive, little slave, with that mouth of yours?”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“The world went luscious, and slow, and still.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“The sky was a feather blanket of clouds, save for one blue hole in the fabric. A blue cloud in a white sky.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Arin would trade his heart for a snarled knot of thread if it meant he would never have to see Kestrel again.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime

“Kestrel...”
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 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

“He did not want her to know. He did not want her to see. But: Look at me, he found himself thinking furiously at her. Look at me. She lifted her eyes, and did.”
― Marie Rutkoski, The Winner's Crime