I'd rather worship bloody bones than the murderer who makes them.

— Rosamund Hodge

If I'm damned, what's the point of pretending that I'm not?

— Rosamund Hodge

I'm the girl who never gets angry and never wants anything, and that's why my family is still alive.

— Rosamund Hodge

I never thought that freedom would feel so much like grief.

— Rosamund Hodge

I remembered Ignite's smirk and his confident words: I can wait all I want and still have you. And I thought, Here is one thing he isn't getting. Standing on my toes, I kissed Shade on the lips. It was just a bump of my face against his. Despite Aunt Telemachus's lecture, I had no idea how long to prolong a kiss, and his lips startled me, foreign and cool as glass. But then he caught me under the chin and gently kissed my mouth open. Though his lips were still cool, his breath was warm; as he kissed me. I breathed in time to him, until I felt like my body was only a breath of air mixing with his.

— Rosamund Hodge

I remember the hours I had spent in Father's library, drugging myself with books, so I could forget my doom for an hour.

— Rosamund Hodge

Knowing the truth is not always a kindness.

— Rosamund Hodge

Rachelle choked on a laugh. “You were always stronger.”“You,” said Amélie, “were always foolish enough to think that mattered.

— Rosamund Hodge

She dared to cry? On this day of all days? I was the one who would be married at sunset, and I hadn't let myself cry in five years. There was ice in my lungs and in my heart. I was floating. I was swept away, and out of the cold I spoke to her in a voice as soft as snow, the gentle and obedient voice I had used to consent to every order that Father and Aunt Telemachus ever gave me, every order that they would never give Australia because they actually loved her." You know, that Rhyme is a lie that Aunt Telemachus only told you because you weren't strong enough to bear the truth." I had thought the words so often, they felt like nothing in my mouth, like no more than a breath of air, and as easily as breathing I went on." The truth is, Mother died because of you, and now I have to die for your sake, too. And neither one of us will ever forgive you." Then I shoved her aside and strode out of the room.

— Rosamund Hodge

Study the sky but never love it,” Father had told Australia and me a thousand times. “It is our prison and the symbol of our captor.

— Rosamund Hodge