The Queen Of Nothing Quotes

“Clap her in chains," says Randalin.
Never have I so wished there was a way for me to show I was telling the truth. But there isn't. No oath of mine carries any weight.
I feel a guard's hand close on my arm. Then Cardan's voice comes.
"Do not touch her."
A terrible silence follows. I wait for him to pronounce judgement on me. Whatever he commands will be done. His power is absolute. I don't even have the strength to fight back.
"Whatever can you mean?" Randalin says. "She's-"
"She is my wife," Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd.
"The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“My sweet nemesis , how glad I am that you returned”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I am the Queen of Elfhame.
Even though I am the queen in exile, I am still the queen.
And that means Madoc isn't just trying to take Cardon's throne.
He's trying to take mine.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Come home and shout at me. Come home and
fight with me. Come home and break my
heart, if you must.
Just come home.
Cardan”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“To the High Queen of Elfhame,

Above me is the same silvery moon that shines down on you. Looking at it makes me recall the glint of your blade pressed against my throat and other romantic moments.

I do not know what keeps you from returning
to the High Court—whether it is vexation
with me, or whether, having spent time in
the mortal world, you have come to believe
that a life free of the Folk is better than one
ruling over them.

In my most wretched hours, I believe you will
never come back.

Why would you, save for your ambition?
You have always known exactly what I am
and seen all my failings, all my weaknesses
and scars. I flattered myself that at moments
you had feelings for me other than contempt,
but even were that true, they would be but
watered wine beside the feast of your other,
greater desires.

And yet my heart is buried with you in the
strange soil of the mortal world, as it was
drowned with you in the cold waters of the
Undersea.

It was yours before I could admit it, and yours
it shall ever remain.

Cardan”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Jude,

You are in no mood for games. Very well. I am in no mood for them, either.

Let me write it outright: you are pardoned. I revoke your banishment. I rescind my words. Come home.

Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must.

Just come home.

Cardan”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“It's you I love," he says. "I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn't have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE JUDE
PLEASE JUDE”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Jude,

Since I cannot imagine there is much in the human lands to interest you, I can only suppose your continued absence in Elfhame is due to me.

I urge you: come be angry at a nearer distance.

Cardan.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Jude,

Not even responding to my missives is ridiculous and beneath you and I hate it.

Cardan”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“What I want is him back, him standing beside me, him laughing at all this. I would settle for even his worst self, his cruellest trickster self, if only he could be here.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I missed you," I whisper against his skin and feel dizzy with the intimacy of the admission, feel more naked than when he could see every inch of me. "In the mortal world, when I thought you were my enemy, I still missed you."

"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned." He pulls my body against his, cradling my head against his chest. We are still lying on the floor, although a perfectly good bed is right next to us.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“He will be the destruction of the crown and the ruination of the throne.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I let go of him and remain standing. I promised myself I would do this, if I ever had the chance again.. I promised I would do this the first moment I could.

'I love you,' I say, the words coming out in an unintelligible rush.

Cardan looks taken aback. Or possibly I spoke so fast he's not even sure what I said. 'You need not say it out of pity,' he says finally, with great deliberateness. 'Or because I was under a curse. I have asked you to lie to me in the past, in this very room, but I would beg you not to lie now.'

My cheeks heat at the memory of those lies.

'I have not made myself easy to love,' he says, and I hear the echo of his mother's words in his.

When I imagined telling him, I thought I would say the words, and it would be like pulling off a bandage- painful and swift. But I didn't think he would doubt me. 'I first started liking you when we went to talk to the rulers of the low Courts,' I say. 'You were funny, which was weird. And when we went to Hollow Hall, you were clever. I kept remembering how you'd been the one to get us out of the brugh after Dain's coronation, right before I put the knife to your throat.'

He doesn't try to interrupt, so I have to choice but to barrel on.

'After I tricked you into being High King,' I say. 'I thought once you hated me, I could go back to hating you. But I didn't. And I felt so stupid. I thought I would get my heart broken. I thought it was a weakness that you would use against me. But then you saved me from the Undersea when it would have been much more convenient to just leave me to rot. After that, I started to hope my feelings were returned. But then there was the exile-' I take a ragged breath. 'I hid a lot, I guess. I thought if I didn't, if I let myself love you, I would burn up like a match. Like the whole matchbook.'

'But now you've explained it,' he says. 'And you do love me.'

'I love you,' I confirm.

'Because I am clever and funny,' he says, smiling. 'You didn't mention my handsomeness.'

'Or your deliciousness,' I say. 'Although those are both good qualities.'

He pulls me to him, so that we're both lying on the couch. I look down at the blackness of his eyes and the softness of his mouth. I wipe a fleck of dried blood from the top of one pointed ear. 'What was it like?' I ask. 'Being a serpent.'

He hesitates. 'It was like being trapped in the dark,' he says. 'I was alone, and my instinct was to lash out. I was perhaps not entirely an animal, but neither was I myself. I could not reason. There was only feelings- hatred and terror and the desire to destroy.'

I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. 'And you.' He looks at me, his lips curving in something that's not quite a smile; it's more and less than that. 'I knew little else, but I always knew you.'

And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Though I would not delight to see the straps sink into your skin, neither would I mourn.'

'Enough blustering,' he says. 'You've already won. Look.'

He takes me by the shoulders and turns me so that I can see where the great body of the serpent lies. A jolt of horror goes through me, and I try to wrench out of his grip. And then I notice the fighting has ebbed, the Folk are staring. From within the body of the creature emanates a glow.

And then, through that, Cardan steps out. Cardan, naked and covered in blood.

Alive.

Only out of his spilled blood can a great ruler rise.
...
Cardan takes a step forward and little cracks appear from his footfalls. Fissures in the very earth. He speaks with a boom that echoes through everyone gathered there. 'The curse is broken. The king is returned.'

He's every bit as terrifying as any serpent.

I don't care. I run into his arms.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“What was it like?" I ask. "Being a serpent."

He hesitates. "It was like being trapped in the dark," he says. "I was alone, and my instinct was to lash out. I was perhaps not entirely an animal, but neither was I myself. I could not reason. There was only feelings--hatred and terror and the desire to destroy."

I start to speak, but he stops me with a gesture. "And you." He looks at me, his lips curving in something that's not quite a smile; it's more and less than that. "I knew little else, but I always knew you."

And when he kisses me, I feel as though I can finally breathe again.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“It is said that faerie children are not like mortal children. They need little in the way of love. They need not be tucked in at night, but may sleep just as happily in a cold corner of a ballroom, curled up in a tablecloth. They need not be fed; they are just as happy lapping up dew and skimming bread and cream from the kitchens. They need not be comforted, since they seldom weep.

But if faerie children need little love, faerie princes require some counsel.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I raise a plastic glass. 'To family.'

'And Faerieland,' says Taryn, raising hers.

'And pizza,' says Oak.

'And stories,' says Heather.

'And new beginnings,' says Vivi.

Cardan smiles, his gaze on me. 'And scheming great schemes.'

To family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes. I can toast to that.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“It's ridiculous the way everyone acts like killing a king is going to make someone better at being one," Vivi says. "Imagine if, in the mortal world, a lawyer passed the bar by killing another lawyer.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Vivi blows a noisemaker. 'Here,' she says, passing out paper crowns for us to wear.

'This is ridiculous,' I complain, but put mine on.

Cardan looks at his reflection in the door of the microwave and adjusts his crown so it's at an angle.

I roll my eyes, and he gives me a quick grin. And my heart hurts a little because we are all together and safe, and it wasn't something I'd known how to want. And Cardan looks a little shy in the face of all this happiness, as unused to it as I am. There will be struggles to come, I am certain, but right now I am equally sure we will find our way through them.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I feel a guard's hand close on my arm. Then Cardan's voice comes.
"Do not touch her."
A terrible silence follows. I wait for him to pronounce judgement on me. Whatever he commands will be done. His power is absolute. I don't even have the strength to fight back.
"Whatever can you mean?" Randalin says. "She's-"

"She is my wife,"

Cardan says, his voice carrying over the crowd.
"The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Braziers blaze, and the sky is thick with sea spray and incense. The ground beneath us is moon-blooming phlox.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I am in a gown of deep forest green with crow feathers covering the shoulders and sleeves, while Cardan wears a doublet ornamented with bright beetle wings.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“You who dwell in the shadows, I wish for you to stand with us sometimes in the light,' says Cardan. 'To each, I give a mask. When you wear it, no one will be able to recall your height or the timbre of your voice. And in that mask, let no one in Elfhame turn you away. Every hearth will be open to you, including mine.'

They bow and lift the masks to their faces. When they do, there's a soft of distortion around them.

'You are kind, my king,' says one, and even I, who know them, cannot tell which is speaking. But what no mask can hide is how, once they give their bows and depart, one masked figure takes another's gloved hand.

Or how the third turns his shiny metal face toward Taryn.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“...she speculates about all the aspects of the mortal world she's going to have to explain to Dad. 'Like cell phones,' she says. 'Or self-checkout in the grocery store. Oh, this is going to be amazing. Seriously, his exile is the best present you ever got me.'

'You know that he's going to be so bored that he's going to try to micromanage your life,' Taryn says. 'Or plan your invasion of a neighbouring apartment building.'

At that, Vivi stops smiling.

It makes Oak giggle, though.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I think of Cardan's words in the brugh, before he destroyed the crown: neither loyalty nor love should be compelled.
He was right. Of course he was right.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“This is my room," he points out, affronted. "And that’s my wife."
"So you keep telling everyone," the Bomb says.
"But I am going to take out her stitches, and I don’t think you want to watch that."
"Oh, I don’t know," I say. "Maybe he’d like to hear me scream."
"I would," Cardan says, standing. "And perhaps one day I will.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“All power is cursed…The most terrible among us will do anything to get it, and those who’d wield power best don’t want it thrust upon them.”
― Holly Black

“I knew you liked her" says Locke. "that's why I had to have her first. Do you remember the party in my maze garden? How I kissed her while you watched?"

"I recall that your hands were on her, but her eyes were on me" Cardan returns”
― Holly Black

“If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry,
I would hurt you back”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince / The Wicked King / The Queen of Nothing