Jude Quotes

“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 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

“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

“My poor Jude. My poor sweetheart. And with that he starts to cry. For nobody has called him sweetheart.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“,,,I decided to play the hero. See how it felt. To try.'

'And?' she asks.

'I didn't like it,' he admits. 'Henceforth, I think we should consider our roles as monarchs to be largely decorative. It would be better for the low Courts and the solitary Folk to work things out on their own.'

'I think you have iron poisoning,' she tells him, which could possibly be true but is still a hurtful thing to say when he is making perfect sense.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“It is not your time, love. You will not die tonight.

All this time she thought herself in love with the notion of Death. His gallantry, his beautiful soul. She believed he loved her because he had spared her from his grip. But it had not been Death, but Black.

“Why?” she asked, and her body shook, knowing his sacrifice, knowing he knew her most guarded secret.

“Because I loved you,” he murmured. “I couldn’t let you go, because I knew I could no longer see you, I couldn’t live, either.”

Black had risked his life to save her from taking her own.

He rose, helped her up and clutched her in his arms. “It is too soon for you to make your decision,” he said. “Come to me when you know what you want. My wishes will remain unchanged.”

“What do you want?”

He kissed her, pressed her body into his hot, hard one. “To be inside you. To lay you out and touch you with my hands, my mouth and tongue. I want to slip deep inside you and never leave. I want to wake up in the morning and open my eyes to find you lying there next to me. I want to look at my children and see you in their little faces.”

“Jude,” she whispered, holding him, weakening.

“But I want you to want that as much as I do, Isabella.”

“We have too many secrets,” she began. “Our pasts…”

“Secrets, like passion, are meant to be spent. I will bear all my sins, all my secrets, when you come to me. It’s all I can offer. You see, little love, I’m afraid, too, but the difference between us is that I believe it’s worth it to face that fear if it means that I’ll have you.”
― Charlotte Featherstone, Seduction & Scandal

“You’re like a story that hasn’t happened yet.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“You kissed me, and I opened my eyes and thought you were Death. You were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I clung to the memory of you because it gave me comfort—the only bit of happiness I had ever had. You were my secret fantasy, my lover. My story… Lord Death is you, and the woman he stalks…is me.”

“Why have you come,” he asked, “when you now know the truth?”

“Because when you saved me, you forged a link between us. I don’t believe it will ever break.”

“Bella,” he whispered, “I couldn’t allow you to take your life. Couldn’t bear the thought of existing in a world that you did not.”
― Charlotte Featherstone, Seduction & Scandal

“Jude,” she whispered as she touched his face. “I’m so frightened of this. This bind that links us. It whispers to me to take what you’re offering, but I fear the consequences. I have lived the consequences.”

His fingertips traced the column of her throat down over the swells of her breasts where they lingered until her breath caught. “I am not your father, Isabella, and you are not your mother.”

“I know, but—”

“There are no certainties in life,” he murmured as he lowered his head and kissed the apex of her breast where her heart hammered so hard. “But I can give you this certainty. I love you. And I want you. I have wanted you for so long, and that feeling has only grown. There must be trust between us, Isabella. Passion is not enough for me. I want more from you.”

“You ask for so much,” she said, then trailed off.

“Not any more than I am offering you.”
― Charlotte Featherstone, Seduction & Scandal

“What did you discover about the shooter?” Jude asked as he struggled to sit upright.

“Once I spotted him on the rooftop, I ran up the back stairs to follow him. He was long gone, but he left something behind,” Sussex said.

“Oh?”

“Yes, I’ll take it upon myself to investigate it.”

Jude opened his eyes, his stare focused on the duke. “Do you need my help?”

Alynwick snorted. “A soiled dove with a broken wing,” he drawled. “What use would you be?”

Jude grumbled, “I’ll be fine by the morning.”
― Charlotte Featherstone, Seduction & Scandal

“The crimson satin lining gleamed in the firelight, and so, too, did his eyes. When he looked up at her, there was a mist to them once again.

“Little magpie,” he whispered as he looked at the black onyx ring. “You gave up everything for this, didn’t you?”

She nodded. “That is how much I trust you. Everything I had hidden away in that biscuit jar went to this. All my worldly goods are in that ring, Jude.”

“Then I will take it and hold it close, and never give you cause for regret.” He put the ring on his index finger, and Isabella grinned. How perfect it looked—how utterly sensual. She wanted that ringed hand on her body, comforting her. Loving her.”
― Charlotte Featherstone, Seduction & Scandal

“The money,' I ask. 'Was it real?'

'Oh, yes,' the Prince confirms. 'My sister would be wroth with us otherwise.'

'Wroth.' I echo the archaic word, although I know what it means. Pissed off.

'Super wroth,' he says with a grin.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“I didn't enjoy being a snake, and yet I appear to be doomed to be reminded of it for all eternity,' Cardan was saying, black curls falling across his face. He held a three-pronged fork aloft, as though to emphasise his point. 'The excess of songs hasn't helped, nor has their longevity. It's been what? Eight years? Nine? Truly, the celebratory air about the whole business has been excessive. You'd think I never did a more popular thing than sit in the dark on a throne and bite people who annoyed me. I could have always done that. I could do that now.'

'Bite people?' echoed Jude from the other end of the table.

Cardan grinned at her. 'Yes, if that's what they like.' He snapped his teeth at the air as though to demonstrate.

'No one is interested in that,' Jude said, shaking her head.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“Have I ever told you how much you sound like Madoc when you talk about murder?' Cardan said, opening one eye. 'Because you do.'

Oak expected his sister to be angry, but she only laughed. 'That must be what you like about me.'

'That you're terrifying?' he asked, his drawl becoming exaggeratedly languorous, almost a purr. 'I adore it.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“Good evening, Miss Fairmont.”

She saw Black sprawled out in a wingback chair, jacketless, the white shirt he wore unbuttoned to the waist, revealing an enticing view of his chest and the fine black hair that was hidden beneath. “I was beginning to wonder if you would come tonight. It is midnight after all.”

On cue the large pendulum clock in the hall began to chime out the hour. Isabella met his gaze, marveled at the dark layers in his eyes. He appeared at once indolent, yet supremely masculine, and in his state of dishabille he was utterly breathtaking.”
― Charlotte Featherstone, Seduction & Scandal

“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

“I hate being unwell,' he says.

'You're not sick,' Jude tells him. 'You are recovering from being stabbed- or rather, throwing yourself on a knife.'

'You would have done the same for me,' he says airily.

'I would not,' Jude snaps.

'Liar,' Cardan says fondly.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“His smile dimmed, and he dropped his voice to a whisper. 'This is a real secret. You can't tell anyone. When I was little, I glamoured my mortal sister. I made her hit herself, a lot of times, over and over, and I laughed while she did. It was awful of me, and I never told her that I regretted it. I am afraid of making her remember. She might get really mad.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Oak makes a low moan and tries to sit up. 'Jude,' he mutters. 'Jude, we can't just let him die.”
― Holly Black, The Stolen Heir

“Faeries despise humans as liars, but there are different kinds of lying. Since you and I first came to Faerie, Jude, we've lied to each other plenty. We've pretended to be fine, pretended the possibility of being fine into existence. And when pretending seemed like it might be too hard, we just didn't ask each other the questions that would require it. We smiled and forced laughter and rolled our eyes at the Folk, as though we weren't afraid, when we were both scared all the time.

And if there were hairline cracks in all that pretending, we pretended those away, too.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Does that mean you're going to leave her alone now?'

Cardan leaned in close, close enough that I could feel his breath on my cheek. 'It's much too late for that.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“Why are you looking at Jude like that?' I asked.

'I can't help it,' he said, never taking his gaze from you. 'I'm drawn to trouble.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“It would have been too melodramatic, too final, to say that after this JB was forever diminished for him. But it was true that for the first time, he was able to comprehend that the people he had grown to trust might someday betray him anyway, and that as disappointing as it might be, it was inevitable as well, and that life would keep propelling him steadily forward, because for everyone who might fail him in some way, there was at least one person who never would.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“My Bloodstone scion. My Ice Queen. My avenging angel. Mine, mine, mine. The thought rolled through me with the pounding of my heart, but I wasn't really aiming to make her mine. I was aiming to be hers. Her ally, her friend, her lover, her whatever-the-hell-she-needed-me-to-be, as long as it meant she'd have me, one way or another.”
― Eva Chase, Cruel Magic

“He's every bit as terrifying as any serpent.

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

“He might have lied when he said he was perfectly sane.”
― R.L. Merrill, Hurricane Reese

“Jude?' [Madoc said (after he stabbed her in the side)]”
― Holly Black, The Wicked King

“You can't just keep throwing yourself at things as though you don't matter.'

'She matters more,' he says.”
― Holly Black, The Prisoner’s Throne

“A woman like that who still loves you after you walked out of her life at the worst possible time? That's a damn miracle. You don't appreciate it, and I'm pretty sure God is going to strike you down.”
― Catherine Cowles, Whispers of You

“I squeeze his arm as Heather sticks the food in the oven. “Of course she will. Think of being here with Vivi as an apprenticeship. You learn what you need to know, and then you come home.”

“How will I know when I’ve learned it, since I don’t know it now?” he asks.

The question sounds like a riddle. “Come back when returning feels like a hard choice instead of an easy one,” I answer finally. Vivi looks over, as though she’s overheard. Her expression is thoughtful.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince