Julie Kagawa

“You realize you've been duped by a fish," I said, watching the catfish grin at me before slipping into the dark waters, lost from view. Puck shrugged."Hey, it was going to name one of its grandfish after me," he said, tossing the line into the water again. "That's one of my rules, you know. I refuse to eat anything that names its kid after me.”

“Mi vida... todo lo que soy... te pertenece" -Ash”

“¿Por qué estás aquí, Grim?" "¿No es obvio?" Bostezó Grimalkin y miró a cada uno de nosotros a su vez. "Por la misma razón por la que siempre estoy aquí, humana. Para evitar que caigas en un agujero oscuro o vagues en un nido de arañas gigantes.”

“Mi nombre es Ashallyn‘darkmyr Tallyn, tercer hijo de la Corte Unseelie. Que sea conocido, desde hoy en adelante,que yo prometo proteger a Meghan Chase, hija del Rey de Verano, con mi espada, mi honor y mi vida. Sus anhelos son míos. Sus deseos son míos. Si el mundo se pone en su contra, mi espada estará a su lado. Y en caso de que no la proteja, que mi propia existencia se pierda. Esto lo juro, por mi honor, mi Nombre Verdadero y mi vida. A partir de este día… Yo soy tuyo.”

“Que Dios me perdone si yo estaba siendo egoísta, pero no quería nada más que permanecer con él para siempre.”

“Qué fácil es olvidar rencores cuando alguien tiene algo que necesitas -Puck”

“Oh, no lo se princesa. Tal vez fue porque soy lo suficientemente estúpido como para cuidar de ti. Tal vez lo soy pues pensé que había una oportunidad. Tonto de mi, pensar que un pequeño beso significaba algo para ti. -Puck”

“Disfrutas haciendo que mi corazon se pare, no?" - Ash”

“Yo creo que ustedes los mortales tienen una frase: Come, bebe y sé feliz, porque mañana podrias morir"?”

“...Ademas, yo tenia algo mejor que un hada madrina, tenia mi hada caballero, mi hada embustero, y mi gato hada, y eso era suficiente”

“Te Amo" murmuro el, y mi corazon casi estallo fuera de mi pecho, "Pase lo que pase, estamos juntos ahora. Siempre”

“ A partir de este dia..." Su voz fue aun mas suave, pero aun asi lo escuche como si el lo susurrara en mi oido. "Yo soy tuyo”

“Estar contigo nunca es aburrido- Ash”

“Estaba en un cuento de hadas, ¿no es así? Estaba interpretando mi parte en la historia, la niña humana que se había enamorado del príncipe encantado.”

“Supongo que debería haberte advertido de que tengo una ligera vena posesiva. Ash”

“Si tú quieres que tome clases como un estudiante, puedo hacerlo. Si quieres mudarte a una gran ciudad para perseguir tus sueños, te seguiré. Y si algún día deseas casarte con un vestido blanco y hacer esto oficial ante los ojos humanos, estoy dispuesto a hacer eso también (...)―Para bien o para mal, me temo que estas ligada a mí por ahora.”

“Aprendí que el amor puede trascender la raza y el tiempo, y que puede ser hermoso y perfecto por lo que vale la pena luchar, pero que también es frágil y desgarrador, y en ocasiones el sacrificio es necesario. Que a veces eres tú contra el mundo, y no hay respuestas fáciles. Que tienes que saber cuándo retenerlo… y cuando dejarlo ir.”

“I would have gotten you there!" Puck roared. "Me! You don't need his help! Don't you trust me to keep you safe? I would've given everything for you. Why didn't you think I'd be enough?”

“Who knows what goes on in the mind of a cat?”

“He favored me with another patient look. “And how much experience do you have with swords and weapons in general?” “Um.” I glanced down at the saber in my hand. “Thirty seconds?”He smiled, that calm, irritatingly confident smirk. “You’re not going to hit me.”

“I would be more than her guardian and her champion and the jester who made her laugh. I would be her everything, if I could. -Puck”

“After all, that’s what you’re best at, isn’t it? Watching?”

“Grimalkin snorted. "Just because he cannot lie does not mean he cannot deceive, human. Robin Goodfellow is an expert at dancing around the truth.""Oh, look who's talking. If you're not an expert at screwing people over, I'll eat my head.”

“The Desert of Lost Things," Puck said dramatically. "Well, that's appropriate. We're here, aren't we?”

“I barely recognized myself, but maybe that was a good thing. After all, that was why I was here; to become something else, someone else. If all went as planned, Ashallyn'darkmyr Tally, third prince of the Unseelie Court would not longer exist. What will it be like as a human?...Will I still be myself? Will I remember everything about my life in the Winter Court, or will those memories disappear?”

“Ari...I will always love you. I always have.Nothing will change that." I squeezed her hand, then gently released it. "You'll always be a part of me. But...I'm not in love with you...anymore.And despite my promise,despite seeing you again, I do this because I want to be with Meghan, nothing else" Ariella's eyes glazed over, and I eased back, speaking as gently as I could "I can't be yours, Ariella. I'm sorry.”

“This one," Ash growled "is off limits.”

“Worry not, ice-boy. I already have a plan.” I flashed him my best impish smile, rubbing my hands together. “One brilliant Goodfellow prank, coming right up.” -puck”

“My name is Ferrum. I was the first, born of the forges, when mankind first began to experiment with iron. I rose from their imagination, from their ambition to conquer the world with a metal that could slice through bronze like paper. I was there when the world started to shift, when humans took their first steps out of the Dark Ages into civilization. For many years, I thought I was alone. But mankind is never satisfied. Others came, risen from these dreams of a new world... Then, with the invention of computers, the gremlins came, and the bugs. Given life by the fear of monsters lurking in machines, these were more chaotic than the other fey, violent and destructive. They spread to every part of the world. As technology became a driving force in every country, powerful new fey rose into existence. Virus. Glitch. And Machina, the most powerful of all.”

“My eyes prickled as Ash leaned in and kiss me. A particulary loud snore came from the cave, and the lump in the corner rolled toward us suspiciously”

“Any Iron bastard that wants you will have to get past me, first.' He rolled his eyes. 'And of course, the dark knight over there.”

“I don't normally wear armor, but then, I don't normally have to face an army of Iron fey, either.”

“When he was kidnapped by the Iron King and taken into the Nevernever, she didn’t hesitate to go after him. And she didn’t stop there. When her magic was sealed by Mab, leaving her defenseless in the Winter Court, she somehow managed to survive, even when she thought you had turned on her. When the Scepter of the Seasons was stolen by the Iron fey, she went after it, despite having no magic and no weapon with which to defend herself. And when the courts asked her to destroy the false king, she accepted, even though the Summer and Iron glamours within her were making her sick, and she couldn’t use either of them effectively. She still went into the Iron Kingdom toface a tyrant she didn’t know if she could overcome.“Now,” Ariella finished, turning toward me, “do you still believe humans are weak?”

“It would be dreadfullyironic, I mused, if once I earned a soul, I forgot everything about being fey, including all my memories of her. That sort of ending seemedappropriately tragic; the smitten fey creature becomes human but forgets why he wanted to in the first place. Old fairy tales loved that sort of irony.”

“She turned suddenly, and before I could react, framed my face with her hands and pressed her lips to mine.I froze, mostly in shock, but after a moment my body uncoiled and I closed my eyes, relaxing into her. I remembered this; the feel of her lips on mine,cool and soft, the touch of her fingers on my skin. I remembered her scent, those long nights when we would lie under the cold, frozen stars,dreaming in each other’s arms.For a second, my body reacted instinctively. I started to pull us closer, to wrap my arms around her and return the kiss with equal passion…but, thenI stopped.I remembered this perfectly; every shining moment with Ariella was forever etched into my mind. What we’d had, what we’d shared, everything. I’dbuilt a shrine to her in my memories, carefully tended with grief and anger and regret. I knew every inch of our relationship, the passion, the feelingof emptiness when we weren’t together, the longing and, yes, the love. I had been in love with Ariella. I remembered what she’d meant to me once,what I’d felt for her then……and what I didn’t feel for her now.”

“Meghan rose with the regal grace of a queen, calm and unruffled. I noticed she subtly moved in front of me when facing Ariella, a familiar gesture that caught me off guard. The Iron Queen was protecting me.”

“You think I don’t know pain?” Puck shook his head at me. “Or loss? I’ve been around a lot longer than you, prince! I know what love is, and I’ve lostmy fair share, too. Just because we have a different way of handling it, doesn’t mean I don’t have scars of my own.”“Name one,” I scoffed. “Give me one instance where you haven’t—”“Meghan Chase!” Puck roared, startling me into silence. I blinked, and he sneered at me. “Yeah, your highness. I know what loss is. I’ve loved thatgirl since before she knew me. But I waited. I waited because I didn’t want to lie about who I was. I wanted her to know the truth before anything else.So I waited, and I did my job. For years, I protected her, biding my time, until the day she went into the Nevernever after her brother. And then youcame along. And I saw how she looked at you. And for the first time, I wanted to kill you as much as you wanted to kill me.”

“Though sometimes we'd end up debating whether or not not faery terms like Gwragedd Annwn and hobyahs were legal to use”

“Ash, it's because of you that I am here today. You have always been there, never wavering, protecting me with no thought for yourself. You've been my teacher, my knight and my only love. Now it's my turn to make that promise.”

“I was Ashallayn’darkmyr Tallyn, son of Mab, former prince of the Unseelie Court, and I was not afraid of a witch on a broom.”

“What if I can’t?” I whispered. “What if the Iron King truly is invincible?”“Then we will all die,” said the Elder Dryad, and faded back into her oak. The otherdryads left, leaving me alone with a cat, a prince, and a stick. I sighed and looked down atthe wood in my hands.“No pressure or anything,” I muttered.”

“No, ice-boy. I never thought I'd see the day when Grimalkin was wrong." - Puck”

“The Wolf snarled, tensing his muscles, as if he wished he could climb the tree after the feline. "One day I will catch you on the ground, cat," he said through bared teeth. "And you won't even know I'm there until I tear your head off." "You have been saying that since before humans had fire, dog," Grimalkin replied, completely undisturbed. "You'll have to forgive me if I don't hold my breath."- The Big Bad Wolf and Grimalkin”

“The stubborn fool is walking now, and even challenged Robin to a sparring match this afternoon. I stopped them, of course, though Robin was only too happy to fight him, the idiot.”

“How predictable,” Grimalkin sighed, appearing in the doorway. We gaped athim, and he regarded us with amusement. “I thought you might need a second way out. Why is it always up to me to think of these things?”

“I’m going to kill you one day,” I told him as we hurried after Grimalkin, back into the swampy marshland. It was not an idle threat.Puck just laughed. “Yeah. You and everyone else, prince. Join the club.”

“Why didn’t you run? I tried to buy you some time. You should’ve gone ahead.” ”Are you crazy? I couldn’t leave you to that thing. Now, come on.”I took his hand, tugging him off the post while glancing nervously at the frozen dragon. “Let’s get out of here. I think that thing just blinked at us.”.His fingers tightened on mine and pulled me forward. Startled and overbalanced, I looked up at him, and then he was kissing me.”

“WORRY NOT, PRINCESS,” Ironhorse said, and I gaped at him, not believing my eyes. Where a horse had been, now a man stood before me, dark and massive, with a square jaw and fists the size of hams. He wore jeans and a black shirt that bulged with all the muscles underneath, the skin stretched tight over steely tendons. Dreadlocks spilled from his scalp like a mane, and his eyes still burned with that intense red glow. “YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH A FEW TRICKS UP YOUR SLEEVE, GOODFELLOW,” he said, a faint smirk beneath his voice. “NOW, GO. I WILL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU.”

“Yeah, but you don’t need a machine gun to kill a fly.”

“How do you know your way around this place, Grim?”Grimalkin blinked. “I am a cat,” he said, and vanished down one of thetunnels.”