Fourth Wing Quotes

“Let's go, Violet Sorrengail.' He lifts his head, and the golden dragon peeks out from under his wing.

'How do you know my name?' I gawk up at him.

'And to think, I'd almost forgotten just how loquacious humans are.' He sighs, the gust of his breath rattling the trees. 'Get on my back.'

Oh. Shit. He's choosing... me.

'Get on your back?' I repeat like a fucking parrot. 'Have you seen you? Do you have any idea how huge you are?' I'd need a damned ladder to get up there.

The look he gives me can only be described as annoyance. 'One does not live a century without being well aware of the space one takes up. Now get on.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I'm used to functioning in pain, asshole. Are you?”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“You should end the enemy at your feet.'
...
'I can't kill an unconscious man.'
...
'He would kill you given the same chance.'

'Well, that's a statement on his character. Not mine.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Stop letting fear leach into your voice,' Luca snaps from behind Rhiannon. 'If the dragons think you're a coward, you'll be nothing but a name tomorrow.'

'She says,' Ridoc narrates, 'inducing more fear.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I would strongly recommend you rethink your actions.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“She destroyed my shoulder!' Jack cries, stumbling to his feet and distracting the others. 'I can't move it!' He clutches the joint, and I grin.

'That's the thing about having weak joints,' I say, palming another blade. 'You know exactly where to strike.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Here's the thing, Sorrengail. Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs- on the probabilities.'

'So I'm supposed to what? Not hope that I live? Just plan for death?'

'You're supposed to focus on the things that can kill you so you find ways not to die.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I don't know if I can watch,' Dain says, drawing my attention back to his strong face. His perfectly trimmed beard brackets full lips drawn tight into a frown.

'Then close your eyes.' I have a plan- a shitty one, but it's worth a try.

'What changed between Parapet and now?' Dain asks again, a wealth of emotions in his eyes that I can't begin to interpret. Well, except the fear. That doesn't need any interpretation.

'Me.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Your hands are bound, too. Do you bleed often?'

'I try not to.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“But most importantly, if I go, if I hide... I'll never know if I'm good enough to make it here. And while I might not survive if I stay, I'm not sure I can live with myself if I leave.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I block out the pain, lock it behind a wall like I've done my entire life...”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I think I'm just as loyal to my sister whether I've had a letter from her or not,' I counter. 'There are bonds that can't be broken.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“The post knocks a chunk of granite loose, and the rock tumbles down the course, smacking every obstacle in its path until it crashes twenty feet in front of us. If there was ever a metaphor for my life, well... that's it.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Just because he's a dick, doesn't mean you have to be.'

'But he's giving me so much material to work with.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“You keeping any other secrets up there?' Rhiannon eventually asks.

Guilt settles in my stomach when I think of Xaden and his meeting with the other marked ones. 'I think it's impossible to know everything there is to know about someone.' I feel like shit but keep from lying, at least.

She snorts a laugh. 'If that wasn't skirting the question. How about this? Promise me that if you need help, you'll let me give it to you.'

A smile spreads across my face despite the terrifying greens we're walking by. 'How about this,' I toss over my shoulder. 'I promise that if I need help you're capable of giving, I'll ask, but only-' I hold up my forefinger- 'if you promise the same.'

'Deal.' She smiles wide.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Holy shit are we insignificant.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“You can't interfere!' Tynan shouts at Xaden, but I don't dare look away from my opponent long enough to see how the wingleader reacts.

'No, but I can narrate,' Xaden retorts.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I shrug. 'They were just dead flowers.'

'They were mutilated violets.' HIs mouth tightens and I go to him, resting my hands on his head.

'It's not like they came with a death note or anything.' I tease, stroking his soft brown hair.

He looks up at me, the mage lights making his eyes a little brighter above his trim beard. 'They're threats.'

I shrug. 'Every cadet gets threatened.'

'Every cadet doesn't have to wrap their knees every day,' he fires back.

'The injured ones do.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I never said I don't think you can cut it, Violet.'

'You say it every day!' I snap. 'You say it when you walk me from formation to class, which I know makes you late for flight line. You say it when you yell at your wingleader when he takes me to the mat-'

'He had no right to-'

'He's my wingleader!' I shrug my tunic over my head. 'He has the right to do whatever he wants- including execute me.'

'And that's why you need to get the hell out of here!' Dain laces his fingers behind his neck, and begins to pace. 'I've been watching, Vi. He's just toying with you, like a cat plays with a mouse before the kill.'

'I've held my own so far!' My satchel is heavy with books as I settle it on my shoulder. 'I've won every challenge-'

'Except today when he wiped the floor with you time and again.' He grasps my shoulders. 'Or did you miss the part when he took every weapon so you knew exactly how easy it is to defeat you?'

I raise my chin and glare at him. 'I was there, and I've survived almost two months in this place, which is more than I can say for a fourth of my year!”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I'm not a damned liability.' My chest tightens again, because deep down I know, on the physical level, that I am.

'Not to me,' he whispers, a hand rising to cradle my cheek. 'But they don't know you the way I do, Vi.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“You know the problem with this place?' I tug my arm back again, but he holds fast. 'Besides you touching things that don't belong to you?' My eyes narrow on him.

'I'm sure you're going to tell me.' My stomach flutters as his thumb brushes my pulse and he releases my wrist.

I answer before I can think better of it. 'Hope.'

'Hope?' He tips his head closer to mine as if he wasn't sure he heard me right.

'Hope.' I nod. 'Someone like you would never get it, but I knew coming here was a death sentence. It didn't matter that I've been trained my entire life to enter the Scribe Quadrant; when General Sorrengail gives an order, you can't exactly ignore it.' Gods, why am I running off at the mouth to this man? What's the worst he'll do? Kill you?

'Sure you can.' He shrugs. 'You just might not like the consequences.'

I roll my eyes and to my utter embarrassment, instead of pulling away now that I'm free, I lean in just a little, like I can siphon off some of his strength. He certainly has enough to spare.

'I knew what the odds were, and I came anyway, concentrating on that tiny percentage of chance that I would live. And then I make it almost two months and I get...' I shake my head, clenching my jaw. 'Hopeful.' The word tastes sour.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Maybe if you stopped sulking in your self-pity, you'd see that you have everything you need to scale the Gauntlet,' he calls after me, his voice echoing down the hallway.

'My self-what?' I turn around, my jaw dropping.

'People die,' he says slowly, his jaw ticking before he drags in a deep breath. 'It's going to happen over and over again. It's the nature of what happens here. What makes you a rider is what you do after people die. You want to know why you're still alive? Because you're the scale I currently judge myself against every night. Every day I let you live, I get to convince myself that there's still a part of me that's a decent person. So if you want to quit, then please, spare me the temptation and fucking quit. But if you want to do something, then do it.'

'I'm too short to span the distance!' I hiss, uncaring that anyone could hear us.

'The right way isn't the only way. Figure it out.' Then he turns and walks away.

Fuck. Him.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Change your mind.' It's barely a whisper.

'No.' I sound way more confident than I feel.

'Change. Your. Mind.' HIs hand finds mine, concealed by our tight formation as we descend through the passage. 'Please.'

'I can't.' I shake my head. 'Any more than you would leave Cath and run to the scribes yourself.'

'That's different.' His hand squeezes mine, and I can feel the tension in his fingers, in his arm. 'I'm a rider.'

'Well, maybe I am, too.' I whisper as light appears ahead. I didn't believe it before, not when I couldn't leave because my mother wouldn't let me, but now I have a choice. And I choose to stay.

'Don't be-' He cuts himself off and drops my hand. 'I don't want to bury you, Vi.'

'It's inevitable that one of us will have to bury the other.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“There's only one way I'm getting over this.

Sheer fucking will.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“We live by the rules or we die by them!”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Sorrengail,' Xaden says, and my eyes fly open. 'You're leaking.' His gaze drops pointedly to my hands.

Where blood is dripping from my fingertips.

Pain erupts, pushing past my mental dam like a raging river at the sight of the mess I've made of my palms. I've shredded them.

'Do something about it,' he orders.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“The leaves of the trees are all turning gold, as though someone has brought in a paintbrush with only one colour and streaked it across the landscape.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“I don't need you to protect me.'

'I know. But it's just what friends do, Rhi.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“-whatever I do next has overwhelming odds of ending my life.

And yet, I'm still going to do it because this is wrong.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“You are a rider, are you not?'

'That seems up for debate at the moment.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing