Hunted Quotes

“To the girl
who reads by flashlight
who sees dragons in the clouds
who feels most alive in worlds that never were
who knows magic is real
who dreams

This is for you”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“She wept because she did not know what she wanted, and because she wanted everything.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“She moves like beauty, she whispers to us of wind and forest—and she tells us stories, such stories that we wake in the night, dreaming dreams of a life long past. she reminds us of what we used to be.

She reminds us of what we could be.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“There's no such thing as living happily ever after — there's only living. We make the choice to do it happily.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“if you’re reading this book, then you’re also that child reading by flashlight and dreaming of other worlds. Don’t be scared of her, that inner Beauty, or her dreams. Let her out. She’s you, and she’s me, and she’s magic. There’s”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“Fairy tales are about lessons. Those who are virtuous and true are rewarded, while those who are wicked and greedy are punished.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“I will call you Beauty, for that is what you are.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“We curse everything, for we are cursed, and we have no arms to shelter her and no lips to press to her hair and above all no words to tell her that we know loss and we know pain and if they were monsters we could fight we would have slain them in her name long ago like the heroes of old. But we are not a hero. We are cursed.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“We thought too much.
Because while hatred is a fire only man feels, he does not hate the beast that comes in the night. Mankind fears it, fights it, drives it off, but he does not hate it. No one hates the bear, he wolf. They don't hate the wind or the snow. They don't hate the death.
They hate each other.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“Fire cannot hurt us. And yet, when we light her a lantern, there is a moment as we watch the wick flare in the darkness-a moment in which I want to touch the flame. Just to see if I can still be burned.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“Because I thought I couldn’t be happy until I went home, and then I thought I couldn’t be happy until I came back.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“BEAST She calls you Beast, for that is what you are. And Beauty. The surprise is not the compliment, not the truth, that she is beautiful. The surprise is not that we wish to help her. The surprise is not even the electric warmth that rises at the sound of her voice, even when she is shouting. The surprise is how much I long to hear her call me, just once more, Ivan.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“Her thoughts came to life in the stillness of the wood, nurtured by the air and the scent and the vividness of it.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“It has been so long since we have heard a voice that was not screaming.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“The song wanted. It wanted in the way Yeva had always wanted, wanted not so much a thing as everything, something beyond naming, something more than, different, deeper. It was the want that kept her from saying yes to Solmir, though he offered her everything she could have named aloud; it was the want that brought her to the woods each day, the want that filled her dreams of some other life, something beyond what others desired; it was the want that screamed to the sky that she’d give everything, all of herself and all she’d ever be, to live one moment of that other life, the one she could not explain, not even to herself.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“You disapprove,” she commented. “Because I’m a girl?” “No.” The voice paused. “Females are often the best hunters. They must provide for the young and survive when the males are too busy posturing to do so. But this is not the way with humans.” “Humans?”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“How do you know this story?"
Yeva's breath caught. "Because it's my story too," she whispered. "Because I thought I wouldn't be happy until I left town to live in the wood, and then I thought I wouldn't be happy until I could hunt every day, and then I thought I wouldn't be happy until I avenged my father's death. Because I spent a year in an old castle with the young prince and the gray wolf and I thought I couldn't be happy until I killed them both, and when I did, I wept harder than I ever have in my life. Because I thought I couldn't be happy until I went home, and then I thought I couldn't be happy until I came back."
"Because I thought the reason I'd always felt so restless was because I was meant for magic," Yeva said softly. "That if I could fix the story, that if I rescued the young prince and the gray wolf and I found the Firebird and I held in my hands everything I'd ever wanted, I would live happily ever after.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“Speaking of wishes, who wished for a man who would love her for her skill?”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“We always know before the change comes. When a storm approaches, we feel it in the thickness of the air, the tension in the earth awaiting the blanket of snow. We feel the moment the wind changes direction. We sense a shift of power when it is coming. Tonight”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“There were maybe thirty or forty of them—nothing to how many were in the ruined library—but these had been cared for, protected and preserved against the years. And though they showed wear, cracked spines and corners rubbed such that the dye had faded, it was the kind of wear from use, the wear her own family’s books had shown before they sold them. These books were read, many times. These books were loved. The”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“She was so tired, after all - tired of fairy tales and magic and empty castles, tired of wanting so intensely that she didn't know what she wanted.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“So while I dedicated this book to myself, it’s also dedicated to you. Male or female, young or old, if you’re reading this book, then you’re also that child reading by flashlight and dreaming of other worlds. Don’t be scared of her, that inner Beauty, or her dreams. Let her out. She’s you, and she’s me, and she’s magic.
There’s no such thing as living happily ever after—there’s only living. We make the choice to do it happily.
You are the Firebird. And above everything else, I’m most grateful for you.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“We always know before the change comes - but we never know what the change will bring.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“I am not asking you to love me," he said, his voice ringing in the quiet winter air. "Only that you let me love you. As I do.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“I’ve heard this sound before, she realized, her entire body tingling. She’d caught glimpses of it, like a distant haunting refrain, in her deepest moments of silence in the wood. When the long days stretched timelessly on, and her mind emptied of thoughts until there was only her footsteps in the snow, only the feel of the bow in her hand, the bite of cold on her cheeks. When everything else faded away, this sound was what was left.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“I would give up a thousand happy endings just to go back with you to your valley, and live as we did. I'd give up every fairy tale I've ever known just to hear you say my name again.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“None of this was what held Yeva's gaze. Because in the bottom of the valley, straddling the river nestled in the foothills, was a castle.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“But perhaps they were simply in love. Perhaps their hearts had betrayed them, and not their courage.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“She’s going to rescue him.” Lena stared from Asenka to Yeva, spluttering. “R-rescue? Yeva! You’re no knight from an old story, and he’s certainly no maiden in distress.” “No,”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“Nothing in this world has only one nature.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted