Top 400 C.S. Pacat Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “Nikandros turned him, put his hands on Damen’s body, spreading them over Damen’s back, as if touch would confirm what his eyes wouldn’t believe. ‘Who did this to you?’ ‘I did,’ Laurent said. Damen turned. Laurent.”

— C.S. Pacat

52. “Damen said, ‘I will help you in whatever way I can, but there will be no time for anything but hard work, and you will have to do everything right.’ Laurent lifted his chin and replied with every bit of cool, galling arrogance he had ever shown. ‘Watch me,’ he said.”

— C.S. Pacat

53. “It was like watching a man smile as he surrendered himself to drown in deep water.”

— C.S. Pacat

54. “Laurent,’ he said, and he was breaking apart. To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up. Never had he wanted something this badly, and held it in his hands knowing that tomorrow it would be gone, traded for the high cliffs of Ios, and the uncertain future across the border, the chance to stand before his brother, to ask him for all the answers that no longer seemed so important. A kingdom, or this. Deeper.”

— C.S. Pacat

55. “They gazed at one another. It was a public goodbye, in full view of the men. Laurent extended his hand. He did it not, as a prince might, for Damen to kneel and kiss, but as a friend. There was acknowledgement in the gesture, and as Damen took his hand, in front of the men, Laurent held his gaze. Laurent said, ‘Take care of my fort, Commander.’ In.”

— C.S. Pacat

56. “I’ll tell you why Jokaste chose Kastor,’ said Laurent. Damen.”

— C.S. Pacat

57. “He didn’t turn back to look at Damen. ‘I hurt you, Laurent.’ ‘That’s enough, stop,’ said Laurent. ‘It wasn’t right. You were just a boy. You didn’t deserve what happened to you.’ ‘I said that’s enough.’ ‘Is it so hard to hear?’ He.”

— C.S. Pacat

58. “I lack the easy mannerisms shared with a lover.”

— C.S. Pacat

59. “A ludicrous boyish hope flared that someone would come to help him, and, carefully, he extinguished it. Since the age of thirteen, there had been no rescuer, for his brother was dead.”

— C.S. Pacat

60. “He wanted to be inside. He wanted to feel Laurent’s surrender shudder and give way, become total. He wanted no denying that Laurent had let him in, who he had let in. It’s me. His body primed, as though only in one act could this be driven home. He slid his hands up Laurent’s thighs, pushing them apart a little. The view was pinked, small, and tight, the curl of a calyx, impenetrable. ‘Do.”

— C.S. Pacat

61. “He let them see the cuff on his wrist, as he let them see him. He knew by now the ever-present whisper: Damianos, risen from the dead. He watched the army fall silent before him. He let the Prince he had been drop away, let himself feel the new role, the new self settle about him. ‘Men.”

— C.S. Pacat

62. “Didn’t you hear anything that I just said to you?’ ‘Yes,’ said Damen. ‘You tried to hurt me, and you have. I wish you would see that what you have just done to me is what your uncle is doing to you.’ He.”

— C.S. Pacat

63. “You’ve outstayed your welcome,’ said Laurent. ‘Don’t do this. If you ride to meet your uncle unprepared you will lose everything you’ve fought for.’ ‘But.”

— C.S. Pacat

64. “It was like watching a boar try to take on the endless blue of the sky.”

— C.S. Pacat

65. “I’ll stay,’ said Damen. ‘You know I’ll stay for as long as you – ’ ‘Don’t,’ said Laurent. ‘Don’t lie to me. Not you.’ ‘I’ll stay,’ said Damen. ‘Three days. After that, I ride south.’ Laurent.”

— C.S. Pacat

66. “He is the Prince of Vere! He doesn’t care about Akielos! Are you saying you aren’t swayed by the thought of having him? Open your eyes, Damianos!’ Damen.”

— C.S. Pacat

67. “Laurent was a nest of scorpions in the body of one person.”

— C.S. Pacat

68. “Laurent said, ‘The soldiers in Kastor’s army are trained in massage?’ ‘No,’ said Damen. ‘But I think the rudiments are easy to master. If you like.’ He applied a gentle pressure with his thumbs. He said, ‘You brought me ice, last night.’ ‘This,’ said Laurent, ‘is a little more – ’ It was a word of sharp points: ‘ – intimate,’ he said, ‘than ice.’ ‘Too.”

— C.S. Pacat

69. “I tried that too,′ said Laurent. ‘I don’t like to think of myself as predictable. But apparently I cycle through all the normal responses. Shall I tell you what you’re going to do when I stick the knife in for the first time?”

— C.S. Pacat

70. “Laurent, he thought, and lifted his gaze to meet the eyes of the man who had witnessed the last words of Lord Touars. It wasn’t Laurent. It was Jord. He was staring at Damen in horror, his sword lax in his hand. ‘No,’ said Damen. ‘It’s not – ’ The final moments of the battle faded around Damen, as he came to full comprehension of what Jord was seeing. Of what Jord, for the second time that day, was seeing. ‘Does he know?’ said Jord. He.”

— C.S. Pacat

71. “You’re drunk,’ said Damen. ‘You’re not yourself.’ He said, ‘I should take you to bed.’ ‘Then, take me,’ said Laurent. He.”

— C.S. Pacat

72. “If he was aware of anything beyond the fight, it was of an absence, a lack that persisted. The flashes of brilliance, the insouciant sword work, the bright presence at his side was instead a gap, half filled by Nikandros’s steadier, more practical style.”

— C.S. Pacat

73. “Men find themselves in the places they put themselves.”

— C.S. Pacat

74. “Think he’ll kill him?’ another speculated. Damen knew the answer to that question. Laurent was not going to kill him. He was going to break him. Here, in front of everyone. Perhaps Govart sensed Laurent’s intention, because the third time he lost his sword, his mind snapped. Throwing aside the conventions of a duel was preferable to the humiliation of a drawn-out defeat; he abandoned his sword and simply charged.”

— C.S. Pacat

75. “To take off the collar required a blacksmith. He.”

— C.S. Pacat

76. “Laurent flushed. The colour hit his cheeks hard, and a muscle tightened in his jaw as whatever he felt was forcibly repressed. It was not like any reaction that Damen had ever seen from him before, and he couldn’t resist pushing it a little further. ‘Why? Do you want to spar? We can keep it friendly,’ Damen said. ‘No,’ said Laurent. Whatever.”

— C.S. Pacat

77. “I can’t protect you as I am now, Laurent had said. Damen hadn’t thought about what protection might entail, but he would never have imagined that Laurent would step into the ring on his behalf. And stay in it. “I.”

— C.S. Pacat

78. “His blue eyes were as innocent as the sky; only if you looked carefully could you see something genuine in them.”

— C.S. Pacat

79. “Lord Touars said, ‘You will come with us willingly, or you will come after we have subjugated your men. You have a choice.’ Laurent.”

— C.S. Pacat

80. “You weren’t making love to a slave, you were making love to me.’ And he couldn’t think that through clearly but he could catch a glimmer of it, a glimmer of the edge of it. ‘I thought you wouldn’t, I thought you’d never – ’ He took a step forward.”

— C.S. Pacat

81. “I would have,’ said Damen, ‘if I’d had the chance to court you properly. If I’d come in state to your father. If there had been a chance for our countries to be – ’ Friends. He felt the mood shift, thinking of the past. Laurent didn’t seem to notice it. ‘Thank you, I know exactly how it would have been. You and Auguste would have been slapping each other on the back and watching tournaments, and I would have been trailing around tugging on your sleeve, trying to get a look in edgewise.’ Damen.”

— C.S. Pacat

82. “There was a man I was supposed to meet. He’s got all these ideas about honour and fair play, and he tries to keep me from doing the wrong thing. But he’s not here right now. Unfortunately for you.”

— C.S. Pacat

83. “Stirring drowsily, Laurent shifted a fraction closer and made a soft, unthinking sound of pleasure that Damen was going to remember for the rest of his life. And then Laurent was blinking sleepily, and Damen was watching Laurent grow aware of his surroundings and come awake in his arms. He.”

— C.S. Pacat

84. “He came forward naked, as was the custom in Akielos. He was a handsome youth with the physique of a champion. Elon, his opponent, was a young man from the south. The two men scooped oil from the receptacle brought to them by the stewards, anointed their bodies with it, then they slung their arms around one another’s shoulders, and, on the signal, heaved. The.”

— C.S. Pacat

85. “Look, it’s those flowers from that boring poem that you like,’ Ancel announced proudly. He stood in front of the spray of white flowers.”

— C.S. Pacat

86. “I think what people were is less important than what they are. And what people are is less important than what they could be.”

— C.S. Pacat

87. “There was no slave,’ said Laurent. ‘He never existed. I don’t know what manner of man stands before me now. All I know is that I am facing him for the first time.’ ‘He is here.’ His flesh ached as if he had been prised open. ‘We are the same.’ ‘Kneel.”

— C.S. Pacat

88. “In other words, the Regent was to be informed that his Captain had been well and truly turned off, in a manner that could not be painted as a revolt against the Regency, or as princely disobedience, or as lazy incompetence. Round one: Laurent. They.”

— C.S. Pacat

89. “The Regent’s real weapon against Laurent had always been Damen himself. ‘I’ve come to tell you who I am.’ Laurent.”

— C.S. Pacat

90. “Very well. Let us play this out. You’re concerned for the well-being of the other slaves? Why hand me that kind of advantage?” “Advantage?” said Damen. “When someone doesn’t like you very much, it isn’t a good idea to let them know that you care about something,” said Laurent. Damen.”

— C.S. Pacat

91. “He knew that expression. His sense of danger, highly attuned to Laurent’s moods, told him that Aimeric was better off downstairs with a half dozen men than he was up here with Laurent. Laurent’s lids were smooth over a cool gaze, his posture straight-backed, his fingers poised on the rim of the goblet. I.”

— C.S. Pacat

92. “He touched the starburst pattern at his shoulder. He was dressed in Laurent’s colours, and bearing his insignia. That was a strange feeling.”

— C.S. Pacat

93. “Well? Attend me,’ said Laurent. ‘Attend,’ said Damen. The word sank into him. He felt as he had in the training arena when he had been unwilling to go near the cross. ‘Have you forgotten how?’ Laurent said. He said, ‘The last time, this did not end pleasantly.’ ‘Then I suggest you behave better,’ said Laurent. Laurent.”

— C.S. Pacat

94. “He said: ‘What makes you think Kastor is the weaker man? You don’t know him.’ ‘But I’m coming to know you,’ said Laurent.”

— C.S. Pacat

95. “I fight in your service, Your Highness.” He searched his memory for Radel’s words, and found them. “I exist only to please my Prince. May my victory reflect on your glory.”

— C.S. Pacat

96. “And the cheap wine you drink in a backwater tavern is not the kind that you serve at your own table, given choice.”

— C.S. Pacat

97. “Aquello era Vere, hedonista y decadente, tierra de dulce veneno.”

— C.S. Pacat

98. “Everything was calculated. Laurent didn’t trust anyone. Damen.”

— C.S. Pacat

99. “Never had he wanted something this badly, and held it in his hands knowing that tomorrow it would be gone, traded for the high cliffs of Ios, and the uncertain future across the border, the chance to stand before his brother, to ask him for all the answers that no longer seemed important. A kingdom, or this.”

— C.S. Pacat

100. “You and Auguste would have been slapping each other on the back and watching tournaments, and I would have been trailing around you tugging on your sleeve, trying to get a look in edgewise.” After a moment, Laurent said, “He would have liked you.”

— C.S. Pacat