Rachel E. Carter

Because a person couldn't ever be good and evil at once. Little girl, don't you know? The world is made up of shades of grey.

Darren wasn__ darkness, and I wasn__ his light.

You don't become the best if you aren't willing to stick your hand in the fire.

Well done, Darren!_ Master Byron was full of praise for the prince. __hat did you use to cast it?__arren__ eyes found mine. __omething I don__ regret.

The irony was that my real enemy had been there all along right in front of me. Smiling crookedly and convincing me we were friends. Trying to seduce me for the thrill of the chase. Chastising me for not trusting him that first year in the tower stairs at the Academy_ Telling me he loved me. And then tossing me aside the second I jeopardized his dreams. I wasn__ what he had wanted all these years. I__ merely been a diversion in his pursuit of the crown.I never should have trusted a prince.

So how did you do it? What makes the cold-hearted princeling mortal like the rest of us?

He was a prince. There was no hope in saying yes to the boy with the garnet eyes who left me reckless and confused at every turn. There was no future with him. None. Darren had duty. To the Crown. Gods only knew Priscilla and Blayne had spent enough time reminding me of that.

Love Darren? Of course not. Love is for fools not smart enough to see the path in front of them. That__ the difference between you and I, Ryiah. I see the truth and accept Darren for what he is. You just see what you want to see. It__ why I will wear the crown and bear his children while you are left wondering why you were never good enough.

People make mistakes all the time _ some of us just are in more of a position to leave an impact when we do.

I don__ need another __dversity builds character_ speech, Darren. That man is a chauvinistic pig. Where__ your adversity?__arren raised a brow. ____ looking at it.

Anything for Byron__ least favorite apprentice. It__ the least I can do since you took over my torch.

You can be a great man and still be a fool. Many of our country__ leaders can attest to that. Were they still living.

That somehow, this insufferable girl would become the one person I am forever, hopelessly, madly drawn to against my will and possibly even my better judgment.

I__ not like you. I__e never cared about keeping relationships or sparing people__ feelings. All I__e ever cared about is power: how to get it, and how to keep it. I told you as much when we met.

We couldn__ be friends. We couldn__ be enemies.So what were we?

Someday, Ry, you are going to realize who Darren really is. He__ a prince, and he__ only going to break your heart.

Three. I had just made my first, second, and third kill. Before I had even obtained my mage__ robes. I bent over and vomited into the grass. There was no pride, no justice, just the appalling sense that I had lost my innocence. That I was a monster.

All of sudden I cared what someone thought of me. Because we are friends. And making you miserable and angry makes me miserable and angry. I don__ want to be the person to make you mad or cry, Ryiah. I want to make you laugh. I want you to make me laugh, because gods know you are the only one who can. So, yes, I am sorry, I am sorry because even if I was right, I was also wrong. And I__ rather lose a silly battle than your friendship.