#serpent

... You are the closest I will ever come to heaven, either here on Earth or in the afterlife, and I will not regret it, not even at the cost of your tears. So I go to my grave an unrepentant sinner, I’m afraid. There is no use in mourning one such as I, dearest... -Simon to Lucy in a letter before the last duel. ↗

— Elizabeth Hoyt

#lucy #simondabomb #the-serpent-prince #afterlife

My darling Lucy.” He panted against her ear, and then his teeth scraped her earlobe. “I love you,” he whispered. “Don’t ever leave me. ↗

— Elizabeth Hoyt

#lucy #simondababe #the-serpent-prince #love

Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back. ↗

— Criss Jami

#confidence #confident #determination #dragon #dragons

I’m leaving.” Her cold lips barely moved as she mouthed the words. Horror fisted around his vitals. “No.” For the first time she met his eyes. Hers were red-rimmed but dry. “I have to leave, Simon.” “No.” He was a little boy denied a sweet. He felt like falling down and screaming. “Let me go.” “I can’t let you go.” He half laughed here in the too-bright, cold London sun before his own house. “I’ll die if I do.” She closed her eyes. “No, you won’t. I can’t stay and watch you tear yourself apart.” “Lucy.” “Let me go, Simon. Please.” She opened her eyes, and he saw infinite pain in her gaze. Had he done this to his angel? Oh, God. He unclasped his hands. ↗

— Elizabeth Hoyt

#lucy #simondabomb #the-serpent-prince #the-sun-watches-the-sun

Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman; the serpent is twining round it. ↗

— Arthur E. Waite

#behind #evil #fruits #good #good and evil

At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all. ↗

— Baltasar Gracian

#camel #dog #eighty #fifty #forty