I was queen. It didn't matter how I had gotten here, only what I did while the crown was on my head. And that would always be protecting Bellona and her people-and fuck anyone who was stupid enough to doubt me or tried to keep me from doing my duty as queen.
You have to survive, no matter what you have to do, no matter who you have to cheat and hurt and kill, no matter what the cost is to your heart and soul.
It is not weakness to open your heart. It does not make you less of a man to to ask for help. To turn to someone when you're vulnerable. To need a shoulder to cry on. You don't have to bear the weight of anything by yourself.
This was the moment he'd been waiting for: the chance to show someone else wonder, to watch them realize that they had not been lied to, that the world they'd been promised as children was not something that had to be abandoned, that there really was something lurking in the wood, beneath the stairs, between the stars, that everything was full of mystery.
Real strength does not exist in muscles or deadly skill. It exists in your ability to pick yourself up and keep going after the shit hits the fan. That's strength.