Etta Quotes

“It's our choices that matter in the end. Not wishes, not words, not promises.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“How do you fight against a mountain? How do you move it when you don't even have a shovel?”
“Maybe you don't have to move it,” Etta said, folding the gown over the lid of the trunk. “Maybe you have to climb it.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“He would not surrender to the disaster of loving her.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Society is always the same, regardless of the era. There are rules and standards, with seemingly no purpose. It's a hateful, elaborate charade, equal parts flirtation and perceived naïveté. To men we have the minds of children.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Rest assured,” he said, when he managed to find his voice, “there will always be a position for you on my ship.”
Her face brightened with her clever, beautiful smile. “Will you let me climb up into the rigging? Reef the sails?”
A burst of thunder rolled through him. “Absolutely not.”
She laughed again. “As if you could stop me.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Nicholas felt a rueful smile spread across his face. And a curse be on him for it, because now he knew her. She'd shown him her mind, and she'd opened up her heart, and now he knew the taste of her tears. And he was wrecked.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I wish you'd go a a little easier on him,” she said.
“He came in here thrashing a sword around. Was I supposed to stand idly by and do nothing?” he huffed.
“Well, you weren't supposed to try and rearrange his face with your fist.”
“I wasn't,” Nicholas protested. “He lunged up into it several times. I was only in the way.”
“You're ridiculous.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Free the fire fluttering inside her rib cage. Work her muscles, the bow, the violin, until she played herself to ash and embers and left the rest of the world behind to smolder.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“How about a kiss, hey?” Etta liked that she was still able to startle him, just a little. The blank look of concentration broke as he barked out a laugh. “I don't know if that's a wise idea. We'd never leave.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Etta?” Nicholas's face floated in front of hers.
“I'm okay,” she promised. “Just...”
Hasan's face transformed, sharpening. “Who are you to be so familiar with my little niece? Remove your hands before I do.”
“Familiar?” she repeated, just as Nicholas's grip tightened and he said, “Her husband.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I don't need a protector,” Etta said. “I need a partner.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Half the men worship at her feet; the other half have already proposed marriage, including young Jack, who has sworn to his dear 'miss' that he'll be true if she'll only wait a few more years for him.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Wayfarer

“Well,” Etta said weakly, “she's always told me a good challenge builds character.”
“Then we'll have an excess of it,” he said dryly.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“For the longest time, I saw them as the end of my journey, but now I think they were always meant to represent the beginning of yours.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“That's beautiful,” she said.
He turned to her. “Would you like me to go take that violin for you? I'd gladly fight whatever angry mob rises up if it might make you smile.”
Her heart just about burst at that.
Be brave. “I would only want to play for you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Tell me . . . just one thing . . . about your time?' he managed to get out.
'Of course,' Etta said.
'Do you remember . . . that couple in London, in the station?'
'The ones who were dancing?' she asked. 'What about them?'
'Would we . . . be able to dance . . . that way?' he said, finding it harder to catch his breath. 'In your time?'
Etta pressed her lips together, clearly fighting to offer him a smile. 'Yes.'
'Though so.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“She set her shoulders back, meeting his gaze with a challenge. “You call that a kiss?” One corner of his mouth quirks up. “We haven't the time for a proper one, pirate. Now tell me, where precisely are we?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“And you know what the truly sad thing is, Etta?” Sophia whispered. “If he'd asked, if he'd put his case forward, Grandfather would have considered it. I know he would have. Because being born a bastard in this family is still preferable to being born a girl.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I want the life I'm meant to have, Etta. It's as simple as that. My father always says that the way to truly live is to do so without expectation or fear hanging over you, affecting your choices— and that's bloody hard to do with you travelers coming and going. I want to know you the way you know me one day. I want to play my violin, make mistakes, fall in love, live in as many different cities as I can. Would you really take that from me?”
― Alexandra Bracken

“You can come see me for a visit anytime. It's like how the song goes: I'll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places. . .”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I don't care about the rules or anyone else. People are awful - they're idiots - and if they try to hurt you, I won't need the revolver. I care about you and all I ask is that you try not to make me feel like an idiot for it. You're supposed to . . . you're my partner.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“His fingers unhooked from hers, following that same path up her arm, and then back down it again. The feeling was so distracting, so good, so sweet against her clammy skin. She didn't choose a piece from her repertoire; Etta gave herself over to the notes that started streaming through her mind, rising from somewhere deep inside of her.

The melody of her heart had no name; it was quick, and light. It rolled with the waves, falling as the breath left his chest, rising as he inhaled. It was the rain sliding down the glass; the fog spreading its fingers over the water. The creaking of a ship's great body. The secrets whispered by the wind, and the unseen life that moved below.

It was the flame against the candle.

Nicholas's arm was a map of hard muscles and delicate sinews, heartbreakingly perfect. She wondered if he could hear her humming the piece against his skin over the droning roars overhead. Maybe. His free hand skimmed up her skin, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake.

With the world blacked out around them, she could catalog all over her senses, capture this moment in the warm darkness forever. He brushed back the loose hair across her forehead, cheek, the corner of her lips, her jaw, and she knew it had to be the same for him, that they'd never been so aware of another person in their entire lives.

She released his arm, and he drew it up around her, guiding both of them down so they were on their sides, their heads cushioned by the bag, his jacket drawn over them. Etta understood that here, in the darkness, they'd found a place beyond rules; a place that hung somewhere between the past and the future. This was a single moment of possibility.

The clattering of the attack from above faded as he rested his forehead against hers, his thumb lightly stroking a bruise on her cheek. She traced his face - the straight nose, the high, proud cheekbones, the full curve of his lips. His hand caught her there, taking it in his own; he pressed a hard, almost despairing kiss to it.

But when she tilted her face up, half - desperate with longing, her blood racing, Nicholas pulled back; and although Etta could feel him beside her, his heart pounding, his ragged breath, it was as if he had disappeared into the thundering dark.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Rise and enter the lair, where the darkness gives you your stripes. Tell tyrants, to you, their allegiance they owe," Etta read, running her finger beneath the words within the star. "Seek out the unknown gods whose ears were deaf to lecture. Stand on the shoulders of memory. Bring a coin to the widowed queen. Remember, the truth is in the telling, and an ending must be final.”
― Alexandra Bracken

“At last started to play and she gestured to dance with me. As we slow danced I couldn’t tell what day or year it was. For all I know, Etta could have been singing it live. We danced like lovers do and as the song neared it’s melodic end, she whispered in my ear—I just got lost with you.”
― Kayko Tamaki

“His presence was larger-than-life, bigger even than his physical body.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Don't you dare call me Miss Spencer, it kills me when you act like we aren't friends.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I forget myself with you. I forget the rules. I forget every other living soul in this would. Do you understand?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Would you like me to go take that violin for you? I'd gladly fight whatever angry mob rises up if it might make you smile.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I would only want to play for you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“She couldn't help it - she flinched. One of them had clearly misunderstood whatever was between them. Apparently, it had been her.
Etta charged away from him down the sidewalk. He caught up to her in three long strides and took her arm in his hand, forcing her to stop. She couldn't bring herself to look up; she only waited for Nicholas to speak.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger