Sarah Beth Durst

“That's brilliant.""I thought so. But I'm glad you agree. It will make this journey much more pleasant if you are impressed with my brilliance.”

“You do not say no to the girl with the deities.”

“Bayla, is this how you'd kill me?" she asked out loud. There are easier ways. You could send another snake. I am sorry I ate the first one." Hearing her own voice made her feel braver. "He was delicious, though”

“Imagine that it's sugar," Korbyn said. 'You're riding across candy.'"Salt can never be sugar," Fennik said."We should talk about the definition of the word 'imagine'.”

“Last period of the day was new gym class. It was her only class that didn't include Evan, which was a relief. She should be functioning at a peak concentration, but he and his luminous eyes kept distracting her. First opprtunity I have, she thought. I'll bite him.”

“Do you know hot to drive?" he asked."Sure," she said. "This one is the gas.”

“Impressive vocabulary," Korbyn said. "I feel as though I should take notes.""I think she's making them up," Liyana said. "Half of them are not anatomically possible.”

“Fennik growled. "You mock me."Korbyn's face was innocent, like Jidali's after he sneaked a cookie from Aunt Sabisa. "I would never mock such an illustrious personage," Korbyn said.”

“Americans invented adolescence. It is not a natural phenomenon. Adolescence is a social construct, created by an urban-industrial society that keeps its young at home far past puberty. Teenage angst is a luxury if a successful modern human conceit that isn't condoned by our superior species.”

“Do you believe in vampires? Not the sparkly variety.”

“You’re a teenage boy. I have boobs. What part of the equation is missing?”

“To you,” he said, “I surrender my heart and soul.”She rolled her eyes. “Very romantic, considering you have neither.”

“You’ll never make it through life if you let irrational fears freeze you all the time.”

“Tara. I'm a vampire," Pearl said."Yeah, whatever, and I'm queen of the sea.""Your Marine Majesty, I'm a vampire," Pearl said.Concentrating, she slid her fangs out. "Tara. Tara!" She curled back her lips to expose the points. "See"Tara screamed."I won't hurt you," Pearl said. Calm down. Sheesh."Tara continued to scream.Pearl considered biting her merely to shut her up. Regrettably that would be counter productive. Studying her nails, she waited for Tara to quit screaming. She noticed that Tara didn't try to exit the car, which was an interesting choice."You aren't running away," Pearl said."Duh, it's raining outside," Tara said.”

“The middle son gets a magic donkey. When you shout the word: "Bricklebrit!", it spews gold pieces out of...And I quote:... its front and back.Yes, folks. Thing I Love #4: the Bricklebrit Donkey. You shout a word, and gold comes flying out its butt. Fairy tales don't get much better than that.”

“She had a hundred reasons: because Bear had carved a statue of her in the center of the topiary garden, because she could always make him laugh, because he'd let her return to the station, because he won at chess and lost at hockey, because he ran as fast as he could to polar bear births, because he had seal breath even as a human, because his hands were soft, because he was her Bear. "Because i want my husband back," Cassie said.”

“Whether he loved her or not didn't change how she felt about him. She loved him independent and regardless of whether he loved her.”

“Look you don't know I'm your soul mate," Lily said. " You barely know me at all. I have terrible habits. I swallow toothpaste. My socks don't always match. I'm not good at small talk. I'm just about the most unpopular kid in class, a close third behind the guy who doesn't shower and the girl who's a compulsive liar. Besides, it's not like Jake and me... He was just being nice.""You are my soul mate, even if you don't know it yet," Tye said”

“I hope I haven't hurt your feelings,' he said.'I don't have feelings, at least not the inconvenient ones.”

“The beanstalk felt like sandpaper".”

“The lamb baa-ed vigorously as Mary dragged it into the manicure room, and Zel winced. She really should insist Julie come work, She could use the help, plus it would mean extra mother-daughter time--and, Zel thought wryly, I won't have to find a spare tower in the suburbs.Closing the appointment book, Zel went to finish trimming Linda's hair. "Did I hear a sheep out there?" Linda asked."Sick dog," Zel said. "Now, bend your head down." Linda obeyed and Zel ran her fingers through the back of her hair to check for evenness. All she needed to do was think of a way to make Julie come without Julie immediately assuming her mother was trying to ruin her life. Not an easy task.”

“I do not want leaving me to be easy.”

“She was only a few yards from the door. If she lunged, she could be safely inside with solid metal between her and the bear. But she had called to him, and he had come. The tranquilizer dart that she had shot on the sea ice now lay in front of her. Impossibly, inexplicably, the bear had brought it back to her. She felt light-headed, and she knew she was shaking. She raised her eyes to look at the bear.He was a mass of shadows at the edge of the station floodlights. She could make out the shape of his muzzle and the hunch of his shoulders. "Cassandra Dasent," he said. His voice was a soft rumble.She felt as if her heart had stopped beating.”

“I can wait beyond never.”

“She'd always been a little excitable, a little more passionate about books than your average person, but she was supposed to be -- she was a librarian, after all.”