“Some perv lured you here via a magical website?”

“I need to get to that tea party and wake up the guests."Jeb looks at me. "And how are you supposed to do that? Give a magical kiss to the half-baked hatmaker?”

“Because of all the things I've experienced on this journey - shrinking and growing, flying sprites, living chess pieces - not a one of them is more magical than this moment.”

“He's a contradiction: taut magic coiled to strike, gentleness at war with severity, a tongue as sharp as a whip's edge, yet skin so soft he could be swathed in clouds.”

“Jen said some guy asked you but you didn't want to go. Why not?"I shrug. "I have this character flaw? Called dignity?”

“Some people have no business attending a dignified tea. Gawking as if I belong in a zoo, when they're the ones who have all the manners and the fashion sense of a monkey.”

“Did he touch you? Hurt you?" Jeb whispers in the silence."No. He was a gentleman."Jeb frowns. "You mean a gentleroach .”