“I'm not sick, Deuce. You don't know your own charm."My charm? I hadn't been aware I had any. It must be the dress, I thought.”

“If there had been another female for him since we arrived in Salvation, I needed to cut off all her hair and beat her half to death. The strength of that impulse scared me, and I took a step back. Deuce the girl was every bit as vicious as the Huntress, it seemed”

“... Where did you go?”“Down below.”“Ugh,” she said. “I’ve heard they’re little better than animals.”Funny. I thought the same thing about most Topsiders I encountered. Tegan touched my hand in silent sympathy, and I set my jaw. ... I stepped forward and pasted on a false smile. We were in her home, after all. The least I could do was be polite. “I’m Deuce, animal from the underground.”

“My heart raced. He needs you, I thought. Don't let him down. I couldn't remember ever being so happy... or so scared.”

“Stalker put his hands on my shoulders - and for a moment, his pale eyes blazed with the power of what he felt for me. The reflected head warmed me where I hadn't even know I was cold. Then his golden, spiky lashes swept down, veiling his thoughts. I shouldn't let this boy comfort me when I'd rejected him. Weakness made me selfish, but I didn't resist when he pulled me against him.”

“Go to hell, March." But I'm still smiling while I say it. As I doze off again, I'm pretty sure he says, "Been there, done that, and I'm keeping a spot warm for you, babe.”

“Perhaps that was the point; life, if you did it right, meant learning and changing. If you didn't, you died- or stopped growing - which amounted to more or less the same thing. So I would slide in and out of different roles until I discovered the one that fit me best.-Deuce, (183)”