“But what would they have said to their Liaison? It’s like this, Meg. We didn’t like that Asia Crane, so we ate her. When dealing with humans, honesty isn’t always the best policy, Vlad thought”

“Honesty is always the best policy, even when it's not the trend.”

“Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.”

“So we ate some smoke, so what?” “You lost most of your eyebrows.”Stunned, she pressed her fingers above her eyes. “Shit! Why didn’t you tell me?”“It’s a look.”

“I thought: But isn’t this a dance? Isn’t all of this a dance? Isn’t that what we do with words? Isn’t that what we do when we talk, when we spar, when we make plans or leave it to chance? Some of it’s choreographed. Some of the steps have been done for ages. And the rest—the rest is spontaneous. The rest has to be decided on the floor, in the moment, before the music ends.”

“Mrs. Spencer said it was wicked of me to talk like that, but I didn’t mean to be wicked. It’s so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn’t it?”