“The front door of the Flippant Witch gave a series of loud clicks and swung inward. Renard Lambert, his blue-and-purple finery resembling a plum in the twitching lanterns, practically hurled himself through the open doorway“Widdershins!” he called loudly, cape flowing behind him, “I—gaaack!” He ducked, barely in time to avoid the carafe that shattered loudly against the wall just behind his head. The tinkling of broken glass, a dangerous entry chime indeed, sounded around him.“Oh,” Genevieve said, her tone only vaguely contrite. “It's just your friend. Sorry, Renard.”“Sorry? Sorry?! What the hell were you—ah. Um, hello, ah, Widdershins."Widdershins, who had lurched to her feet as the door opened, was suddenly and forcibly reminded by Renard's stunned stare that Genevieve had disrobed her in order to get at the rapier wound. Blushing as furiously as a nun in a brothel, she ducked behind her blonde-haired friend and groped desperately for her shirt.“Didn't mean to take your head off, Renard,” Genevieve said, mainly to distract him. “But you rather startled us.”“Quite understandable,” the popinjay responded absently, his eyes flickering madly as he fought to locate some safe place to put them.”

“Genevieve hunched her shoulders against the storm of sound and fury and struggled to imagine a worse sort of hell. Widdershins, of course, seemed perfectly happy, but Widdershins was weird.”

“And if, behind closed eyes, Cerris saw a face other than hers, a face so slightly younger, gazing at him sadly across a gulf of lost years and broken promises... Well, it would never hurt her if she never knew.”

“Olgun?, she asked, her tone again little more than abreath."Dogs?"A pause, an answer."Ah. And do you think you should maybe do somethingabout that?"Self-satisfied gloating."You already did." It wasn't a question.Another affirmative.Widdershins sighed. "I hope you didn't hurt them."Olgun sent a flash of horror running through her, so strongthat she felt herself shudder."All right, I'm sorry!, she hissed. I know you like dogs. Iknow you wouldn't hurt them! I wasn't thinking!"The god sniffed haughtily.”

“Olgun! Wake up!"Her mind was filled with a sense of self-righteous andvaguely drowsy protest."Sure you weren't, she needled at him. You were justpracticing snoring, so you'd be sure to get it right later on,yes?"Olgun's response very strongly resembled an indignantsnort.”

“His own past kept flying up around him like moths; old fears back again, the ghosts’ problems only serving to remind him of his own. Even the little anxieties that nipped at his heels as a boy were back now as sharp-toothed dogs, following him, barking loudly, drawing more and more attention to themselves. Now, as he looked for his dad, Silas felt like he had as a boy: left behind, alone, forgotten. And he could see, now, his personal feelings made his encounters with the dead and his travels through their lands dangerous and filled with the possibility of entrapment.”

“When Grant opened the door, he thought she looked like some fairy princess-part ingenue,part seductress. Her eyes met his in the glass, and she smiled while following through with the last stroke of the brush."Take the wrong turn?""I took the right one." He closed the door behind him,then flicked the lock."Is that so?" Tapping the brush against her palm, Gennie arched a brow. "I thought you had the room down the hall.""The MacGregors forgot to put something in there." He stood where he was for a moment, pleased just to look at her."Oh? What?""You.”