“I hated Alfred. He was a miserable, pious, tight-fisted king who distrusted me because I was no Christian, because I was a northerner, and because I had given him his kingdom back at Ethandun. And as reward he had given me Fifhaden. Bastard.”

“I could not really complain, because he had only given me his word of honor as security; I ought to have required of him something substantial.”

“I hated and admired this hunter. I once gave him my heart and soul. Since then, I had given him more and more of myself, but I never forgot his true nature and what he had done to me.”

“I had sex with Jett because I was attracted to him. Jett hired me because he wanted me. It was lust at first sight.”

“Ravelstein mentioned that Keynes had married a Russian ballerina. He also explained to me that Uranus had fathered Aphrodite but that she had had no mother. She was conceived by the sea foam. He would say such things not because he thought I was ignorant of them but because he judged that I needed at a given moment to have my thoughts directed toward them.”

“I'm marrying him because I admire his intelligence and his compassion. I'm marrying him because he's part of me already. Because he's the one person who has always known my heart. Because I could trust him to know what I needed if I couldn't figure it out by myself. Because he loves me, and I love him. And I need him.”