“Alan shook his head. Jeremy was hopeless. Either he’d find an equally soft-headed girl and they’d live happily ever after like two cooing doves, or he’d be eaten alive by some she-spider.”

“Help me, Mikey, she wanted to say. I’m afraid. More afraid than you’d ever believe.’ And he’d take her hand and they’d fly across the rooftops and up into space and sit on some planet and watch a double sunrise or maybe a star being born or some other event that no human had ever seen, her head on his shoulder, his arm around her. And she’d tell him everything.”

“....For the first time in his life he’d dared to believe in happily-ever-after.He learned at a young age it was unattainable. Therefore, he’d never even tried... until Claire.”

“I’m so jealous,” she whispered, and he blinked.“Of what?”Her head fell back on the pillow, and she stared up at the ceiling with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen.“You’re so alive, Lore. There’s fire in you. A will to live, when all I want is to be done with this life.”

“When he’d composed himself, Blake kissed the top of her head. “Like I could ever say no to you.”

“Especially given the severity of some of her curses. God help him if any of them ever came true. Why, he’d be a two-headed, three-toed, monkey-nosed, blind son of a cesspit-licking lackey if she had her way. (Braden)”