“Durzo pulled out a gold Gunder from his pouch. Crowns Roth wins, Castles I lose.He flipped the coin. It bounced on the table and, impossibly, landed on edge.There´s always another choice, Kylar said.”

“Lilies, I rule, heads, you do," he [the King] said, and threw the coin into the air."Lilies, you rule, heads, you throw again," said Attolia.The coin dropped. Eugenides looked at it and then showed it to her. "No need," he said. The coin sat in his palm, obverse, showing the lilies of Attolia. He flipped it again and again and again. Each time it landed showing the lilies. ...(Relius)He wanted to dismiss the coin toss as slight of hand. Any circus performer could control the drop of a coin, but he'd been puzzled. The queen had been undismayed; she had seemed almost vindicated in her manner. It had been the King who was more disturbed with each toss of the coin. He'd looked almost sick, Relius thought, by the time he put the coin away....Walking away along the arcade that lay perpendicular to the one where Relius lurked, the king pulled the coin from his pocket. He looked at the gold stater in sudden disgust and pitched it hard between the columns of the arcade into the shrubbery.”

“Come here,” she says.“No, you come here.”“I said it first.”“Rock paper scissors.”“No. Because you’ll do nerdy calculations and work out what I chose the last six times and then you’ll win.”Will pushes away from the table and his hand snakes out and he pulls her toward him and Tom figures that Will was always going to go to her first.”

“Elene gasped and sat up. "Kylar Thaddeus Stern!"Kylar giggled. "Thaddeus? That's a good one. I knew a Thaddeus once.""So did I. He was a blind idiot.""Really?" Kylar said, his eyes dancing. "The one I knew was famous for his gigantic-""Kylar!" Elene interrupted, motioning toward Uly."His gigantic what?" Uly asked."Now you did it." Elene said, "His gigantic what, Kyler?""Feet. And you know what they say about big feet." He winked lasciviously at Elene."What?" Uly asked."Big Shoes," Kylar said.”

“With a tough decision, the act of flipping a coin allows you to figure out which you really prefer, because as the coin is spinning, you find yourself slightly pulling for either heads or tails. No need to follow the coin’s outcome—choose the side your subconscious hoped fate would favor.”

“Three months previously I had entered the Haunt alone, covered in blood that was not my own and swinging a stolen sword. By Brothers followed me in. Now I left the castle in the hands of another. I had wanted my uncle's blood. His crown I took because other men said I could not have it.”