“Mme. Padva greets them with the practiced disinterest she reserves for pretty young things.”

“Could you do such things when you were a dancer?' Tara asks her, as Tsukiko pulls a leg up impossibly far over her head.'I would have had a much busier social calendar if I could,' Mme. Padva replies with a shake of her head.”

“So proper for a circus girl," Mme. Padva says with with a gleam in her eye. "We shall have to loosen those corset laces if we intend to keep you an intimate dinner company.""I expected the corset unlacing would take place after dinner," Celia says mildly, earning a chorus of laughter."We shall keep Miss Bowen as intimate company regardless of the state of her corset," Chandresh says. "Make a note of that," he adds, waving a hand at Marco."Miss Bowen's corset is duly noted, sir," Marco replies, and the laghter bubbles over the table again.”

“People are naive about such things, and they would rather write them off as evil than attempt to understand them. An unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless.”

“I don’t have the time to devote to circles or covens. I have to fit things in when and where I can, in stolen moments and cups of coffee.Stirring clockwise to conjure.Widdershins to banish.There’s never enough time, and rarely enough caffeine, but I make do with what I have. Besides, cauldrons and pointy hats are overrated.Sometimes I see other customers practicing. Pouring their cream and sugar with studied intent. Stirring with purpose.I add an extra spoonful of sugar to my own coffee for them, to make all of our enchantments sweeter.”

“This is all lie, she want to say to them. The dead are not hovering nearby to knock politely at teacups and tabletops and whisper through billowing curtains.”

“And yet I cannot be myself. You teach me all these things and then you put me here to pretend to be something I am not, while she is center stage, doing exactly what she does.”