“But walking down the stairs feeling each stair carefully and holding to the banister he thought, I must get her away and get her away as soon as I can without hurting her. Because I am not doing too well at this. That I can promise you. But what else can you do? Nothing, he thought. There's nothing you can do. But maybe, as you go along, you will get good at it.”

“Because there's nothing you can do about other people's reactions. You be yourself and let them be themselves and if you don't get what you want then tough and if you do then good for you and that's it. Everything else is manipulation and I spit on it.-Zal”

“We can end this before anyone gets hurt." William held his hands out to sides as if to show her he was unarmed. "You don't want to hurt people, do you? You will if you don't come away with me. You know that.""I'm not bad," Daisha whispered."I believe you." He held out a hand to her. He curled his fingers toward him in a beckoning gesture. "You can do the right thing here. Just come with me. We'll go meet some people who can help us.""Her. The new Graveminder.""No, not her. You and I can fix this all on our own.”

“Nick, I have to-” “NO YOU DON’T! I am risking everything for you and you are going to let him kill you, Keely! Please. Please don’t do this. I can protect you. We can go. We can get in the car and just drive away. We can hide.” He takes her hands in his, grips them firmly. “We can go anywhere you want. Just please stay with me.”

“I made promises to you that I'm not sure I can keep. None of it has anything to do with you. It's just that I don't know what to do now. You must be thinking what a rotten person I am. Well, believe me, I'm thinking the same thing. I don't know how this happened or why. Maybe I can get over it. Do you think you can wait—because I don't want you to stop loving me. I keep remembering us and how it was. I don't want to hurt you … not ever …”

“This machine, the wheelchair, I can go all over the place, but you need a place without stairs to get in.”