“Tell them you came, and saw, and lookedinto my eyes and saw the shadowof the guard receding.Thoughts in time and out of season,the hitchinker stood by the side of the roadand levelled his thumb in thecalm calculus of reason. [...] Why does my mind circle around you?Why do planets wonder what itwould be like to be you?All your soft wild promises were words,birds, endlessly in flight.”

“I wonder why it is I don't argue like this, with anyone but you. I wonder why it is, I won't let my guard downFor anyone but you. We do it all the time, blowing out my mind...”

“Grant-"But he barely touched her, only cupping her face as they stood beside the bed. "You're beautiful." His eyes were on hers,intense,searching. "The first time I saw you,you took my breath away. You still do."As moved by the long look and soft words as she had been by the tempestuous kisses, she reached up to take his wrists. "I don't need the words unless you want to give them. I just want to be with you.""Whatever I tell you will be the truth, or I won't tell you at all.”

“I stood there and stared, into the sky and at the city around me. I stood, hands at my side, and I saw what had happened to me and who I was and the way things would always be for me. Truth. There was no more wishing, or wondering. I knew who I was, and what I would always do. I believed it, as my teeth touched and my eyes were overrun.”

“Why not? Do you like him?” Magnus’s eyes gleamed. “He seems to like you. I saw him going for your hand out there like a squirrel diving for a peanut.”

“There,” she said triumphantly. “Like that.”He began to wonder if they were speaking the same language.“Like what?”“That! What you just said.”He crossed his arms. It seemed the only acceptable reply. If shecouldn’t speak in complete sentences, he saw no reason why hehad to speak at all.”