“Follow me. Yves held out a hand, expecting me to take it.I had had enough of being pushed about, towed here,shoved there. Lead the way, O master.He raised an eyebrow at my sarcasm. Glad to see youhave seen the light. I only want what’s best for you.Mr Arrogant or what?I don’t mean it like that. He shook his head, tellinghimself off. I just want to make this right but I seem to bedoing it all wrong.Then let me go.That would be a tragedy. Give me a chance here.Please.”

“I wasn’t sure, but I thought it kind of suited me. With the right shoes and everything.” I displayed the new blue pumps. “I wanted to look, you know, pretty.”Yves gaped. I felt a little bit sorry for him. “Um…Phee, I don’t know what to say.” I let my bright expression dim. “You… you think I look horrible in it?” My voice rose in a convincing squeak of distress.He put his hands on my soulders. “No, you look great. You always look great, no matter what you’re wearing.”Zed laughed. “Ouch. Wrong thing to say.”

“Xav tugged Yves off me and handed me the call button. “You’ll be needing this, Phee, when my irritating little squirt of a brother bothers you again. Just press and the nurses will come running. One of them looks like a pro-wrestler, so she’ll make short work of him.”

“I shook my head, folding my arms around my waist. He was wrong; he was the one offering fairy dust, Peter Pan offering to carry me off to the Neverland of soulfinders and happily ever after. But he was too late. Last night i had to grew up and I now knew that such dreams did not exist; real life was more like living with Captain Hook's mercenary pirates than playing happy families in a treehouse”

“My fears had blinded me to the prize i was about to throw away.”

“He[Crystal's father] had found my height amusing, referring to me as his "little girl" at every opportunity even though I could see the bald patch on top of his head fringed by curls when we stood side by side.”

“What’s nefarious?’ ‘I don’t know, but my grandma accuses me of having them when she thinks I done something bad and it sounds good.”