“They grabbed me and up I went. My shriek probably could've been heard in England. It certainly brought the basketball coach and the rest of the boys running in the belief that someone was being brutally murdered.I don't think Mrs. Green will be picking me for the squad.”

“But I’ve kept first of March as my birthday as I like to tease Zed about dating an older woman. And my parents wouldn’t understand if I told them about the soulfinder bond and tried to change it.”“They don’t know?”“Well, I think they’ve picked up that there’s something special between Zed and me but I’m not sure how I’d even start to explain to non-savants. I was exactly overjoyed when Zed filled me in about it all the first time.”“What did you do?”“Thumped him with a shopping bag and told him he was a jerk.”“Ouch.”

“Saul tapped his wife's obstinate chin. "Mrs. Benedict, you certainly are. You promised to obey.""That was thirty years ago! Before the wedding ceremony caught up with the modern age.""Well, I for one am holding you to that. Gondola for two, in the moonlight, with champagne and roses.”

“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.”

“I caught a glimpse of him thinking of the final combat in the movies, Harry versus Voldemort, Spider-Man versus the Green Goblin.”

“Oh my gosh, don’t you both look pretty!” We looked like rejects from the auditions for The Sound of Music.“I will have to buy them – they are meant to be yours!” Karla waved her credit card around like a wand.“What a shame they didn’t have one in green for me. But then, it is a young girl’s style. I would’ve looked foolish.”

“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.”