“Your fangs are showing, Miss Lyndon.""Are they?" she asked, reaching up to touch her face. "I shall have to remember to retract them."Charles burst out laughing. "You, Miss Lyndon, are a treasure.""That's what I keep telling everyone," she said with a shrug and a wicked smile, "but no one seems to believe me.”

“"What do you say, Miss Lyndon? Shall we have a go at it?"" 'Shall we have a go at it?' " Ellie choked out. Really, this was not the proposal of her dreams.”

“He shook his head in wonder. "You are magnificent.""I keep telling everyone that," she said with a nonchalant shrug, "But you seem to be the only one to believe me.”

“I don’t want Tiamat to go back,” said Jeremy sullenly. “I want her to stay here with me.”Miss Priest laughed. It was not a horrible laugh at all. “What a terrible idea!” she said. “Why do you want her to stay?”Because I love her. I don’t want to lose her.”Miss Priest reached out and took his chin in her hand. She looked into his eyes. “You silly boy,” she said. “Nothing you love is lost. Not really. Things, people—they always go away, sooner or later. You can’t hold them, any more than you can hold moonlight. But if they’ve touched you, if they’re inside you, then they’re still yours. The only things you ever really have are the ones you hold inside your heart.”

“Let's face it, she can't have simply disappeared...can she?"Horace shrugged. "That's what I keep telling myself," he said morosley. "But somehow it looks as if she has.”

“Did you miss me?’“A little bit,” she said with a shrug.“You have tears running down your cheeks,” he said with a grin. “I think you missed me more than a little.”