“Molly slapped the lid back down then pushed past Luce into the foyer stumbling over Shelby in her path. “Excuse you ” they said gruffly at the same time eyeing each other suspiciously. “Oh good. ” Gabbe leaned in to give Luce a hug. “Molly'’s made a friend.””

“You and Teacher,” said Molly.“Yes,” said Peter. “She’s very clever. You’ll like her.”“I’m sure,” said Molly.”

“There were quick footsteps beside me, and then Molly pressed her back to mine. "You take that side!" she said. "I'll take this one!"DJ Molly C lifted both of her wands and turned the battle chaos to eleven.”

“You might have mentioned this to me Molly,” said Leonard. “The fact that there are hostile natives on the island.”“I forgot,” said Molly.“You forgot?” said Leonard.“There’s been a lot happening,” said Molly.”

“Where have you been?" she cried. "Damn you, where have you been?" She took a few steps toward Schmendrick, but she was looking beyond him, at the unicorn.When she tried to get by, the magician stood in her way. "You don't talk like that," he told her, still uncertain that Molly had recognized the unicorn. "Don't you know how to behave, woman? You don't curtsy, either."But Molly pushed him aside and went up to the unicorn, scolding her as though she were a strayed milk cow. "Where have you been?" Before the whiteness and the shining horn, Molly shrank to a shrilling beetle, but this time it was the unicorn's old dark eyes that looked down."I am here now," she said at last.Molly laughed with her lips flat. "And what good is it to me that you're here now? Where where you twenty years ago, ten years ago? How dare you, how dare you come to me now, when I am this?" With a flap of her hand she summed herself up: barren face, desert eyes, and yellowing heart. "I wish you had never come. Why did you come now?" The tears began to slide down the sides of her nose.The unicorn made no reply, and Schmendrick said, "She is the last. She is the last unicorn in the world.""She would be." Molly sniffed. "It would be the last unicorn in the world to come to Molly Grue." She reached up then to lay her hand on the unicorn's cheek; but both of them flinched a little, and the touch came to rest on on the swift, shivering place under the jaw. Molly said, "It's all right. I forgive you.”

“Ah-there's our boy!" Bill pointed at the head of the crowd as they neared the stadium.A lean,muscular boy was running, faster than the others,his back to Luce. His hair was dark brown and shiny, his shoulders deeply tanned and painted with intersecting red-and-black bands. When he turned his head slightly to the left,Luce caught a quick glimpse of his profile.He was nothing like the Daniel she had left in her parents' backyard. And yet-"Daniel!" Luce said. "He looks-""Different and also precisely the same?" Bill asked."Yes.""That's his soul you recognize. Regardless of how you two may look on the outside,you'll always know each other's souls."It hadn't occured to Luce until now how remarkable it was that the recognized Daniel in every life. Her soul found his. "That's...beautiful."Bill scratched at a scab on his arm with a gnarly claw. "If you say so.”