“Mary-Lynnette had an inexplicable impulse to knock Ash flat and fall down on top of him. She'd never felt that for any boy before.”

“Mary-Lynnette felt a violent wrench in her chest. For a moment everything seemed suspended-and changed.If Ash were dead-if Ash had been killed…Things would never be all right. She would never be all right. It would be like the night with the moon and stars gone. Nothing that anybody could do would make up for it. Mary-Lynnette didn't know why-it didn't make any sense-but she suddenly knew it was true.”

“It was a little awkward, lining up to get the position right. Mary-Lynnette had never kissed a boy before. But once she started she found it was simple.And…now she saw what the electric feeling of being soulmates was for. All the sensations she'd felt when touching his hand, only intensified. And not unpleasant. It was only unpleasant if you were afraid of it.”

“Ash held one finger up. "OK. Now listen-"Mary-Lynnette kicked him in the shins. She knew it was inapporopriate, she knew it was uncalled-for, but she couldn't stop herself. She just had to."Oh, for God's sake," Ash said, hopping backward. "Are you crazy?”

“But Mary-Lynnette was thinking. Of course she'd like to find somebody who would accept her completely, who would share everything with her.”

“Ash stripped some of the papery purple bark off his yew stick. "And, you see, it's difficult because what I've always thought about humans-what I was always raised to think…""I know what you've always thought," Mary-Lynnette said sharply. Thinking, vermin.But," Ash continued doggedly, "the thing is-and I know this is going to sound strange-that I seem to love you sort of desperately.”

“She wanted to tell him that she understood him now, in a way she'd never understood anyone before. Because she was with him. It wasn't even like being in the web; it was much closer than that, much deeper. He'd torn down all the barriers and put his soul into her hands.”