“That was what the season was, after all- a marriage market for the offspring of the aristocracy.”

“Good-bye, Pen Leland. If we meet again, maybe in London next season, you'll pardon me if I don't pursue an acquaintance with you. It's hard to chat about the weather when one's heart is breaking—”

“Charles stepped forward, looking outraged. 'Him?' he cried. 'But I clobbered him! You can't marry him, Ally.”

“She raised her eyebrows in a look that she hoped conveyed how much she was all right with him leaving her. After all, he was a prince. The most powerful men and women on Earth had summoned him. She understood.And yet he was still here, with her."I'm fine," she said. "Go away.”

“But her grandmother had never suggested she could think the same of Scarlet. You'll be fine, she always said, after a skinned knee, after a broken arm, after her first youthfull heartbreak. You'll be fine, because you're strong, like me.”

“Do your kind even know what love is? Can you feel anything at all, or is it just... programmed?”

“Cinder," Iko said after a few silent minutes of explorations. "I'm enormous.”