“I had a fucking standing ovation going on in my goddamn pants, and it was demanding an encore.”

“Don't tell me it's going to fucking be okay! I am not okay with being that fucker's pinata!”

“I'm pretty sure those're my balls you've found,” I said to the man searching my pants. “You gonna count 'em out now? Because I'll save you the trouble. There's two.”

“Fuck your manners.""You don't have to settle for just my manners.”

“That's not cruel. This is. You come here in the middle of the night, expecting me to be awake, and ask—no, demand—me to give you things that belong to me as much as they belong to you. Never mind what it does to me. Never mind that each time I see you, I wonder if I'll ever hold you in my arms again, or be able to touch you without you cringing away like I'm a monster. I think it's fair to ask if there's an 'us,' my dear, because I suspect you're trying to use me just now. Tell me that's not cruel, and I'll let you go.”

“College had once been my greatest aspiration; it stood for everything my mother did not—intellectualism, feminism, freedom. But being kidnapped had given me plenty of time to think, and somewhere between all that fear and dread, I'd realized that was the wrong reason to go to college. That the potential for those things had been inside of me all along, only I'd never realized because I hadn't believed myself strong enough to break free without an intermediary.”

“You're going to the ball?""Aren't you? I was led to believe we had no choice in the matter."Vol cracks a wry smile. "Ah. You've met Kira, then.""If that self-congratulatory guinea pig in my doorway this morning was Kira, then yes. We're acquainted.”