“I still don't know why we didn't hire a carto get around Ireland.""When I was a kid, I always dreamed about living in Ireland. I used to pretend I was one ofthe traveling people, driving my gypsy wagon from village to village. Used to picture a darkgypsy kidnapping me and having his way with me. Exciting stuff." Katy grinned at her. "Couldstill happen, you know.""Katy, we have a horse that's so laid-back I have to keep checking to see if he's dead.”

“I just want to clarify that I don't mean 'without my vagina' like I didn't have it with me at the time. I just mean that I wasn't, you know...displaying it while I was at Starbucks. That's probably understood, but I thought I should clarify, since it's the first chapter and you don't know that much about me. So just to clarify, I always have my vagina with me. It's like my American Express card. (In that I don't leave home without it. Not that I use it to buy stuff with.)”

“How did your mother die?” asked Delk.“Car accident,” Katie replied, gazing out over the water. “She’d been to mass. A tire blew on the way home, and she was gone. I was nineteen, Pather’s age, when it happened. My brother was only eleven.” She paused. “I do know what you’re going through.” Katie looked at her.“Pather told you?” Katie nodded. Delk was glad Pather had told his sister; she was relieved not to have to tell the story again. “Does it ever . . . you know . . . get any better?”Katie shrugged her narrow shoulders and smiled. “In some ways it does, but it’s a bit like running a long race with a rock in your shoe. You get used to it, but it always hurts a little.”

“Did you know that when we were kids Cass used to tell me your stories? She used to laugh at you. Not in a mean way, but in the way that Cass used to laugh at everything before...." He gestures around us at our world now. I shake my head. "I thought Cass never liked my stories. Never remembered them." "Oh yes, I would beg her to tell me if she had new stories from you." "Why didn't you ask me yourself?" I whisper. "Because you were Harry's," he responds. "Not always." "Yes, always," he says. "Always in his eyes," he adds in a softer tone.”

“Kurogane: That's what you want, isn't it? Underneath that constant grin, you're keeping everyone away. So that nobody gets involved with you. But look. Just now you checked to see if the kid had a fever, and you're relieved that the princess doesn't see the wretched condition of this world. And in the last country, you used your magic.Fai: *smiling* I said it, didn't I? I wasn't going to die. And so...Kurogane: Yeah, but that was all about you not dying on your own account. Dying for somebody else... That's a whole new question. Back then, if you hadn't done anything, we would have been captured, and if we handled it wrong, we might have died. But you decided to use magic on your own. You involved yourself in their lives.Fai: *no longer smiling, looks depressed* I... I don't want to make anyone unhappy because of their involvement with me. ”

“I walked across an empty landI knew the pathway like the back of my handI felt the earth beneath my feetSat by the river and it made me completeOh simple thing where have you goneI'm getting old and I need something to rely onSo tell me when you're gonna let me inI'm getting tired and I need somewhere to beginI came across a fallen treeI felt the branches of it looking at meIs this the place we used to love?Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?Oh simple thing where have you goneI'm getting old and I need something to rely onSo tell me when you're gonna let me inI'm getting tired and I need somewhere to beginAnd if you have a minute why don't we goTalk about it somewhere only we know?This could be the end of everythingSo why don't we goSomewhere only we know?[break]Oh simple thing where have you goneI'm getting old and I need something to rely onSo tell me when you're gonna let me inI'm getting tired and I need somewhere to beginSo if you have a minute why don't we goTalk about it somewhere only we know?This could be the end of everythingSo why don't we goSo why don't we goThis could be the end of everythingSo why don't we goSomewhere only we know?”