“Safe?” Her voice was small, timid and delicate. But beautiful. The one word chimed like little bells. Her first word spoken to me.”

“I would like it very much if you pulled on something of mine.” Kale”

“I smiled, trying to look harmless.“Don't do that. You'll freak everyone out,” he ordered.I dropped my smile.“Now you look like you want to eat everyone.”“I do.”“I should smack you.” He looked back at the humans. (Tommy & Danny)”

“All right,” he muttered and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He pinched the bridge ofhis nose, squeezing his eyes shut. “Did anyone call VF?”“No, we didn't want to get busted,” the short, stocky human replied.“Good, go downstairs and tell everyone it’s cool. He won't hurt anyone. He's like a pettiger.”“Tigers eat people,” the short, stocky human said.“Only if you piss him off, so don't give him a reason.”

“Kim lifted the lid. Inside, on a small pillow covered in white velvet, lay a gold sunburst the size of her thunbnail, hung on a delicate chain. It looked a little like the first spell she had ever cast, a small explosion of light re-created in metal, and she was not really surprised to find the card with the single word "Mairelon" scrawled across it.”

“Are you still upset I murdered our parents? - Tommy to Danny”

“January. It was all things. And it was one thing, like a solid door. Its cold sealed the city in a gray capsule. January was moments, and January was a year. January rained the moments down, and froze them in her memory: [...]Every human action seemed to yield a magic. January was a two-faced month, jangling like jester's bells, crackling like snow crust, pure as any beginning, grim as an old man, mysteriously familiar yet unknown, like a word one can almost but not quite define.”