“There came a point when Harry stopped trying to fight back, when the blows from the monster were too strong, too many, too fast, when he began begging the monster to stop.”
“When the monster struck a blow, Conor felt the sting of it in his own fist. When the monster held Harry's arm behind his back, Conor had felt Harry's muscles resisting. Resisting, but not winning. Because how could a boy beat a monster?”
“When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?”
“A monster that refused, sometimes, to behave like a monster. When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?”
“When you traffic in monsters, that's the risk you run, that you'll find one too monstrous to stomach.”
“The Archive makes us monsters. And then it breaks the ones who get too strong, and buries the ones who know too much.”