“‎"I solemnly swear to tell Mrs. Casnoff that Elodie's ghost looked at me. And if I do not tell her, I swear to buy Jenna a pony. A vampire pony.”

“Now, Sophia, would you care to tell me why you're here by the pond instead of reporting to your next class?''I'm experiencing some teenage angst, Mrs. Casnoff,' I answered. 'I need to, like, write in my journal or something.”

“I rubbed my hand over my chest, just above my heart. Mrs. Casnoff watched with a look of concern. "Did he hurt you?""No," I told her. "He didn't."Nowhere you could see, at least.”

“Do you know anything about the Brannicks?""Irish girls, red hair," I replied, remembering a picture of them from Mrs. Casnoff's "People Who Want to Kill Us All" lecture at Hex Hall last year. I also remembered Mrs. Casnoff saying that if the Brannicks and The Eye ever teamed up, we were screwed.”

“I've heard so much about you, both from your father and from Anastasia.""Mrs. Casnoff?" Oh, God, if that's where this woman had gotten her Sophie Mercer gossip, I was surprised she'd greeted me with a handshake instead of an exorcism.”

“Weird it showed it me that when I've had so many other awful things happen directly to me," I said beginning to tick them off my fingers. "Elodie getting killed, having to kill Alice, escaping a burning building with the help of a ghost..." And then because both my parents looked so deflated I added, "Oh, and this really heinous pageboy haircut in the sixth grade.”

“... everything suddenly got twistier and more complicated than Mrs. Casnoff's hairdo.”