“But perhaps the best part of all was that I, Sydney Katherine Sage, guilty of constantly analyzing the world around me, well, I stopped thinking.”

“That was Sydney Sage," said Lissa. "I thought they were all in West Virginia. Why isn't she with Rose?""That," said Abe darkly, "is an excellent question.""Because they were apparently kidnapping Jill Mastrano in Detroit," said Christian. "Which is weird. But not the craziest thing I can think of Rose doing.”

“Hey, Sydney. I thought I saw your car out there." He glanced around. "Is, uh, Jill with you?""Not today." I said. New insight struck me as I recalled that Lee attended school in Los Angeles. "Lee, have you ever dated a human girl at your school?"Adrian arched an eyebrow. "Are you asking him out, Sage?"I scowled. "No!”

“Rose once told me "If your eyes weren't open, you wouldn't know the difference between dreaming and waking."Adrian Ivashkov to Sydney Sage”

“Sydney! Stop. Think of something else. Conjugate Latin verbs. Recite the periodic table.”

“But I can say you’re okay for an irreverent party boy with occasional moments of brilliance.”“Brilliant? You think I’m brilliant?” He threw his hands skyward. “You hear that, world? Sage says I’m brilliant.”“That’s not what I said!”...“Come on, Sage. You understand how my mind works. You said I was brilliant, remember?”Eddie glanced at me in surprise. “You did?”“No! I never said that.” Adrian’s smile was infuriating. “Stop telling people that.”

“He caught hold of my hand. “Sydney, please don’t do this,” he begged. “No matter how confident you feel, no matter how careful you think you are, things will spiral out of control.”“They already have,” I said, opening the passenger door. “And I’m going to stop fighting them. Thank you for everything, Marcus. I mean it.”“Wait, Sydney,” he called. “Just tell me one thing.”I glanced back and waited.“Where did this come from? When you called me to tell me you were coming, you said you’d realized it was the smart thing to do. What made you change your mind?”I gave him a smile that I hoped was as dazzling as one of his. “I realized I’m in love.”Marcus, startled, looked around as though he expected to see my object d’amour in the car with us. “And you just realized that? Did you just have some sort of vision?”“Didn’t need to,” I said, thinking of Wolfe’s ill-fated trip to the Orkneys. “It’s always been right in front of me.”