“Once I saw Desjardins’ house, I hated him even more. It was a huge mansion on the other side of the Tuileries, on the rue des Pyramids.“Pyramids Road?” Sadie said. “Obvious, much?”“Maybe he couldn’t find a place on Stupid Evil Magician Street,” I suggested.”

“I looked across the river to Manhattan. It was a great view. When Sadie and I had first arrived at Brooklyn House, Amos had told us that magicians tried to stay out of Manhattan. He said Manhattan had other problems--whatever that meant. And sometimes when I looked across the water, I could swear I was seeing things. Sadie laughed about it, but once I thought I saw a flying horse. Probably just the mansion's magic barriers causing optical illusions, but still, it was weird.”

“I hate hiding how much the stupid things he did hurt me, but I hated the idea of him finding out even more.”

“I described the pyramid we'd found and waited for him to jump on the bandwagon. Unfortunately he's afraid of wagons. And bands.”

“Do you promise to hate my parents as much as I do?""Oh, absolutely," Quentin said. "Maybe even more.”

“He laughed. I suddenly wanted to laugh, to laugh with him, to sit here, or maybe outside in the rain, and just laugh with him. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t even smile.”