“He had held out shakily, like a tree that had been hacked down to its breaking point. But that kiss was the last swing, the final impact, and he gave in finally, felled.”

“He kissed her as though he were starved for her. Like he'd been held away from her and had finally broken free. It was the kind of kiss that lived only in her fantasies. No one had ever made her feel so..consumed.”

“He kissed and held her like it was the last time, but then again, he always did that, because there had always been that possibility of him losing her.”

“A final stand, then. One last battle. At least he could say that he had fought. When he met his brothers and sisters on the far side of death, he would tell them that he had not yielded. He might have betrayed everything that they had been bred for, but he had never yielded.”

“In one horrible moment the last piece of the prophecy became clear.So bid him take care, bid him look where he leaps,As life may be death and death life again reaps.He had to leap, and by his death, the others would live. That was it. That was what Sandwich had been trying to say all along, and by now he believed in Sandwich.He put on a final burst of speed, just like the coach taught him in track. He gave everything he had. In the last few steps before the canyon he felt a sharp pain in the back of his leg, and then the ground gave way under his feet.Gregor the Overlander leaped.”

“The impact had cut your upper lip in two, he had said, clean down the middle. Clean down the middle. Like a harelip.”