“Tell me something, Adron. Sometime you’ve never shared with anyone else. Not even Thia. (Livia)I’m the one who glued Zarina to the toilet seat when she was seven. (Adron)”

“Why are you being such a baby over this? I’m the one who was kept cloistered. (Livia)Because my mother and sister are sacred beings, unsullied by the hands of a man, and if you tell me differently, especially where Zarina is concerned, I swear to God, I’m donning my assassin’s uniform and gutting whatever bastard touched her. (Adron)”

“Depends. (Adron)On? (Livia)Whether or not they’re plotting against you. Taryn’s like a head injury. It’s only funny when it happens to someone else. And Tiernan…I think there’s now a hurricane on Chrinon VI named after him. (Adron)”

“When I was younger, I was really vain about it. Zarina used to tease me that I looked at my reflection so much that one day the bogeyman was going to come and steal my face. (Adron)”

“So I thought your mother and sister might have some insights to share. After all, your mother had five kids and– (Livia)Stop! I don’t even want to think about my mother having sex with my father. I know for a fact that she was artificially inseminated and he never touched her. Grandpa Zamir told me so and I believe him. (Adron)That’s not what she says. (Livia)Am I not in enough pain that you’d torture me with this shit on top of it? What did I ever do to you to make you want to kill me? (Adron)”

“Adron! Don’t you hurt him. (Kiara)I’m not going to hurt him, Mom. I’m going to kill him. (Young Adron)”