“Look, he said to his imagination, if this is how you're going to behave, I shan't bring you again.”

“Hush Hattie!" I said, intoxicated with my success. "I don't want to go to my room. Everyone must know I shan't marry the prince." I ran to the door to our street, opened it, and called out into the night, "I shan't marry the prince." I turned back into the hall and ran to Char and threw my arms about his neck. "I shan't marry you." I kissed his cheek. He was safe from me.”

“I sat up then, looking at him appraisingly, knowing that was the moment I could stop everything if I wanted to. “Maybe you should go,” I whispered, as I ran my hand through his hair slowly.“Maybe I should stay,” he said, bringing his lips to mine again.”

“Well,” Tessa said, sighting along the line of the knife, “you behave as if you dislike me. In fact, you behave as if you dislike us all.”“I don’t,” Gabriel said. “I just dislike him.” He pointed at Will.“Dear me,” said Will, and he took another bite of his apple. “Is it because I’m better-looking than you?”

“The weirder you're going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with three or four rings in his nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person.”

“ 'Motivation matters,' he said again, 'because why you do something connects to how you do it, who you do it to, or for. And maybe what you see at the end of it-if you're looking that far.' ”