“Promise me," she gasped, fighting to speak through the agony that gripped her. "Anything, little one." "Don't… don't forget me…”

“You are beautiful, sweetheart. All I did was draw what I saw." "No," Meghann said, awed by the beauty in the painting. "You painted what you made. I was prettybefore you transformed me… nothing like that." She touched the vibrant, glowing face of the portrait. "You were always beautiful," Simon told her. "It wasn't transformation that enhanced your beauty." "It was love," Meghann said softly.”

“Little one," Simon said after a prolonged silence, "why isn't it enough that I care for you and Elizabeth asI've never cared for anyone else? Are you truly going to toss what we could have away for a world ofstrangers that will never even appreciate your actions?”

“Cocky little king. You assume you're the only one that gives me satisfaction?"His smile widens as he lifts one of my arms and kisses the sensitive skin of my wrist. "If there is something in this world that can please you more than me," he says, his warm breath caressing my skin, "then I'll be extra diligent in my duties tonight, my queen. Indulge me with every sensation that gives you pleasure, and I will match it and more."Whatever retort was on my tongue vanishes, his heated words stealing all reason from my mind. Only one lingers: queen. Hearing him refer to me as his intended opens my heart like the sea opens to the sky, and I am his.”

“Of course, this memory makes me sorrowful now, for it anyone ever knew the shape of me, it was Amelia - and not just the outer lines of me, either, but all my innards as well. She was as necessary as the sun to me. She was the quiet heat that shimmered inside my shadow and made it live, and without her, I am a little darker.”

“We don't quesiton the Others.They rule Earth, maintain order, protect us from the Wilds, But the are not us. They are Other.”

“Don't imagine she trembles over the dissecting table either, Smith. She has nerves of ice. Real Good can be as ruthless as Evil when it wants to accomplish something, let me tell you.”