“For a moment she believed he had left, but as she shifted away from the wall she sensed him there beside the bed. He was very close. Wretched curiosity! But she would fight it and not look. “Katherine,” he whispered, his breath rolling in a warm wave across her cheek. A traitor tear spilled out, the humiliation was too much to contain. Gently, a finger dabbed the wetness from her skin. He said it again, softly, as though it pleased him just to say it, “Katherine.” “Viktor!” the accented voice bellowed from below. And then the shadow was gone. Darkness overwhelmed her then and carried her away to a land of crows and mocking strangers.”

“For the next several minutes we forgot about scones and lollipops and SATs and politicians and the Secret Service and hovered in a blissful place, population of two—Max and me. When I was kissing Max, the rest of the world, and all my problems faded away.”

“I, the great and powerful D.S. will create a harem for all the women in the world!!!! For a woman, no greater joy exists in the entire universe than to fuck me, the ultimate sex symbol!!!”

“All I knew was, my Father was famous for being a loser, and a loser that wanted nothing to do with me, since the day I was born.”

“Because I love you. Don’t you get it? Not because Cassandra is a part of you and Coroebus is a part of me. I love you because you are Nadira. The strange beautiful Nadira. The Nadira that has such hatred for me it kills to see the anger in your eyes whenever you even glance at me. I love Nadira. Not Cassandra. I love you.”

“I tell you all the time, you will never be able to replace me with a brass and steam contraption.”

“He grinned, a very dark and evil grin… the kind of grin that the Grinch had before he stole Christmas.”

“Looking back at him was a man who was battered and broken.And alive, for the first time in his life.”

“Enough with the sadness! This dream is not for cry-babies…” he said, his face beaming with a wide smile.”

“He wanted to die. He prayed for it. Through the roar in his ears, he begged for it.”

“If hate motivates your life, you’ll never know the meaning of true love”

“The workings of the male mind are twisted indeed.” Winnifred Crane”

“Dammit. I think I’m in like with the naked man I met today.”

“Choice betrays character,” I said.“That’s not true.” Loring moved his finger along thesheet as if writing his name in cursive. “Eliza, you can’t judge a man solely on his actions. Sometimes actions are nothing more than reactions.”

“So you’ve taken to spying on her. It must be love.”