“Sevro." I lean forward. "Your eyes..."He leans in close. "Do you like 'em?""Bloodydamn. Did you get Carved?""By the best in the business. Do you like 'em?""They're bloodydamn marvelous. Fit you like a glove."He punches his hands together. "Glad you said that. Cuz they're yours."I blanch. "What?""They're yours.""My what?""Your eyes!""My eyes...""Do you want the eyes back?" Sevro asks, suddenly worried. "I can give them back.""No!" I say. "It's just I forgot how crazy you are.""Oh." He laughs and slaps my shoulder. "Good. I thought it might be something serious. So I'm prime keeping them?""Finders keepers," I say with a shrug.”

“Sevro." I lean forward. "Your eyes..."He leans in close. "Do you like 'em?""Bloodydamn. Did you get Carved?""By the best in the business. Do you like 'em?""They're bloodydamn marvelous. Fit you like a glove."He punches his hands together. "Glad you said that. Cuz they're yours."I blanch. "What?""They're yours.""My what?""Your eyes!""My eyes...""Do you want the eyes back?" Sevro asks, suddenly worried. "I can give them back.""No!" I say. "It's just I forgot how crazy you are.""Oh." He laughs and slaps my shoulder. "Good. I thought it might be something serious. So I'm prime keeping them?""Finders keepers," I say with a shrug.”

“You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.”

“... You have to pull the feet to break the neck. They let the loved ones do it.”

“You tell anyone I cried, I'll find a dead fish, put it in a sock, hide it in your room, and let it putrefy.""Fair enough.”

“I was learning the craft; I didn't study writing in school. Rejection was my motivation, and failure is what taught me.”

“The Golds dance in pairs,Obsidians in threes, Grays in dozens. We dance alone, because only alone do Helldivers drill.~Uncle Narol”

“Anyone who writes books is at least mostly an introvert. It’s amazing to be able to share that internalized part of myself, that little world that no one really knows about. I just wrote down it down on a piece of paper just to be crazy, and people loving that is so strange.”

“It is strange being in a crowd where no one knows your face or cares for your purpose. In Lykos, I would have been jostled by men I'd grown up with, run across girls I'd chased and wrestled with as a child. Here, other Colors slam into me and offer not even a faint apology. This is a city, and I do not like it. I feel alone.”

“You will fall to ruin because you believe that exceptions to the rule make new rules.”

“Darrow: "Does he really believe believe in magic?" I ask.Daxo Au Telemanus: "He says gnomes steals ear wax from him at night. Mother thinks he's been hit too many times in the head." Daxo backs away following his father. But he can't hide the his clever smile as he pops a jellybean into his mouth. And I see where the ones in my pocket came from. "I say he just lives in a more entertaining world than we do.”

“Rather a drink be my master than a man.”