You’re impinging on my private space,” I said, inching backward. Patch gave a barely-there smile. "Impinging? This isn’t the SAT, Nora.

..but maybe this was a defense mechanism. Maybe my mind was making me see things I refused to accept were gone forever. It was filling the void, because that was easier than letting go.

That woman." Vee hissed, "I'm making the sign of the cross right now.

Citizen's arrest," he said. "Well, that, and Patch told me to.

It makes no difference to me whether I shoot you or you fall to your death.” “It does make a difference,” I said, my voice small but confident. “You and I share the same blood.” I lifted my hand precariously, showing him my birthmark. “I’m your descendant. If I sacrifice my blood, Patch will become human and you’ll die. It’s written in The Book of Enoch.

I'm not good," he said, piercing me with eyes that absorbed all light but reflected none, "but I was worse.

Anything was better than nothing. Half-full was better than empty. Ignorance was the lowest form of humiliation and suffering.