Tessa exhaled. She hadn't realized that she had been holding her breath until that moment. Will must have heard her, for he raised his head and his gaze met hers across the clearing. Something in it made her look away. Agony stripped so raw was not meant for her eyes.

He kissed each finger, and with each one of them spoken a word. Five kisses, five words. His last.

Always ask for what you want, because the worst thing that can happen is embarrassment but the best thing that can happen is nudity.

You told us to leave you in the desert, because you planned to start a new life as cactus," Catarina said, her voice flat. "Then you conjured up tiny needles and threw them at us. With pinpoint accuracy.

Jem always said that Will rushed toward the end of a mission rather than proceeding in a measured manner, and that one must look at the next step on the path ahead, rather than the destination in the distance, or one would never reach one’s goal. Will closed his eyes for a moment. He knew that Jem was right, but it was hard to remember, when the goal that he sought was the girl that he loved.

Tessa is gone, and every moment she is gone is a knife ripping me apart from the inside.

Hang Mortmain," said Will. "And I mean that literally, of course, but also figuratively.