Percy climbed the first step, then the next, remembering the thousands of times she'd run through the door, in a hurry to get to the future, to whatever was coming next, to this moment.

After all, it's the librarian's sworn purpose to bring books together with their one true reader.

...She's understood the power of stories. Their magical ability to refill the wounded part of people.

Oh, Grey, no one really likes keeping secrets. The only thing that makes a secret fun is knowing that you weren't supposed to tell it.

It's a terrible thing, isn't it, the way we throw people away?

You'll beat this. I know it doesn't feel like it, but you will. You're a survivor." "I don't want to survive it." "I know that, too," Nell had said. "And it's fair enough. But sometimes we don't have a choice.

She's one of the few people able to look beyond the lines on my face to see the twenty-year-old who lives inside.