Eyes open, then," I say, tapping the skin between my eyebrows. I don’t really need her eyes to be on mine, but I feel better when they are.

Arrogance is one of the flaws in the Erudite heart -- I know. It is often in mine.

I see a few hands stretching out to me at the edge of the net, so I grabbed the first one I could reach and pull myself across. I roll off, and would have fallen face-first onto a wood floor if he had not caught me. "He" is the young man attached to the hand I grabbed. He has a spare upper lip and a full lower lip. His eyes are so deep-set that his eyelashes touch the skin under his eyebrows, and they are dark blue, a dreaming, sleeping, waiting color.

Sometimes drastic change requires drastic measures.

I don't want to stop you. I want you to stop yourself.

You are far less likely to soil your pants and cry for your mother if you’re prepared to defend yourself.

Before we sit down, he puts his mouth next to my ear and says, “I like your hair that way.