"Kenzie took two staggering steps backward, staring at the feeline as if in a daze. "O-kay," she breathed, shaking her head slightly. "A cat. A cat that talks. I'm going crazy." she glanced at me. " Or you slipped something into my drink at the tournament. One or the other."

"Tonight, Garret the soldier didn't exist."

"The faery lords are immortal. Those who have songs ballads and stories written about them never die. Belief worship imagination we were born of the dreams and fears of mortals and if we are remembered even in some small way we will always exist."

"I've been told that there's a point in every soldier's life when he knows he's going to die. You expect it, of course, in every battle, every ambush, every enemy engagement. You are aware that this could be it. This could be the one that ends your life. But, there's a difference between being aware that you could die, and knowing beyond a doubt, when the situation is hopeless. New dragons dropped from the sky in a dark mass..."

"Sorry, I didn't see the big X with the words Top Secret Government Laboratory on the map, did you?"

"I sighed again, tipping my head back. My skin was still flushed, whether from anger or adrenaline or both, and my dragon crackled and snapped in myriad different directions. I needed to calm down. I wished I had my board. It was impossible to stay tense while floating on the surface of the ocean, its cold, dark depths lulling you to sleep. The sea was fascinating. It always amazed me how calm and peaceful it was one moment, only to bear down on you a moment later with the power and savagery of a hurricane."

"Oh, look at that, he's heard of me. My fame grows."

"Godzilla was coming..."

"At least I know the truth, I gritted back. "I'm not the one who's being lied to. His brow furrowed, and I spat the truth at him."

"Care to join me, Goodfellow?"Oh, ice-boy. A moonlight stroll with you? Do you even have to ask?"

"It would be dreadfullyironic, I mused, if once I earned a soul, I forgot everything about being fey, including all my memories of her. That sort of ending seemedappropriately tragic; the smitten fey creature becomes human but forgets why he wanted to in the first place. Old fairy tales loved that sort of irony."

"I found myself hating him, wanting to hurt him, to drive him away from the red-haired girl who was supposed to be mine.Breathless, I slumped to the wall, numb with the realization. This anger, these illogical feelings of rage and possessiveness...I was jealous. I was jealous of a girl I was supposed to be stalking, seducing, for the sole purpose of revealing her true nature. This had become more than an objective, more than a mission.I was falling for her."

"One hand traced small circles against my back, and I pressed closer to him, listening to his heartbeat. "I used to think that having nothing to live for made you a better fighter, he murmured. "Turns out I was wrong on a lot of fronts."

"Ember was watching me, green bright eyes in the shadows of the room. She crouched against the wall with her wings pressed close and her tail curled around herself. Even with her fangs slightly bared and her sides heaving with fear, she was still beautiful, elegant, fiery, everything my dragon wanted."

"Scott Waldron.' 'What?' Robbie's lip curled in a glimace of disgust. 'The jockstrap? Why, does he need you to teach him how to read?' I scowled at him. 'Just because he's captain of the football team doesn't mean you can be a jerk. Or are you jealous?' 'Oh, of course, that's it,' Robbie said with a sneer. 'I've always wanted the IQ of a rock. No, wait. That would be an insult to the rock..."

"Science is all about proving theories and understanding the universe. Science folds everything into neat logical well-explained packages. The fey are magical capricious illogical and unexplainable. Science cannot prove the existence of faeries so naturally we do not exist. That type of nonbelief is fatal to faries."

"Working for Mab now, are you, Wolfman?" he smirked. "Like a good little attack dog? Will you also roll over and beg if she asks?"

"Now we're going to save a bunch of dirty meatsacks from a bunch of dirty cannibals? Why don't we rescue some orphaned kittens and put food out for stray puppies while we're at it?"

"The closer you got to someone, the more it would destroy you when they were inevitably gone."

"Your friends are—interesting," she said, making me snort. "I would hate to see your enemies." She looked back at me, black eyes assessing. "You did not mention that one of the 'friends' you risked your life for was desperately hoping he could rip your head off."
"I was a soldier of the Order," I said wearily. "He's the leader of a rogue dragon underground. I'm sure I've killed a few of his dragons in the past. I'm also stupidly in love with the girl he considers his, and we both know it."

"I wished I had told her what I was doing. I wished I had said more, argued more. Maybe then I wouldn't have this hollow ache in my chest whenever I thought of our parting words. Had she already moved on, forgotten me? In her position, what she said made sense, but the thought of her with someone else made me wish I had something to fight, to kill, just so I could forget."

"I couldn't, he finally whispered. "You were the one who taught me to live, to take chances. For a while, I convinced myself that we were too different, and that it was better to let you go. But now, I've come to the realization that my life is probably going to be very short. And I want to spend it doing something that matters. With someone that matters. I don't want to regret that I gave up without a fight."

"Goodfellow snickered."Wouldn't be any fun if we didn't run into some sort of catastrophe." Pulling his dagger ,he waved me on."After you,your highness.Puck to Ash."

"You have no idea what you really are," the Elder Wyrm went on, "or why you are special to the dragons of Talon."

"I'm trying to keep your safe!" Puck exploded, whirling on me. His eyes feverish, and I shrank back. "This isn't a game, Meghan! The shit is about to hit the fan, and you're right in the middle of it without knowing enough to duck!"

"Is our life not exciting enough? Or do the lot of you just have some kind of death wish?"

"My emotions still held a stubborn hope that humans could be loyal, that they could hold out against the promise of an easy life. But I knew better."

"Well, looks like you got your wish, Firebrand," I whispered, feeling the heat in my veins rise up, growing hotter by the second. "Screw this waiting around. If we survive this, I swear you will have my full attention from now on." Her eyes flashed, and I released the hold on my true self, letting Cobalt surge to the surface. My wings unfurled, brushing the countertop, and my talons clicked on the tile floor as I sank down and made myself small, folding my wings tight to my body."

"You will always be a monster - there is no turning back from it. But what kind of monster you become is entirely up to you."

"Leaving would imply suitcases and empty drawers, and late birthday cards with ten-dollar bills stuffed inside."

"Quaint and picturesque, though I didn't voice my opinion out loud. Keirran and Annwyl were faeries, and Kenzie was a girl, so it was okay for them to notice such things. as a card-carrying guy club, I wasn't going to comment on the floral arrangements."