“I never kid about my warrior demigod status."
"Oh. My. God." I lower my voice, having forgotten to whisper. "You are nothing but a bird with an attitude. Okay, so you have a few muscles, I’ll grant you that. But you know, a bird is nothing but a barely evolved lizard. That’s what you are.”
“My friends call me Wrath,” says Raffe. “My enemies call me Please Have Mercy. What’s your name, soldier boy?”
“I knew from the start that your loyalty would get you killed. I just never thought it would be your loyalty to me that would do it.”
“It is not the gentle kiss of a couple on a first date, nor is it the kiss of a man driven by simple lust. He kisses me with the desperation of a dying man who believes the magic of eternal life is in this kiss.”
“I never thought about it before, but I'm proud to be human. We're ever so flawed. We're frail, confused, violent, and we struggle with so many issues. But all in all, I'm proud to be a Daughter of Man.”
“Here, I’ll show you how to use it. Let me see your foot.”
“That’s a pretty intimate demand in the angel world. It usually takes dinner, some wine, and sparkling conversation for me to give up my feet.”
“Why were the other angels attacking you?"
"It's impolite to ask the victim of violence what they did to be attacked.”
“How long did you resist?” asks Uriel. “Did you push her away? Did you tell her she meant no more to you than any other animal? Oh, Raffe, did she die thinking you didn't care about her? How tragic. That must just tear you to pieces.”
Raffe looks up with murder in his eyes. “Don't. Talk. About. Her.”
“Oh, please. Your giant head is getting too big for this forest. Pretty soon, you're going to get stuck trying to walk between two tress. And then, I'll have to rescue you." I give him a weary look. "Again.”
“What if they don’t let us go through?” I ask, trying not to move my lips.
“They will,” he answers from the dark recesses of the backseat footwell.
“How do you know?”
“Because you have the look they’re looking for.”
“What look is that?”
“Beautiful.” His voice is like a caress from the shadows.”
“A little weird? That was freakin' Bizarroville."
He pauses and looks back at me.
"Are you speaking English?”
“We now play a permanent game of I-am-crazier-and-scarier-than-you. And in that game, my mother is our secret weapon.”
“Your sense of judgement could use a dash of common sense.”
“Anybody that ties you to a chair at gunpoint is a bad guy. Do I really need to explain this?”
“So long as you don't bleed in the shape of wing joints, you should pass for human. Oh, and don't let anyone pick you up. They'll know you're not right as soon as they feel how light you are."
"I'll be sure not to let anyone but you carry me in her arms.”
“You're like a little girl demanding answers to questions during a covert operation. Why is the sky blue, daddy? Can I ask that man with the machine gun where the bathroom is? If you don't stay quiet, I'm going to have to dump you.”
“The next time you have a quarrel with me, I'd appreciate it if you could just talk to me first before resorting to pelting me with rocks.”
“Sometimes, as we're stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.”
“I wonder which will get you killed faster—your loyalty or your stubbornness?”
“He runs his finger tips along my cheek, caressing my face. “Hush. I’m right here.” He looks at me with deep anguish in his eyes. Like there’s so much he wants to tell me but feels it’s too late now. I want to stroke his face and tell him that it will be okay. That everything will be all right. And I wish so badly that it would be.”
“I've never killed anyone before. What frightens me isn't that I'm killing someone. What frightens me is how easy it is.”
“In the long second before everyone absorbs what just happened, I see the angel rolling his eyes heavenward, like a teenager in the presence of overwhelming lameness. Some people just have no sense of gratitude.”
“I'm not moping," I whisper back. "Of course you're not. A girl like you, spending time with a warrior demigod like me. What's to mope about? Leaving a wheelchair behind couldn't possibly show up on the radar compared to that."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"I never kid about my warrior demigod status.”
“Either he's shaken by something or he's falling off the wagon hard and fast. Great. Just my luck to be partnered with an alcoholic angel.”
“When you're small enough to have to look up at everyone around you, there's no such thing as a dirty fight. That's a new motto for me. I think I'll keep it.”
“She? You’re not one of those people who name their cars and coffee mugs, are you? It’s an inanimate object. Get over it.”
“"Was that your plan all along? Show me where to go, then convince me there's nothing I can do to save my sister?"
"Actually, my plan all along was to become a rockstar, travel the world collecting fan girls, and then getting really fat and spending the rest of my life playing video games while the girls kept comin', thinking I look good as I did in my music videos." He shrugs as if to say, 'who knew the world would turn out so different?”
“Angels are violent creatures.”
“So I noticed. I used to think they were all sweet and kind.”
“Why would you think that? Even in your Bible, we’re harbingers of doom, willing and able to destroy entire cities. Just because we sometimes warned one or two of you beforehand doesn’t make us altruistic.”
“A sense of humor is one more thing I don't think angels should have. The fact that his sense of humor is corny makes it even more wrong.”
“You," he says, with a dirty look, “don’t deserve salvation.”
"As if you could give it to me,” I croak. “Why would I want to go to Heaven anyway when it’s crammed full of murderers and kidnappers like you and your buddies?”
“Who says I belong in Heaven?”
“My cousin will fuck anything that moves.” “And yet he hasn’t fucked you.” “Monroe…” “Sorry.” I suppressed the sneaky laugh bubbling in my chest, but it quickly died when a disturbing thought occurred to me.”
“Life, it seems, delivers the best punch lines only after we've forgotten we were part of a joke.”
“In today’s America, we tend to think of healing as something binary: either we’re broken or we’re healed from that brokenness. But that’s not how healing operates, and it’s almost never how human growth works. More often, healing and growth take place on a continuum, with innumerable points between utter brokenness and total health.”
“There was nothing in store at Undershaw for his lordship but a set-down, but it was disappointing to be granted no opportunity to deliver this.”
“but one egg isn't good for anything at all”
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