He`s powerful, he`s pervasive. Fighting him is like fighting off sleep when you`re long past the edge of exhaustion.
But fight him we must.

What I miss, when I`m away from Watford, is just being around magic. Casual, ambient magic. People casting spells in the hallway and during lessons. Somebody sending a plate of sausages down the dinner table like it`s bouncing on wires.
<...>
When I`m by myself, magic is something personal. My burden, my secret.
But at Watford, magic is just the air that we breathe. It`s what makes me a part of something bigger, not the thing that sets me apart.

She told me later that her parents had told her to steer clear of me at school. "My mum said that nobody really knew where you came from. And that you might be dangerous."
"Why didn`t you listen to her?" I asked.
"Because nobody knew where you came from, Simon! And you might be dangerous!"

"What?" I demand. "What do you give them?"
The Humdrum shrugs. "Nothing. I give them some of my nothing."

"Because I like this better than fighting?"
"There is no 'this'!" I protest.
"You slept in my arms," he says.
"Fitfully."

"It's good to see you girls spending time together," she says. "It's good to have a life that passes the Bechdel test."

There's nothing remarkable about Snow's eyes. They're a standard size and shape. A little pouchy. And his eyelashes are stubby and dark brown. His eyes aren't even a remarkable colour. Just blue. Not cornflower. Not navy. Not shot with hazel or violet.

She leans forward and presses a kiss into my temple. No one has ever kissed me there. No one has ever kissed me anywhere but on my mouth.

She falls asleep in the middle of telling me about a song she's heard, a song she thinks will be a spell someday, though I can't think of any use for "Call me maybe."

It's not my job to judge Agatha; it's my job to be her boyfriend.

“It’s death,” I say, looking back down at my book, “because you look at other people, living people, and they seem really far away. They seem like something else. The way that birds seem like something else. And they’re full of something you don’t have. You could take it from them, but it still won’t be yours. They’re full, and … you’re hungry. You’re not alive. You’re just hungry.”

They’d never understand why I was working with Snow and Bunce. And right now, Snow and Bunce seem like the best allies I could have. They’re relentless once they set their minds to something. Completely trustworthy, with no sense of self-preservation.

Sharing a room with someone who wants to kill me, who’s wanted to kill me since we were 11, has been … Well, it’s been rubbish, hasn’t it?

Just because I've never had parents doesn't mean I can't understands how much it would hurt to lose one.