123 Quotes by Charlie N. Holmberg

She turned her head to showcase the barrette. “What do you think?” Emery’s expression softened. “I think it’s lovely. I did a good job on that.” Ceony rolled her eyes. “How modest. But thank you, for this. And the flowers.

It’s easiest to disguise what you’re doing when you’re shuffling or dealing,” Emery explained, “or when your opponent is distracted by something that’s cooking in the kitchen.” Ceony opened her mouth to protest, but instead closed it and shot him a disapproving look. He had won the game last Tuesday when Ceony had cinnamon rolls in the oven. She had been worried they would burn. Perhaps that’s why Emery never kept the money she lost, regardless of the amount. The cheater.

She found Emery and Mg. Aviosky talking to two disgruntled police officers. Or rather, Mg. Aviosky stood by silently while Emery yelled at them.

Ceony shook her head. “No. Except I lost your glider. That’s how I got to the barn.” “Hmm,” he replied, nodding. “I hope you closed the roof.” She hadn’t.

I’d like to see twenty-one links completed when I return. Threats on your well-being are poor excuses for missing homework! He drew a happy face after that—two dots and a curving line—and signed his name.

Emery was kneeling outside “gardening” when Ceony and Langston stepped through the illusion that masked the paper magician’s house. He had positioned himself outside the curving garden of meticulously crafted paper flowers, and seemed to be replacing all the red, tulip-shaped flower heads with blue, lily-shaped ones. Fennel chewed on the discarded spells as Emery worked, crumpling them in his paper mouth and then spitting the balls into an overturned trash receptacle.

Beside Thane—who watched the setting sun with such peace, with such light in his eyes—the “woman” seemed imaginary. Because she is, Ceony realized, a second breeze tickling her skirt and blowing loose flower petals across her vision. These are the things Thane—Emery—hopes for. She studied him, his peace and his contentment, the eyes that seemed to radiate life. She studied the shadowy woman beside him from head to foot. He wants to fall in love again.

Anger. Infidelity. Death. Dark times—that’s what these memories were. Ceony had passed through Emery’s goodness and his hopes; it made sense to see his darkness, too. To see his hurts and his vices. To see the shadows cast behind those bright eyes.

Would you humor me for a moment?” “I believe I’ve been humoring you since you walked through my front door,” he replied. She smiled. “Just for a moment.