I wrote: I never doubted. Would you believe I made a breakthrough with charms too?Her response came fast. Of course I believe it. When do you get back?Early evening. Can you come over?I’ll try. We need to celebrate.Should I get champagne and cake ready?Get your bed ready.Wear the black bra.I didn’t plan on wearing one.“God help me,” I murmured, earning a surprised glance from Neil.

I gave him a smile that I hoped was as dazzling as one of his. "I realized I'm in love."Marcus, startled, looked around as though he expected to see my object d'amour in the car with us. "And you just realized this? Did you just have some sort of vision?""Didn't need to," I said, thinking of Wolfe's ill-fated trip to the Orkneys. "It's always been right in front of me.

All that mattered was that he was Adrian, my Adrian. My match. My partner in crime, in the long battle I’d just signed on for to right the wrongs in the Alchemist and Moroi worlds. Maybe Marcus was right that I’d also signed myself up for disaster, but I didn’t care. In that moment, it seemed that as long as Adrian and I were together, there was no challenge too great for us.

Love is . . .” An old memory with Adrian came back to me, and some of the turbulent emotion I always carried within me these days welled up in my chest. It was stupid, feeling so lovesick when he’d been gone less than a day, but I couldn’t get him or the ways he described love out of my head. “. . . a flame in the dark. A breath of warmth on a winter’s night. A star that guides you home.

As long as we’re together, that’s how we’ll be. No trembling. No faltering. We’re unstoppable.

Hey,” she murmured. “There are people in the house.”“There are always people in the house,” I reminded her. “That’s why we escaped up here to the castle tower. Escape plan number . . . hell, I don’t know. I lost count. We haven’t had to come up with some dreamy escape plan in a while.”Sydney trailed her fingers down the side of my face. “That’s because we’re living it, Adrian. This is the only escape plan we need.

Love is a flame in the dark. A breath of warmth on a winter's night. A star that guides you home.

Was that romantic?” he asked. “I was just making the suggestion,since the coat’s so heavy and warm.I figured you’d think of me since it was such a nice gesture. And yet,once again, you’re the one who finds romantic subtext in everything Isay.