3
" Just so you know, I had already decided I was adopting you and taking you home to meet the rest of the family. I really, really hope you wanted siblings, because you now have two sisters, a brother, a sister-in-law, a brother-in-law, and assorted cousins, aunts, uncles, and other such familial detritus.” James looked back to me, blinking in slow bewilderment. “Ah,” he said finally. “I suppose I’ll have a busy Christmas. "
― Seanan McGuire , That Ain’t Witchcraft (InCryptid, #8)
9
" In the days when the faith in the Feathered Lords was waning, came Elizabeth Evans, called Beth, the kindly Priestess, who did find Us gathered in her yard and say Why Look At You, You Must be Starving. And she did gather Us in her apron and carry Us into her Home, which would be our Home thereafter, and say, You Are Safe Here, If You Will Follow the Rules I Set— "
― Seanan McGuire , That Ain’t Witchcraft (InCryptid, #8)
12
" I thought I was going to be happy."
"Okay," I said, for the third time, because there wasn't anything else I could say.
"I was so wrong." He kept looking at his hands. "I thought I knew what happy was, and I guess I did because I wasn't miserable. People liked me. My grandmother loved me. She still loves me. She'll die loving me, even if she never sees me again. I love the trapeze. I did good stuff with the carnival, and I'm not sorry I did it, but I wasn't happy the way I am when I went with you.
Even when I'm mad at you, or you're mad at me, or you do something stupid, like when you ate that gas station sushi and I had to hold your hair back when you threw up in the ditch, even then, I'm so happy it hurts. This isn't happiness. This is weaponized joy. I'm going to die from loving you too much, and I'm not even sure I'll e sorry. How is that fair? You didn't mean to, and I don't blame you, but you've ruined me for being happy without you. I can't do it. I can't too. I want to, and I can't."
"Okay," I said one more time, and placed my hand over his. "
― Seanan McGuire , That Ain’t Witchcraft (InCryptid, #8)
13
" Her eldest daughter, Agnes, refused us, but did not break her mother's Confidence, saying, You Ask Too Much of Me. But her second daughter, Enid, the Patient Priestess, did say, Mother, I Love You, and I Love the Mice, and I will Keep Them Safe. "
― Seanan McGuire , That Ain’t Witchcraft (InCryptid, #8)