The Shadow Cipher (York, #1)

by Laura Ruby

How would an advertisement for minions read? Have you ever been told your smile makes people uncomfortable? Does your voice sound like a dentist’s drill? Does your gaze cause others to break out in hives? Have you misplaced your moral compass?

The only thing that’s truly pointless is kvetching about the pointlessness of things. What is the real point: the destination or the journey?

Artisanal Hipster Mustache.

“Mouth closed, please. No one needs to witness your mastication process,”

these smell so good I could eat the air,”

All of them had been in this apartment. The walls had heard their wishes. The floors had felt their footsteps. How could he leave this place when so many of the people he loved had left the last of themselves here?

The Tunnel, dark as the grave, cold, damp, silent. How beautiful look earth and heaven again, as we emerge from the gloom! It might not be unprofitable, now and then, to send us mortals—the dissatisfied ones, at least, and that’s a large proportion—into some tunnel of several days’ journey. We’d perhaps grumble less, afterward.

Some restaurant that serves tiny food that only makes you hungry.”