The Nightmare Affair Quotes

“I didn't do anything wrong. I swear.'
He grunted. 'Like I've never heard that before. Funny, but I expected a little more originality from Moira's daughter.'
'Yeah, well, the dog ate my notebook with all my good excuses.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“I didn't want to be a part of anything special. Bad things happened to special people. Usually failure followed by an early death”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“The werewolf pointed at a bench next to the door into the Kirkwoods’ tomb. “Sit. Wait.”
Did I mention werewolves were chatty?”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“Smartassitis might not be a clinically defined disease, but it should be.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“Just because someone has the power to do something doesn’t mean they will. Sometimes people choose to be good even when they don’t have to.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“I took a step toward him, planning to knock him out of his chair, then pour milk on him for good measure.

Selene put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t bother.”

She was right, and I knew it. The Will wouldn’t let me hit him. I contemplated using Mr. Ankil’s snatch-and-smack trick, but I hadn’t practiced it yet, and Lance wasn’t carrying his wand, just the stupid joker playing card he liked to fiddle with whenever he was bored, weaving it in between his fingers like he was some kind of card shark.

I’d once asked Selene what the deal was with the card, and she explained that Lance was obsessed with the Joker from Batman. In an ordinary high school, he would’ve been ridiculed for this behavior, but not at Arkwell. Most magickind teenagers were fanatics about ordinary pop culture. Almost everybody was a Comic-Con–attending, play-dress-up fan boy. And he had the nerve to make fun of me. Go figure.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“With friends, you could survive just about anything.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“If you two are starting a detective agency, I want in,” said Selene, adjusting her ball cap.

“Well, duh,” said Eli, beaming at her.

“And we’re going to need a name,” Selene said. “Something good and catchy.”

“You’re right.” Eli scratched his chin. “How about the Arkwell Detective Agency. The A.D.A.”

Selene wrinkled her nose. “Sounds too much like a chemical or something.”

“What about Booker and Associates?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not all about you, you know?”

Eli grinned. “Says who?”

“I think we should call it Selene Investigations.”

“No, Nightmare Investigations.”

“Dreamer Investigations.”

“The Dream Team.”

“How about Magic Eyes? You know, like private eyes, only for magic.”

“Corny much?”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“I blinked. “What do you mean awake?”

Bethany grimaced. “Don’t you know the story ordinaries tell about what happened to Merlin?”

“Uh, no.”

“I do,” said Eli. “There’re lots of different versions, but most say he was imprisoned in some kind of magical tomb by a witch named Niviane or some such.”

I gaped at him, surprised by the depth of his knowledge on the subject.

“What?” he said, shrugging. “I have sort of a thing for mythology and folklore.”

Yeah, that might be even cuter than the cop stuff.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“So what are you doing?” Paul said, tapping the diary.

“Oh, um. Studying.”

His gaze took in the suspect graph and time line, and he raised his eyebrows. “For what?”

I blinked, at a loss for a response. I didn’t want to lie, but I couldn’t see telling him the truth. I’d been sitting here trying to visualize myself as Veronica Mars, all smart and badass. But in reality, I felt more like Inspector Gadget with my go-go button stuck in neutral.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“Yeah, the whole nun thing was looking better and better. I couldn’t possibly go full-out evil if I were a nun, could I?”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“Geez,” I said, looking back at Selene. “Is being at the top of the social food chain like a universal birthright or something?”

She grimaced. “I think there’s a national registry. It’s online at eat-crap-dot-com.”

I forced another smile.

“So I guess he was popular at your old school?”

“Um, yeah, you could say that.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“I decided to skip it and head to the library to do some research on Keepers. The place was practically deserted at this time of day, giving me my pick of computer terminals. I sat down at one in the corner and woke up the screen with a push of the mouse. A pop-up box with a smiley face and the words “Hello, student!” immediately displayed on the screen. The animation phenomenon was particularly prevalent in the library.

I gritted my teeth and contemplated switching to another terminal in the hopes that it would be less lively than this one, but decided it wasn’t worth the time. None of the computers in here were new.

In the text box below the greeting I typed “hi thanks” and pressed enter.

The pop-up disappeared, giving me access to the library’s custom search engine. I typed “keeper” and “ring” in the box and pressed the search button.

Another pop-up appeared on the screen: “Are you sure you want to search for that?”

“Yes,” I typed.

“Lots of people aren’t, you know, sure.” The smile on the smiley face widened.

“I’m sure.”

“Sure, sure?”

“YES!!!” I pounded on the keys, trying to get the point across.

The smiley face frowned. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

At last, the stupid thing displayed the results, and I sighed in relief.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“I’m surprised you know so much about using it.”

“Sure. I guess I’m a geek that way.”

I smiled. “You are definitely not a geek.”

He grinned. “Hel-lo,” he said, pointing at himself. “Student library aide.”

I laughed, half-tempted to point out that at least he was a hot library aide. And he definitely didn’t get those bulging muscles in his forearms by shelving books. “Could be worse. You could be a hall monitor.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“When the time came for the session, I headed downstairs to the foyer only to find the security guards blocking the way out—two medieval knights I’d nicknamed Frank and Igor. They weren’t actual people but rather animated suits of armor as hollow on the inside as a chocolate Easter bunny. They turned their masked faces toward me, swords pointed.

“Whoa, hey guys,” I said, coming to a stop. “I’ve got a dream-feeding session. Um … may I pass?” This wasn’t something I normally had to ask.

They kept staring for a moment. It was a little creepy to sense they were staring even though they didn’t have eyes, just black slits in their helmets. Finally, they moved aside, and I hurried past them with a friendly wave. I always tried to be as nice to the knights as possible. As a Nightmare, I thought it a good idea to make sure they liked me so as to avoid any accidental maiming when I came and went for dream-feeding sessions. Of course, I was working under the assumption that empty suits of armor were capable of such feelings as liking.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“If sarcasm were butter, you could’ve spread him over toast”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair

“A few minutes later, I slowed to an easier pace. I had a few blocks to go until I reached McCloud Park, where I’d stowed my bicycle in some bushes. Would’ve been nice to have a car or motorcycle for these late-night dream-feeding adventures—hell, I wouldn’t have turned down a moped—but my chances of getting any kind of motorized vehicle were slim to zero.”
― Mindee Arnett, The Nightmare Affair