Children's League agents like robots (Simile)
"I tried to remember the last time I had seen one of them so worked up, and couldn’t—Jude always joked they were part robot, programmed to do their tasks with the least amount of heart possible."
Ruby sees one of Alban's agents coming out of the office furious, the man was otherwise calm and collected and done his job efficiently similar to a machine as Jude liked to joke.
Voice is acid (Metaphor)
"His voice was acid on my already exposed nerves."
One of the PSI kids and Jude's friend was killed on a mission he was signed up to needlessly. Nico and Jude suspected that he will be killed because they hear Rob and some of the other agents talk about getting rid of the kids. It was Jarvis, one of the agents in the mission, who shot him from the back. Ruby didn't believe that they would ever do something like that but she was wrong and Nico is there to remind her of it.
Fear is a living thing (Metaphor)
"Jude’s fear was an actual, living thing. It hovered over his shoulders, black, thunderous."
After escaping from Rob to go on an undercover mission Ruby and Jude get captured by PSF's and Jude begins to panic. He is unable to calm himself down because his fear makes Jude irrational; it controls him like it was a living thing.
Good people are lone candle flames in a sea of never-ending black (Metaphor)
"I didn’t want to give him the false hope that these people were anything other than lone candle flames in a sea of never-ending black."
Ruby discovers something written on tickets a woman she mind controlled gave to her and Jude. It says stay safe. Ruby doesn't want to give Jude any more false hope to feed on his naivety. There is too much darkness that swallows those few lighted candles.
Ruby as a predator (Simile)
"I felt like a predator, ready to step out of the shadows and make my true face known."
As Ruby stepped into the ring Knox prepared for her and Vida to fight, she was ready to do anything to take him down. He hurt those dear to her and she stops at nothing to protect the ones she loves, even become a predator, a monster she is otherwise scared of becoming.
