Never, never, never. I am never going to forget you.

I can't--I can't think about anything or anyone else," he whispered. A hand drifted up, dragging back through his hair. "I can't think straight when you're around. I can't sleep. It feels like I can't breathe--I just--""Liam, please," I begged. "You're tired. You're barely over being sick. Let's just... Can we just go back to the others?""I love you." He turned toward me, that agonized expression still on his face. "I love you every second of everyday, and I don't understand why, or how to make it stop--" He looked wild with pain; it pinned me in place, even before what he had said registered in my mind."I know it's wrong; I know it down to my damn bones. And I feel like I'm sick. I'm trying to be a good person, but I can't. I can't do this anymore.

—I don't want to lose you—Then why are you the one that keeps letting go?

Life isn’t fair." I said. "It’s taken me a while to get that. It’s always going to disappoint you in some way or another. You’ll make plans, and it’ll push you in another direction. You will love people, and they’ll be taken away no matter how hard you fight to keep them. You’ll try for something and won’t get it. You don’t have to find meaning in it; you don’t have to try to change things. You just have to accept the things that are out of your hands and try to take care of yourself. That’s your job.

Let's carpe the hell out of this diem.

...crackers..." a voice breathed out nehind us, "yesss..."Both of us turned, watching as Chubs twisted around in his seat and settled back down, still fast asleep. I pressed a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. Liam rolled his eyes, smiling. .

I hugged him without any kind of fear or self-consciousness, fiercely, with a rush of emotion that almost brought tears to my eyes."I could kiss you!" Chubs cried."Please don't!" I gasp out, feeling his arms tighten around my ribs to the point of cracking them.

You wanna go build some shelves with me?

When it came to adults, it was better not to talk. They had a way of hearing one thing and processing it as something else. No reason to give them an excuse to hurt you.

Do I look as pretty as I feel?

She shows up everywhere, at any time, like she can guesswhat we’re going to do before we do it.”“The lady is good at what she does,” Liam confirmed.“Can you please not compliment the person trying to drag our asses back to camp?

Oh my God, Green,” I heard Chubs say from somewhere in the room. “Just take the damn socksand put the kid out of his misery.

My fear for you outweighs my fear of him,” he said simply. “And I told you, didn’t I? If you left, I’d follow you.”But should you try to leave on your own, know that I will go to the ends of the earth to bring you back.

Those rabbits stopped fighting the system, because it was easier to take the loss of freedom, to forget what it was like before the fence kept them in, than to be out there in the world struggling to find shelter and food. They had decided that the loss of some was worth the temporary comfort of many.

Why are you so weird?""Because my weird has to be able to cancel out your weird, Lady Cross-stitch.""At least what I do is considered an art form.""Yes, in ye olde medieal Europse you would've been quite the catch-

Etta saw the way Sophia took a deep breathe, set her shoulders back, and moved with practiced grace on her way out — and she understood something about the other girl, truly understood for the first time. Sophia wanted it, when she was only ever sent out.

—the longer you silence a violin, the harder it is for it to find its true voice again.

Free the fire fluttering inside her rib cage. Work her muscles, the bow, the violin, until she played herself to ash and embers and left the rest of the world behind to smolder.

I was coming to see the heavier your heart got, the strongest you had to be to keep carrying it around.

You want to know the real reason they never let us touch or talk to each other if they could help it? It made us strong. If you have people who love you, you can fall back on them when you're afraid.

You are your abilities and they are you. I can't put it to you more plainly. Do you know why I hate this cure? It's a statement that what we are is inherently wrong. It's a punishment for something that isn't our fault - all because they can't control their fear about what we can do, anymore than they can control their resentment that there are people out there stronger and more powerful than they are. They want to strip you of yourself - your ability to protect and enforce your right to make decisions about your life. Your own body. Mark my words: in the end, it won't be a choice. They'll decide this for you.

Now isn´t the time to change yourself to fit into the world... you should be changing the world to accept you. To let you exist as you are, without being cut open and damaged.

I'm not... I'm not without a heart,' he heard Sophia say, her chin raised, eyes straight ahead. 'I'm not. I just don't have the luxury of being soft. I am trying to survive.

He could silence me, but Rob had no power over my mind

She imagined she could taste the storm in him, the battering winds of desperation and frustration that met her own, blow for blow.

Like any girl, she still felt the echoes from earlier eras of repression. She'd been raised by a mother who'd fought hard to get a wage she deserved, to have access to education when she lacked every advantage, to travel on her own terms. The idea she was being asked-that she was expected to simply play along-made the blood throb in her veins. She was already in the damn stays. Wasn't the enough?

What mattered was that these beliefs had swept through the souls of everyone else like a plague. He couldn't see the end of it. Even a hundred years in the future, he knew, the roots still had not been fully pulled up from society. Wherever, whenever he went, the color of his skin set the boundaries of what he could achieve, and there was very little--if any--recourse for finding a way around it.

And the open road rolled out in front of us.

What was the point of being holed up with someone who didn't believe in me when I had people out there who did?

You'd be surprised how little voice you have when you lose everything.

...what does the future look like?...'A deep blue, fading into golds and reds-like fire on a horizon. Afterlight. It's a sky that wants you to guess if the sun is about to rise or set.

Do you think the memory of someone should dictate how we live going forward?' he asks, threading and unthreading his fingers together.'It depends,' I say. 'I think you can probably honor someone's memory, but you can't live for them, because that means living in the past.

I had the strangest feeling-like I had lost something without ever really having it in the first place-that i wasn't what I once was, and wasn't at all what I was meant to be.

The question stayed with me every day, through every class, through every Op. I felt its teeth tighten around the back of my neck each time I was dismissed without a second look; it had locked it’s jaws and wouldn’t let me or my conscience go.

Sometimes the darkness lives inside you, and sometimes it wins.

I pulled myself from his mind, day by day, piece by piece, memory by memory, until there was nothing of Ruby left to weigh him down or keep him bound to my side..

A moment later, Liam's bright blue eyes opened, and he was seeing me. He just wasn't seeing Ruby.

You're missing the point. It's not that I believe in what Lee's saying; it's that I hope he's right. I really, really hope he's right, because what's the alternative?

I had the strangest feeling -- like I had lost something without ever really having it in the first place -- that I wasn't what I once was, and wasn't at all what I was meant to be. The sensation made me feel hollow down to my bones.

I knew I wasn't making sence, but I couldn't seem to connect my thoughts to my tongue. That feeling... How did you tell someone that?

Half-truths only added up to a whole lie.

For the longest time, I saw them as the end of my journey, but now I think they were always meant to represent the beginning of yours.

It's our choices that matter in the end. Not wishes, not words, not promises.

None of this is your fault,' I told him. 'None of it. You aren't responsible for what other people do, good or bad. Everyone is just making the choices they think will help them get by.

But hey, what's life without a little adversity?"That had to have been the fakest attempt at optimism since my fourth grade teacher tried reasoning that we were better off without the dead kids in our class because it'd mean more turns on the playground swings for the rest of us.

Home isn’t four walls, it’s the people you’re with.

Dressed as a man, her horse unencumbered by anything but the bare necessities, she had the look of a survivor, a fighter, and he respected the hell our of her for it, especially when she slid the pistol out of one of the saddlebags and aimed it at him.

I bet it gets pretty lonely with only your ego for company.

But part of surviving is being able to move on.

He said he'd never remarry, because he'd never find another lady that fit so neatly at his side. He called her his equal in spirit.

Yes, well”—he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose delicately—“the burner phone we had accidentally fell out of the car, and someone accidentally backed over it. Because someone was in a rush after she accidentally alerted some skip tracers we were nearby when she accidentally used her abilities to move a light pole out of the road after she had accidentally backed into it.”“Someone better shut their mouth before I accidentally slam my fist into their teeth.” She punched his shoulder, and it was almost...playful.“Shut his mouth, fist into his teeth.”“Really? A grammar lesson?

Just shut up and start sucking each other's faces already," Vida grumbled, leaning awkwardly against the stump. She would never admit it aloud, but I knew the burns on her back her eating her alive with pain. "I'm trying to make up for the sleep I lost when you started screeching at each other like cats in heat.""Miss Vida," Liam said, "has anyone ever told you that you are positively the whipped cream on the sundae of life?"She glared at him. "Anyone ever told you your head is shaped like a pencil?""That is physically impossible," Chubs groused. "He'd be--""Actually," Liam began, "Cole once did try to-- What?""Oh, I'm sorry," Chub said, "apparently the middle of my sentence interrupted the beginning of yours. Do continue.""I'm going to guess you probably don't want to hear about the time he pushed my head through the neighbours fence...""Was there a lot of blood?" Vida asked, suddenly interested. "Did you lose an ear?"Liam held his hands up next to his ears, indicating both were firmly attached to his skull."Then, no" she said. "No one wants to hear your boring-ass story.

If she's not alright, I'm going to rip out his heart and eat it." I nodded. "You really shouldn't eat raw meat," Chubs said.

Hey Boo, I'm in this now, too, & I got a lot of experience playing assholes like they're fucking harps. You need backup, I got you. Stop trying to convince yourself that you're in this alone.

Are you driving this slow because you have no idea where we're going, or because you're hoping we jump out of the car & put ourselves out of our misery?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd be up for hearing about the one-eyed chick," Vida said with a shrug. "You are atually the worst person I have ever met," Chubs said. "And people like you are the reason we have middle fingers.

I was looped in on your little romantic quest. The only way to get me out without it looking suspicious was to suggest that I come after you dumb asses, since I supposedly know your crappy personality so well.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd be up for hearing about the one-eyed chick

Also, screw you—maybe you can be all stealthy and break into their building to get the woman out, but I can getus there and back safely. I did this for months and never got a second glance from anyone, including PSFs.”“Probably because your ugly-ass face blinded them on the first look,” she muttered.

Miss Vida" Liam said "has anyone never told you that you are positively the whipped cream on the sundae of life?"She glared at him."Anyone ever told you your head is shaped like a pencil?""That is physically impossible," Chubs groused."He'd be__""Actually Liam began, "Cole once did try to__ What?""Oh,I'm sorry," Chubs said, "apparently the middle of my sentence interrupted the beginning of yours. Do continue.

I know I'm going to shred the skin off your face and turn it into hair ribbons.

And for the love of God, bitch, don't get stabbed this time!

The end. But I'm telling you now, if either of you breathe a word -one goddamn word- about Cate, I will come down on you so hard, they'll be naming hurricanes after me for a fucking century.

This kid has more mood swings than a toddler's birthday party.

They call you Medusa. One wrong look and your brain turns to stone.

I felt the familiar warm tingling at the center of my chest and had just enough time to gasp as some invisible hand yanked me forward, smacking my forehead against the dashboard with enough force to stun me dumb. Chubs slammed on the brakes, forcing my seat belt to do its job and lock against my chest. I was thrown back into my seat, an explosion of colors bursting in my vision. "Oh, hell no!" Chubs roared, slamming a hand against the steering wheel. "That's it! We don not use our abilities on one another, goddammit! Behave yourself!

A mannequin? An unfeeling heartless bitch who feeds on others' misery and is physically incapable of crying, unless it's tears of blood?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd be up for hearing about the one-eyed chick.

Next time it'll be your nuts.

My mom used to say that sometimes just saying something aloud was enought to make it true. I wasn't so sure about that.

Fire is calling my name. It is whispering words of encouragement, sweet things. It wants out, for me to fan the heat until it’s a vortex that can’t and won’t be stopped.

I do not know what, in the end, makes a person who they are. If we`re all born one way, or if we only arrive there after as series of chioces. The bible claims that the wicked act on their own desires and impulses, because God is good, only good, and He would never compel a soul to wickedness. That I`m supposed to count on justice in the next life, even if I can`t have it in this one.

Hours of being asked:"Do you understand?" But for all of her answers, she never got around the one question I had wanted to ask."What does it feel like?

What good is honour when greed eats away at its foundations?

If I wasn't the same person I had been six years ago, how could I expect her to be?

It's always easier to take something than work for it...

See how many doors open, Alastor said, when someone with influence and ideas comes along with a key? Fortune can be hoarded, or it can be shared.

Nope," he whispered, when I tried to tug it away. "Mine now.

Love was selfish, wasn't it? It made honest men want things they had no right to. It cocooned one from the rest of the world, erased time itself, knocked away reason. It made you live in defiance of the inevitable. It made you want another's mind, body; it made you feel as if you deserved to own their heart, and carve out a place in it.

When a girl cries, few things are more worthless than a boy.

I didn't have time for tears anymore. I had questions.

You gotta stand up and walk, Gem,” he said quietly, turning his back on them. “You have to walk out of here. Not just for them, but for yourself. Come on. You have to walk out of here on your own two feet.”So I did.

You gotta stand up and walk, Gem,” he said quietly, turning his back on them. “You have to walk out of here. Not just for them, but for yourself. Come on. You have to walk out of here on your own two feet. So I did.

You gotta stand up and walk, Gem,” he said quietly, turning his back on them. “You have to walk out of here. Not just for them, but for yourself. Come on. You have to walk out of here on your own two feet.” So I did.

This time should have been no different. But it was.

Who could be satisfied with seeking out the four corners of one small world, when there was the whole of time to be had?

How do you fight against a mountain? How do you move it when you don't even have a shovel?” “Maybe you don't have to move it,” Etta said, folding the gown over the lid of the trunk. “Maybe you have to climb it.

But there's a beginning in an end, you know? It's true that you can't reclaim what you had, but you can lock it up behind you. Start fresh.

Are you sure this isn't a nightmare? And that we won't just wake up?Yes.Because dreamers always wake up and leave their monsters behind.

My mom said once that education was a privilege not afforded to everyone, but she was wrong--it wasn't a privilege. It was our right. We had the right to a future.