Spanish was weird that way: two words for monkeys, and esposas meant both wives and handcuffs. That said a lot.

We stand a professional distance apart, as if I can’t feel his pain screaming in my head. Mine amplifies his; they share a joint sound—that of glass breaking—until they swell to a crescendo that deafens.

-anger because pain would drown me without the protective shell.

I get it. You’d rather have him, broken, than me whole. If that didn’t clarify my chances with you, nothing would. But you can’t have what you want either, Deuce. I can’t be your friend,...

I didn’t ask if he meant his rescue or the deal with Stalker that involved kissing. I couldn’t resist pushing, just a little. “So it won’t bother you if I find someone else?”His jaw clenched,...

For I need this scar over my heart to remind me. Crazy as it sounds, if I can bear the wound on my body, it lessens what I must carry on my soul. How he...

Hey, that’s why they in­vented the In­ter­net, her­manita. To talk about weird shit and down­load porn.

I resolved, then, deep in my soul never to let him go. I’d be the one never to leave him. I’d prove to him that some things could be for always- that we could be.

Vel once told me that the heart isn’t like a cup of water. You can’t drain it. It’s more like an endless well, and the more you love, the more it pumps out.

Age had nothing to do with how well my brain worked.

I’ll always want him. Until every sun goes dark in every sky, until I am nothing more than long-forgotten cosmic dust, I will want him. And even then I suspect my particles will long for...

But it was like a dance across a field strewn with razors, and I bled with every step I took.

That looked like love to me, when you put a brave face on your heart breaking because it was what the other person needed.

Survival feels like cowardice.

I’m not a woman you bring home to Mother, pick out china patterns with, or Mary forefend, breed. I’ve seen a chunk of the universe, true, but there’s still so much more to see. I...

Fine, frag you all, I’m dark juju, bad luck, and you’re all doomed.

The strong survive.

Perhaps that was the point; life, if you did it right, meant learning and changing. If you didn’t, you died- or stopped growing – which amounted to more or less the same thing. So I...

. . . and I don’t expect him to suborn his life into mine any more than I would change my dreams for him. We’re not one soul, one being, however much we love each...

I missed you.” I didn’t mean to tell him so, even if it was true. Admitting need felt like weakness; it demonstrated dependence and vulnerability.

I knew exactly how he felt because I had walked in his shoes, wary and distrustful, unable to believe anybody could care about me without asking for something in return.

My common sense had already packed a bag, prepared to abandon me for the evening.

Realistically, it’s a risk, I suppose, but in this day and age, you almost have to choose between freedom, which can devolve into chaos, and security, which can become a pair of shackles.

Don’t let them see you weak.

Does changing for the better absolve you of all the wicked shit you did before?No. March fills my head like a warm glow. Instead you receive the twin delights of guilt and regret.

My skill didn’t lie in planning battles, only in fighting them.

Dying isn’t like living; it requires no effort at all.

Not to wish too hard for a shift in circumstances since it never happens as you imagine.

More than most, I know the pain of surviving.

Pull yourself together. People among the living still need your help, and I haven’t given you permission to quit.

Once exposed, a secret loses all its power.

What you said about the sweetest pain? That fits us.

Because it takes more courage to heal the world’s hurts than to inflict them.

This guilt is a joke, and it’s exhausting to watch you martyr yourself.

So I make no effort to hide my pain. I don’t ever put it all on display like this—but for today and all the rest of the days of the trial, I must. My every...

For love to flourish there has to be trust. Promises don’t matter as much aspersonal choice.

…as if prayers ever put out a fire.