Okay, I deserved that,” I admitted.

Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” I said cheerfully, getting in touch with my inner smartass.

The night surrounds, breathes across her skin. They’re lost in the shadows of the moon.

So if you want to keep me around, I expect more tweed.

That’ll teach me to start off a conversation with a demand,” I grumbled.

Or to myself. Besides, your feelings for me aren’t real. The Society did this to you. And if they did it to you, they probably scrambled my brain too. I can’t trust that any of...

Fantastic. I always like my days better with a touch of insanity,” Gabriella quipped.

I’m sorry,” he says. No two words were ever truer.Still, she says nothing. Once a shield, now her taciturnity is brandished like a blade, carving away his sanity. She’s the flaw in the paragon of...

They want to suck your blood,” Rob says in a Romanian accent.Jaden snorts. Too bad humor won’t help them out of this mess.

What? It worked for the Fallen Angels.

If this is where you ask me to run around in my birthday suit, I’m not entirely comfortable with that,” I said, smirking.

Yeah, telling your girlfriend the Angel of Death might visit her if some switch is flipped is normal pillow talk.

The door is shut?

Yes, hello ex-girlfriend Sara. And might I add: law-breaker? Who let you out of your cage? Don’t you know Joseph has a restraining order against you?

The Forsaken.

And who is your master?”No answer came.Andrew’s insatiable rage rose up and swallowed his grief like a yawning ocean mouth, the darkest depths surging to the surface to form a mighty tidal wave. He closed...

Her gaze travels back to the lie twisted in a tempest of mud and blood. She witnesses the culmination of her recklessness through a curved lens. Absorbed in life uncoiling, unaware of the world beyond...

Summer turns and marches away, fed up with being handled like a child. Like she’s a glass doll that might break at any minute. She hasn’t been a child since the day she was whipped...

The aftermath of bearing shackles is an exquisite devastation, fraught with the ravages of survival. Even though one is no longer held captive—be that from a person, a government, or one’s inner self—the scars are...

To see someone you love in so much pain—especially emotional pain that can’t be remedied—was the worst form of torture.

Maybe the Society was right all along. From the very beginning, that’s what they called her. A time bomb.Tick, tick, tick.

I tapped around on my new Miracle Phone—a gift from Joseph—as I listened to the discussion about our next move. I wasn’t trying to be rude, but I’d recently become addicted to this one game...

What is it? What’s wrong?

Shut up, ya wanker.”They start in on each other again. They yell as if they both have megaphones to their mouths, standing inches apart. Each vulgar insult is more illogical than the last.

This is the only way.

Dreams deny her the freedom she truly seeks. Darkness consumes. Leg muscles burn. She runs away, even while lost in the paradise of sleep. Gravity is a crushing force bearing down on her chest, shattering...

Gage is waiting on the makeshift bed when she enters the room she’s been sleeping in. The small lantern in the corner barely lights his features. His shoulders are hunched, his hands clasped together before...

naked fun time,” which was apparently what Joseph called it. There were some things people should never know, and that was one of them.

Death was a leech; no matter which side of the spectrum you were on, either dead or alive, it fed. It either acquired your soul or devoured all your joyful emotions.

Because here’s a news flash: You might’ve wanted to shelter me, but there’s nowhere you can hide me that’ll keep me safe from what’s inside my head.

Did you see him eat?

She would rather remain silent, but her voice is no longer something to fear. It’s strong. Powerful. A weapon of emotions.

He smiles at her before ever opening his eyes. The innocence in his face ensnares. Wraps her heart in a cocoon.They did this to him. The Society. Constructed that smile with malicious expectations. Now she...

He’ll probably be a bit Looneyville for a while.

Struggling transforms her captor into a Chinese finger trap. She’s suffocating. Sucking in air without relief. Her lungs expand. Contract. Expand. They fill with lies and broken promises. With despair and lost hope. Each inhale...

A growing heat, like a million blazing suns all focused on me, lit my insides. It felt like I was being cooked in the Gabriella Roast Cooker, me spinning around-and-around to heat my flesh evenly....

I’m sorry ma’am, you appear to be suffering from a mild case of Pretty Pretty Princess syndrome. Have you ingested any magical woodland faeries recently?

And I want J.K. Rowling to keep writing in the Potterverse, but I know that’s never going to happen,” I said blithely.

Feeling’s mutual.” Julian tosses him a disdainful look.

You have naked angels running around your house,” Jenna continued through her laughter. Gabby laughed louder.

She draws back, yet refuses to lose skin contact. Golden light flickers across his face. He is the night, the stars. His soul shines so brightly, she could pour it into a jar, and it’d...

He holds her with the strength of a million-man army, but with all the tenderness of her heart lying naked in the palms of his hands.

Yes, I bloody well did see that enormous, scaly, fire-breathing dragon.

She feels him scoot closer, the heat of him radiating off his chest and absorbing into her skin. His legs straddle her from behind, and he places delicate kisses along her shoulder, her back, the...

As he plods behind Cameron and Summer, he can’t help but stare at Summer’s exposed, glistening skin. His thoughts aren’t depraved or even mildly in the splasher. In fact, he focuses on the marks of...

You’ve left me alone to deal with this situation, and now we’re being dealt the consequences.”I swore I heard Tom growl. I actually pulled the phone from my ear to stare at it to make...

And gag you,” Joseph cheerfully reminded them.

You say that as if it’s a bad thing,” Rob says, smirking.

To have reservations is to show true leadership. To have certainty without question, to lead people to battle with no qualms, or to prosecute without hesitation are qualities of a tyrant.

So are my eyes. How do I always get roped into these things?” Avery coughs and pats Rob’s back in sympathy. A poof of dust billows from the contact.