Cynthia Hand

“So I'm in love. That crazy, forget to eat, float around in a daze, talk on the phone all night and bounce out of bed every morning hoping to see him kind of love.”

“As if the daytime wasn't bad enough, I dream about him. Every night for three nights in a row. I can't get out of that moment when I was in his head, feeling what he felt, hearing his thoughts as he kissed me. I can feel him loving me. And it kills me, that moment when I feel his love shift into fear.”

“Again," I whisper. The corner of his mouth lifts, and then I kiss him. Not so gently this time. His hands drop from my face and grab my waist and pull me to him. A small soft groan excapes him, and that noise makes me feel absolutely crazy. I lose it. I wind my hands around his neck and kiss him without holding anything back. I can feel his heart thundering like mine, his breath coming faster, his arms tightening around me. And then I can feel what he feels. He's waited for this moment. He loves how I feel in his arms. He loves the smell of my hair. He loves the way I looked at him just now, flushed and wanting more from him. He loves the color of my lips and now the taste of my mouth is making his knees feel weak and he doesn't want to seem weak in front of me. So i draw back, and his breath comes out in a rush. His arms drop away from me.”

“You like me, Clara, he says. "I know you do.”

“I won’t be that girl who lets the guy treat her like crap and still fawns all over him.”

“I wonder if the prayers of angel-bloods count more than regular people's.”

“Oh right. What about Wendy?" I ask "What about her?" "It's her birthday, too. I'm the worst friend ever. I should have sent her something. Did you exchange gifts?" "Not yet." He turns toward me. "But she gave me the perfect gift." The way he's looking at me sends butterflies into my stomach. "What?" "You.”

“You think I'm pretty?" I ask. "We need to stop talking," he says a little gruffly. "We're scaring the fish off." "Okay, okay." I bite my lip, then smile.”

“Clara," he says, my name sounding different somehow when it passes through his lips. "I'll miss you.”

“Okay, that was, I have to say, about the cheesiest thing I ever heard in my life,” I say to Angela as we’re milling around afterward. We hug, so Billy can take our picture. “I mean, seriously. Just be? You should write ads for Nike.”

“Our purpose on this earth is not one single event, an accomplishment we can check off a list. There is no test. No passing or failing. There's only us, each moment shaping who we are, into what we will become.”

“Tucker strokes my hair. There's something so tender about the gesture. It might as well have been him whispering I love you.”

“There I go, Clara the parrot. I belong on a pirate's shoulder.”

“I'll never forget the way he tastes. It's not anything I can describe, a little sweet and a whole lot of spice, and it feels, in that moment, absolutely right.”

“This is the part where I kiss you.”

“Before I moved here, I never got the whole love-triangle thing. You know, in movies or romance novels or whatnot, where there’s one chick that all the guys are drooling over, even though you can’t see anything particularly special about her. But oh, no, they both must have her. And she’s like, oh dear, however will I choose? William is so sensitive, he understands me, he swept me off my feet, oh misery, blubber, blubber, but how can I go on living without Rafe and his devil-may-care ways and his dark and only-a-little-abusive love? Upchuck.”

“Note to self: buy some nunchucks or something.”

“Pity party over?""Yeah, I think so.""Good. Not good to wallow for too long. It's bad for the complextion.”

“This is isn't going to become one of those creepy situations where you show up at all hours of the night to watch me sleep, is it?" he asks playfully.”

“There's nothing more inspiring than the complexity and beauty of the human heart.”

“It's funny how when people change, you forget the way they used to be.”

“You are going to love the sports here. Snow skiing and water-skiing and rock climbing and all kinds of extreme sports. I give you full permission to hurl yourself off stuff.”

“Crap. No one's ever called me dorkina before. Derivative of dork. Not good.”

“But maybe if he got close to me I could feel something. Maybe I could cry and the ache would go away.”

“My dear sweet girl. You take on so much. You feel things so deeply. But you will be happy, my darling. You will shine.”

“This man, this impostor of a man, can kill my body but he can't touch my soul.”

“I didn't figure things out, either, you know. So if you'e an idiot, I guess that makes two of us."He seems relieved to hear me say that. I guess idiots love company.”

“This was dumb and admittedly creepy in an Edward Cullen kind of way, but it was the only thing I could think to do.”

“It' like he has the ability to take on some of my pain. I feel so much better around him. Stronger. And he is willing to take my pain. He wants to bear it with me. I can see it shining in his eyes. I'm more than a duty to him. I'm more than his literal dream girl. I'm so much more.”

“But Tucker is my choice. I love him. That isn't going to go away.”

“Ava's not my date. I came stag.""Stag. You. Why?""So my date wouldn't get offended when I wanted to dance with you," he says.”

“What should I do?" I ask."You should have a really good excuse. And maybe you should cry -- girls do that, right? And possibly be gravely injured. If she has to fix you, she might go easier on you.”

“You and I have a connection that nothing, not on heaven or earth, or even hell, could ever break. If you want to talk to me, talk to me. I’ll hear you…”

“Have a care, Sir Tucker, lest you find yourself in the stockades."He scoffs and looks at Mr. Erikson. "She can't do that, can she? She's not the ruler of this class. Brady is."..."You could strip him of his title," suggests Brady, apparently not minding at all that I have usurped his throne. "Make him a serf.""Yeah," says Christian. "Make him a serf. Being a serf blows."As a serf, poor Christian has already been killed several times in our class. Aside from dying of the Black Plague on the first day, he's starved to death, had his hands cut off for stealing a loaf of bread, and been run down by his master's horse just for kicks. He's like Christian the fifth now.”

“I think he seriously believes that deflowering an angel could mean an eternity in fiery hell.”

“Clara: My heart doesn't belong to me anymore. It belongs to Tucker.”

“Tucker: I'm glad it happened. because then I got to know who you really are.Clara: Oh yeah? Who am I? Tucker: A really, really spiritual, spoiled California chick.Avery: Shut up.Tucker: It's cool though. My girlfriend is an angel.”

“I'm in love with Tucker Avery.”

“Clara's mother: Yes, and what could possible be more important to your life right now than Christian? Clara: I'm going out with Tucker.”

“Tucker: Is it okay to kiss you?Clara: What?Tucker: I won't get struck by lightning?Clara: (laughs) No lightning.”

“Tucker: "Today we ran into a mama grizzly with two cubs at the ridge off Colter Bay and Clara sang to it to make it go away."Mrs. Avery: You sang to it?Tucker: Her singing is that bad.”

“I’m flying!”Of course, I’m not flying so much as coasting over the treetops like a hand glider or a freakishly large flying squirrel.”

“I feel like Cinderella sitting in the middle of the road with a pumpkin and a couple of mice, while Prince Charming charges off to rescue some other chick.”

“Clara: "I won't hurt you." Be not afraid.His eyes flashed with anger like i've come right out and called him chicken.”

“What did the fish say when it hit a concrete wall?" he asks me. We're sitting on the bank of a stream and he's tying a fly onto my fishing rod, wearing a cowboy hat and a red lumberjack-style flannel shirt over a gray tee. So adorable."What?" I say, wanting to laugh and he hasn't even told me the punch line.He grins. Unbelievable how gorgeous he is. And that he's mine. He loves me and I love him and how rare and beautiful is that?"Dam!" he says.”

“Because if it's not her fault, it's God's, and I'm not ready to be pissed at the Almighty.”

“You aren't being sent on a mission that you don't have the power to accomplish. You have to find that power inside you somewhere, and you have to refine it. You were made for this purpose...”

“Look closer. The river's its own world of fast and slow, deep and shallow, bright and shadowed. If you look at it like that, like a landscape where the fish live, it'll be easier to catch one.”

“Tucker," I say. "I'm so glad you're still here."I throw myself into his arms. He hugs me tightly."I couldn't leave," he says."I know.""I mean, literally. I don't have a ride.”

“I think the birds in the area are dying laughing watching me try not to crash.”