Sophie Jordan

“Then again, there’s nothing simple about Will. I think back to what he can do—bend earth, resist shading, his immense strength—and it’s glaringly inaccurate to consider him a human. But then I can’t think of him as a draki either. And this strikes me as sad. Will doesn’t belong anywhere. Not among humans. Not among draki.But he belongs with me. The conviction is still there, as senseless and dangerous as always, seeping into my bones, my heart. A fact I wouldn’t change even if I could.”

“I won’t let him retreat from me. We’ve come too far. I’ll fight for us even if it’s him I have to fight.”

“I once saw a show about an amputee who lost his leg and still feels it. He actually wakes up at night to scratch his leg as if it’s still there, attached to him. They call it a phantom limb.I would be like that. A phantom draki, tormented with the memory of what I once was.”

“Will sabía lo que era la soledad, entendía lo que era estar apartado del mundo en el que uno vive y ser un extraño entre tu propia gente. Will lo entendía. Will me entendía.”

“He stiffens against me, pain written all over the mess of a face. He grabs my face in his hands. Holds me. "It's not over. We're not through, Jacinda." His eyes blister, glitter darkly."I'll find you. I will. We'll be together again.”

“This is the best thing I've ever eaten." He pauses for a drink, staring at me over the rim of his glass of juice." It's the provolone," I say, swallowing my last bite."It's the chef.”

“This is impossible.""This what?" I clutch the collar of his shirt in my fingers. His face is so close l study the varying color of his eyes.For a long time, he says nothing. Stares at me in that way that makes me want to squirm. For a moment, it seems that his irises glow and the pupils shrink to slits. Then, he mutters, "A hunter in love with his prey”

“Pleasure suffused her and she snuggled deeper into his arms, her heart clenching when he tightened his hold on her. After a while his breathing slowed and his hold relaxed. Convinced he slept, she whispered, "You should have been my first." A small ache pinched her heart.His chest vibrated beneath her hand, sending a thrilling shiver up her spine as his deep voice rumbled through the air, "I'll be your last.”

“He may be stronger, but I'm not defenseless. He knows that, of coarse. That's why he's here. He wants me for what I can do after all.”

“Hi," I return, gesturing to the fish. "Nice catch.""Yeah. I'm kind of impressed with myself. I always thought redheads were sexy.""Ha-ha. I meant the fish.""Ah. Yes.”

“I touch his cheek, see my hand shake, and quickly pull itback. He grabs my wrist, places my palm back against hischeek, and closes his eyes like he’s in agony. Or bliss. Ormaybe both. Like he’s never been touched before.”

“So what's the deal with you and my sister?" He laughs shortly and rubs the back of his neck like something is there, tickling, tapping. "Tamra." Clutching the dashboard, I turn and glare at her. "There is no deal."She snorts. "Well, we wouldn't be sitting here if that was the case now, would we?"I open my mouth to demand she end the interrogation when Will's voice stops me. "I like your sister. A lot."I look at him dumbly. He looks at me, lowers his voice to say, "I like you."I know that, I guess, but heat still crawls over my face. I swing forward in my seat, cross my arms over my chest and stare straight ahead. Can't stop shivering. Can't speak. My throat hurts too much. "Jacinda," he says. "I think you've shocked her," Tamra offers, then sighs.”

“Don't stay away from me anymore."I stop myself, just barely, from telling him I won't. I can't promise that. Can't lie. He opens his eyes. Stares starkly, bleakly. "I need you.”

“But you're worried I'll get in trouble?" I try not to show how much this pleases me. I've managed to ignore him for days now and here I sit. Lapping up his attention like a neglected puppy. My voice takes on an edge. "Why do you care? I've ignored you for days."His smile fades. He looks serious, mockingly so. "Yeah. You got to stop that.”

“Run from me, Grier Hadley, and I'll follow. I'll track you down and find you.”

“Only now, here with Will, I realize I'm something more. Someone not bound by the rules of her pride, her race, her family. Someone who can be loved for herself, draki or not."I thought about you," I whisper, my voice not my own. It belongs to someone else. Someone brave, someone about to risk everything and follow her heart. "I've never stopped thinking about you." Somehow, I doubt I ever will.”

“I've been avoiding you because I'm just so damn annoyed..." He shakes his head, sloshing water. The strands brush his shoulders rhythmically. "I don't want you risking yourself again. The human world...Will. It's too dangerous." Cassian takes my hand. I feel his heartbeat through the simple touch, the thud of his life meeting with mine. "You dead...it would break me." His voice whips sharply over the drum of the rainfall. "Everything I ever said to you was the truth. My feelings haven't changed for you, Jacinda. Even if you drive me crazy, here, in the pride...you're still that single bright light for me.”

“When I shoot, the ball bounces hard against the backboard, and flies wildly through the air, knocking the coach in the head. I slap a hand over my mouth. The coach barely catches herself from falling. Several students laugh. She glares at me and readjusts her cap. With a small wave of apology, I head back to the end of the line. Will's there fighting laughter. "Nice," he says. "Glad I'm downcourt of you." I cross my arms and resist smiling, resist letting myself feel good around him. But he makes it hard. I want to smile. I want to like him, to be around him, to know him. "Happy to amuse you.”

“Ich erinnere mich an dich. Wie loderndes Feuer hast du in dieser Hoele ausgesehen, als waerst du ein Wesen aus leuchtenden, tanzenden Farben”

“I wait for him to announce my presence, holding his gaze, refusing to look away, determined that this beautiful boy see the face he sentences to death with this next words.”

“Once Dad took us to an amusement park in Oregon. Before I ever manifested. I plummeted twenty stories on a drop ride. Totally helpless to gravity. Unable to fly, to save myself ... I feel that same helpless terror now. Because nothing I say will divert Mom off her present course. Nothing will make her realize what she's doing to me. I'm falling. And this time nothing will save me. No mechanical device will work its wonder and jerk me back at the last minute. But she does realize, a small voice whispers through me. That's why she's doing it. That's why she brought you here. She wants me to hit ground.”

“That's what this is about then? Some blasted grudge you harbor against my father?" She muttered something indecipherable beneath her breath in a language he suspected was not English. French, perhaps? Her words were too low for him to determine. "Has the world gone mad?""Has it ever been sane?" he asked. He ahd decided the world a far from logical place long ago, when he'd been lost to the streets at the tender age of eight. "When you mull it over, you and I marrying is scarcely absurd. Fitting perhaps. Face it, neither of us is a feted blueblood.”

“The one voice I would hear even in death. A rotting corpse in the ground, I would sit up and take notice.”

“I shrug like I don't care. ...Like every fiber of my being isn't weeping in need for him”

“Sudden conviction races through me, almost terrifying in its total certainty. I can't give him up. He's the other part of me. He gets what it feels like to be separate from everything and everyone, to reject the path others lay out for you. We're the same. Two sides to the same coin.”

“It's unclear who moves first. We're in each other's arms, lips locked, melded, hotly fused. Our hands drag over each other, reacquainting, remembering, almost as if we're both verifying the other one is real flesh and blood.”

“Holding a hand over my eyes, I look up at him. "Thanks, I'm glad were...friends." I say the word friends deliberately, letting the emphasis get my point across. His mouth curves with a slow smile. "I've never wanted to be your friend, Jacinda." My heart stutters in my chest. Standing in the pouring rain, I watch him walk away.”

“Ironic, huh? To keep that part of me alive, I have to be close to that which kills it.”

“I remember you. You were like burning firelight in that cave, all shimmery, dancing color." I lean closer over the island, mesmerized by his words, his hand on my face. If he keeps talking this way, he's going to see me like that again. "Tell me you thought about me. That you think about me now." "I thought about you," I whisper, "I've never stopped thinking about you." Somehow I doubt I ever will.”

“The water is still and smooth. Polished glass. Not a ripple of wind disturbs the dark surface. Low-rising mist drifts off liquid mountains floating against a purple-bruised sky. An eager breath shudders past my lips. Soon the sun will break.”

“He feels it, too. His eyes widen. A lovely hazel. Green with flecks of brown and gold. The colors I love. The colors of the earth.”

“I will never see him again. Never know why he let me go. Never learn if he really whispered what I think he did. Beautiful.”

“He couldn't live without being a draki, and I couldn't live without him.”

“You want to go out?" he asks suddenly.I blink. "As in a date?""Yes. That's what a guy usually means when he asks that question.”

“See you soon (but not soon enough).”

“Why do you care? I've ignored you for days."His smile fades. He looks serious, mockingly so. "Yeah. You got to stop that.”

“I have Will. Here, he's my way back to the sky.”

“He steps onto the sidewalk and rocks on the balls of his feet. He looks beautiful standing there, and a familiar ache starts in my chest as I wonder how I can love and fear the sight of someone with the same intensity.”

“I like your sister. A lot."I look at him dumbly.He looks at me, lowers his voice to say, "I like you.”

“A hunter in love with his prey.”

“In this, with him... I'm as close to the sky as I've ever been.”

“What question?" I ask, breathless."Whether you're as beautiful in the morning as you are during the rest of the day.”

“In my mind, I see Will. Think how he has become the mist, the sky, everything, to me. I do more than survive here. I love.”

“I won't leave you! Do you know how unbearable it's been without you? You're not like the rest of them." His hand swipes through air almost savagely. I stare at him, my eyes wide and aching. "You're not some well-trained puppy content to go along with what you're told. You have fire." He laughs brokenly. "I don't mean literally, although there is that. There's something in you, Jacinda. You're the only thing real for me there, the only thing remotely interesting.”

“You have my word. If you return with me, you won't be harmed. I'd die first.”

“Because I know what it feels like to be used, valued only for what you can do... not who you are, not who you want to be.”

“I'll find you. I will. We'll be together again.”

“You cold?' He chafes my arms. I haven't been cold since I moved here. This is something else. 'No. But you can put your arms around me anyway.”

“He stares at me so darkly, so hungily that I can only nod. Agree. Of course, I feel it. "I do", I admit.”

“I respond, thoughts dropping away, like pebbles plopping one by one in water, sinking down, down into dark oblivion.”