“There was nothing else to do but call upon the Creator,praying, begging, pleading, bargaining—anything to makehim protect Xavier. I couldn’t have him ripped away fromme like that. I could survive emotional turmoil; I couldsurvive the most intense physical torture. I could surviveArmageddon and holy fire raining down upon the earth, but Icould not survive without him.”

“Even though Xavier was only human, it seemed he could protect me from anything and everything. I wouldn't have been worried if a fire-breathing dragon had torn of the roof, because I knew that Xavier was there. I wondered fleetingly if I was expecting to much og him, but dismissed the idea.”

“I wanted to protect him, which I was sure I could do, even if I could not protect myself.”

“He didn't see me looking at him, but I could tell the ceremony was having the same effect on him. He was enraptured.It was a rare and sweet look for him, reminding me of the tortured artist that lived beneath the sarcasm. I liked that about Adrian—not the tortured part, but the way he could feel so deeply and then transform those emotions into art.”

“Every word from Kismet’s mouth sounded like poetry spoken with the most fervent passion one could conjure up. I couldn’t understand how he could stand to have such intensity building inside him. I watched, captivated by each breath in between his words. I found myself tracing the lines of his face over and over and leaning into him.”

“My only certainty in life is that I shall one day die. I can be certain of nothing else in the future. But either we survive (and so far in human history a vast majority has always survived) and having survived when we might not have done so gives us what we call happiness; or we do not survive and do not know it.”