“My heart searches for an escape. We're outside, so anywhere will do, but my soul roots her feet in place. I'm not going anywhere.”

“He fills my thoughts, my dreams, and my nightmares. The memory of him, and his touch, pound on the door to my soul with such force that cracks are forming in the wood. I do my best to act like no one is home by keeping the door locked and the lights off.”

“He keeps doing that.” “What?” She laughs. “Kissing your forehead.” “Yeah . . . he does.” I can’t stop my grin. “Does it bother you? I can hear your smile, you know.” “Not really. It doesn’t, like, mean anything. It’s just . . . it’s Ryker.”

“They took his soul over there, fuckers, and left me with the breathing carcass.”

“His body came home, but his soul had been devoured in the firefight of a godless desert.”

“Sorrow isn't the absence of passion. Sorrow is the darkest, most intense form of passion hidden in the recesses of the soul.”

“November, if your heart was mine it would never break.”