“You’re not . . . normal, Clara. You try to pretend you are. But you’re not. You talked to a grizzly bear, and it obeyed you. Birds follow you like a Disney cartoon, or haven’t you noticed? And for a while after you came back from Idaho Falls, Wendy thought you were on the run from someone or something. You’re good at everything you try. You ride a horse like you were born in the saddle, you ski perfect parallel turns your first time on the hill, you apparently speak fluent French and Korean and who knows what else. Yesterday I noticed that your eyebrows kind of glitter in the sun. And there’s something about the way you move, something that’s beyond graceful, something that’s beyond human, even. It’s like you’re . . . something else.”

“But there’s something about you two, when you’re together. It’s like you fit.” He grins. Shrugs. “He’s your soul mate.”

“I think you must be some kind of a freak. Either that or you’re trying toconvert me to your secret horse religion.”“Darn, you got me,” she says theatrically. “You thwarted my evil plan.”

“There it is," says Christian, looking at me with something like admiration."There what is?""The smile. You always smile when you ski”

“I didn't ever think you were a freak. I think...I thought you were magic or something. I thought that you were too perfect to be real.”

“I’ve learned that sometimes, when you’re afraid but you keep on moving forward, that’s the biggest kind of courage there is.”

“One minute you’re a happy fourteen-yearold—good at everything you try, popular, fun—the next you’re a freak with wings”