“Samantha's head was screaming at her to stop, but her heart and her body were both giving her the finger.”

“A teakettle screamed inside Azalea, burning her fingers, making her throat tight and her head dizzy.”

“Leather cut into Usha's flesh and she screamed. She screamed for the soreness in her back, she screamed for the throbbing sensation in her soft belly, she screamed for the hope that was being lashed out of her; multiple screams for the first few lashings then whimpering as blinding pain clouded her head, numbness froze her body. Hope became hopeless. After twenty lashings even the whimpering stopped, only the nothingness of nothing remained.”

“Her heartbeat was in her hands, her heart beat the way she moved her head, her whole body was her heart beating.”

“Mattie felt drained, as though someone had stood her on her head and poured her entire heart and soul right out of her body.”

“Her mind was blank and her heart and body ruled. And those? They were his property.”