“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.”

“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”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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