She was to only tell the truth because Ronan always told the truth, but she felt this was the most unfair rule of all because Ronan could dream himself a new truth if he liked and she had to stick with the one she was currently living. She was to remember that she was a secret.
Regret washed over Ronan. As before, the strong emotion threatened to eject him into the empty sea, but, with effort, he clung to the scene before him. He’d rather be here, feeling this hideous feeling, than out in the darkness, feeling nothing.
I’m crafting a denial in my head,” said Hennessy. “It’s very witty and convincing. Give me just a second.
What a hellish hamster wheel he’d been born on.
The long warm light that came just before the night shimmered like water. As fall approached, the sounds of bellowing red stags punctuated the woods, fierce as bears. The leaves were not yet changing, but there was something substantial and weighty to them, a fullness that could be heard when the breeze lifted them. Summer was building, building, until it had to collapse into fall, and the effort was breathtaking to watch.
Nothing really bad has ever really happened to me.
They hugged again, merrily, waltzing messily in the kitchen, and kissed, merrily, waltzing more.
She just wanted to keep moving so she didn’t have to think about any of it too hard while she was awake, because when she thought about it, she got sad, and when she got sad, she got angry...
He was still screaming. It was incredible how it never grew less raw, the pain refreshing over and over, never decaying.
Blue, if you ever see that man again, you just walk the other way.” “No,” Calla corrected. “Kick him in the nuts. Then run the other way.
She found she was both awed and grateful for this bit of nastiness in response to hers. “Did you want to drink my arterial blood after that slash, or just roll around in it?
The Gray Man set the pistol back in its drawer and pushed it closed. He checked his watch. He had twenty minutes to pick up his rental car. He might upgrade to a midsize. He hated compact cars nearly as much as he hated public transportation.
He had lost the knack for being unhappy and tired and strung out with balancing acts.
But really they were arguing about the impossible future. They could not go into it as they were, and they both knew it.
Sleep is brain food.
He was beginning to realize he’d birthed Bryde into hell, a world he was designed to hate. Ronan had not dreamt any optimism into him, any simple joy, so happiness was a skill Bryde would have to learn for himself once he was in the waking world.
But what he didn’t say out loud was that unguarded power was actually weakness. If you had something someone else wanted and no way to stop them from taking it, you were vulnerable to exploitation.
How strange that a season should be held captive in one breath of trapped air.
I’m tired. I’m proud. I’m confused. I’m sad, because I know things can’t stay like they are now. We are working even now to change things and it will never be like this moment again. It is a ridiculous way to think, to be more interested in the present than the future, and if it were you or Hennessy, I would never permit it. I won’t lose my way. I know that. But I can imagine it. It is me – it is me I am angry with.
Here in the future, they didn’t know about his past. Maybe that was Adam’s attraction to it.