Imagine if we had no secrets, no respite from the truth. What if everything was laid bare the moment we introduced ourselves?
People who make time for the sadness in your life, not just the joy, are worth keeping around.
That is your greatest responsibility. To live a life of breathless wonder, so that when it begins to fade from you, you will feel the shadow of its happiness still inside you and the blissful sense that you laughed the loudest, loved the deepest, and lived fearlessly, even as the specifics of it all melt away.
I believe you’re too good and too kind to hurt someone, no matter how much they’ve hurt you. That your heart is too big. That your empathy runs too deep. That’s why I believe in you. I believe in you more than I could ever explain, and you expect me to stand by and watch while you destroy yourself right in front of my eyes.
You know,’ said Millie who was now narrowing her eyes, ’for someone with such a romantic name, he’s a real killjoy, isn’t he? He’s all, Ooh look at me, I’m sensitive and kind and I have a beautiful long name and pretty eyes, and then BAM! Psyche! I’m going to shoot you. You know what I call that, Soph? I call that false advertising, and I’m pretty sure it’s illegal.
Above the thunder clash of an angry sky, the Tide Summoner rang out.
It was like his mother always said: Rose-coloured glasses disguise red flags – and Bartley was draped in them.
A well-timed carb never fails to put things in perspective.
Since we’re trying to avoid suspicion on our way in, I’d rather not leave eighteen bodies behind us.
Ignoring the prickle of unease that walked down her spine.
Sound still travels!” said Wren as she backed away. “Well, so does my shoe.
Wren was still chewing on the idea, but she certainly liked the way it tasted.
And what about me?” demanded Wren. “What am I supposed to do?” Celeste smiled thinly. “You can go back to not existing for a while.
My feelings for Ansel were as real as they could have been at the time. But they were like a painting of... oh, I don’t know, a basket of fruit. Nice to have but never truly satisfying. And Shen.” She smiled, without meaning to. “Well, my feelings for Shen are like real fruit. A whole mountain of fresh fruit! Apples and berries and pears and bananas...
Thr rest of the spiraling steps, where the shadows rose up like waves to claim them.
Fear suddenly consumed by wonder.
Of course I wanted to meet you,” said Wren, and when her own tears fell, she scrubbed them away, wishing she could erase the unpleasant feelings that came with them. Guilt and loss, and this new yearning for the life they might have had together if things had been different. If only things had been different. “I thought about you every day of my life.
But Wren pushed that truth away. Why ruin a perfectly lovely morning with talk of what lay beyond tomorrow?
Wren thought she might perish from curiosity.
Rose wished her sister were here to see this. What would her life have been like, having fierce and fearless Wren always next to her? Anger flared inside her, as hot as the flames crackling in their cages.
The reckless part of her still yearned for his company, burned for his touch.