I closed my eyes. I forced myself to relax, to remember that here, now, and always, I was the predator.

Try to imagine where we'd be without you, darlin', and then maybe you'll see just how lucky we got.

Well, have you ever thought of bathing?' I asked, turning away. 'No one wants to hire a wizard who smells worse than their outhouse. And who knows what creatures are living in that hair?

You are actually the worst person I have ever met.

They want you to think that darkness or evil is only something that gets inflicted on you by the outside world, but I know better, and I think the freak does, too. Sometimes the darkness lives inside you, and sometimes it wins.

But inside or out, I was alone, and I was beginning to wonder if I always had been, if I always would be.

The darkest minds never fade in the afterlight.