If they were real, then maybe the world was big enough to have magic in it. And if there was magic — even bad magic, and Zach knew it was more likely that there was bad magic than any good kind — then maybe not everyone had to have a story like his father's, a story like the kind all the adults he knew told, one about giving up and growing bitter.

He's the kind of liar who totally forgets what he told you the last time, but he believes every single lie with such conviction that sometimes he can convince you of it.

I need your help," says the tiny figure. Her voice is sad and soft and sounds like Lila's, but with an odd accent that might just be how cats sound when they talk.

He looks like the good boy he's never been.

Jones looks like he wants to slug me, which is only subtly different from his usual way of looking at me like I'm a slug.

Telling Sam and Daneca feels like peeling off my own skin to expose everything underneath. It hurts.

You have to write a lot. And you have to rewrite what you wrote a lot more.