They think you can't feel anything, because they've forgotten how. You're very, very dangerous, I get that, and you're prone to some very theatrical brooding, but don't let yourself mistake that for some kind of inner corruption. They see themselves in you and are blinded.

His words were still clear in her mind from that first meeting. "Whoever eats this will love you." She looked into the mirror, at her birthmark, bright as blood, at her kiss-stung lips, at the absurd smile stretching across her face. Carefully separating out the crushed pieces of shell, she pulled the dried pulp free from its cage of veins. Piece by piece, she put the sweet brown fruit in her own mouth and swallowed it down.

Philip Sharpe was a soldier in God's army," says the minister. "Now he marches with the angels.

She knew she shouldn't feel that way about a monster, but right then, she wanted nothing more than a monster of her very own.

If you keep it," Daneca says, "he'll have his claws in you." Everyone has their claws in me. Everyone.

The more powerful you become, the more others will find ways to master you. They'll do it through those you love and those you hate. They will find the bit and the bridle that fits your mouth and will make you yield.

She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.