I hate that everyone calls it growing up, but it seems like DYING.

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

He runs to the sink to spit it out. I grin. There’s nothing quite as funny as someone else’s misery.

Baby," she says in a harsh whisper, "in this world, lots of people will try to grind you down. They need you to be small so they can be big. You let them think whatever they want, but you make sure you get yours. You get yours.

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.

You can always count on your family to love you. And to betray you. And then to feel guilty about it.

Death has his favorites, like anyone. Those who are beloved of Death will not die.