And yet, something tied them together, strong than any of that, something with the power to conduct her blood and breath like a symphony, so that anything she did to fight against it felt like discord, like disharmony with her self.

Kissing can ruin lives. Lips touch sometimes teeth clash. New hunger is born with a throb and caution falls away. A cursed girl with lips still moist from her first kiss might feel suddenly wild like a little monsoon. She might forget her curse just long enough to get careless and let it come true. She might kill everyone she loves.

He actually listened, rather than pretending to listen while waiting a suitable interval before it was his time to talk again.

Humanity, perhaps, that quality of benevolence that humans have, without irony, named after themselves.

Did you know that mako shark fetuses eat each other in the womb?... Its true. Only cannibal fetuses survive to be born. Can you imagine if people were like that?

A wave of weariness took him. How could life be so unrelentingly ugly?

...the air seeming to gather around her like held breath. As if this whole place were a story about her.