Be your own place of safety, she told herself, straightening. No crossbar in the world could protect her from what lay ahead, and neither could a tiny knife ticked in her boot - though there her tiny knife would most certainly remain - and neither could a man, not even Akiva. She had to be her own strength, complete unto herself.

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them. And its snap split the world in two.

So, you wouldn't marry me." "Ridiculous question. I'm eighteen!" "Oh, it's an age thing?" He frowned. "You don't mean wild oats, do you? We're not going to have some stupid break so you can experience other---" Zuzana put a hand over his mouth. "Gross. Don't even say it.

I want to build spires in their minds and dance shadows through like marionettes, chased by whispers and hints of the unspeakable.

There are other ways of showing someone you love them, such as fetching them out of Hell.

Stop squandering yourself, child. Wait for love.

These soldiers had done what they had done, and been done unto in return. This was how it went. In the cycle of slaughter, reprisal begat reprisal, forever.