He gathers me up and I'm weightless before he sets me on the railing. He's the only thing keeping me from falling back, out of the reach of daylight. I'm not afraid of falling. I don't fear the sky beyond the train tracks like I did before. I can go anywhere just so long as it's with him.

My worries always lead to dungeons; I can't imagine a worse thing than to be imprisoned for the rest of one's life, especially with so few years to enjoy what little there is.

I think he's beginning to understand, and understanding is a horrible thing.

Ah, love. That’s what the world has lost. There’s no more love, only the illusion of it.

I wonder if she has figured out that I'll never love Linden, especially not in the way she does, and that he'll never love anyone the way he loves her. I wonder if she realizes, despite all her efforts to train me, that I can never take her place.

For males twenty-five is the fatal age. For women it's twenty. We are all dropping like flies.

And everywhere girls, tumbling from trees like orange blossoms and hitting the earth with sickening thuds. They crack open.