Once upon a time there were two parents, two children, and a brick house with lilies in the yard. The parents died, the lilies wilted. One child disappeared. Then the other." Pg 225

I've loved you since the day I stole the atlas for you," Gabriel says, because he thinks I'm asleep.

I can hear my brother's voice in my head. Your problem is that you're too emotional. But how can I not be emotional, Rowan? How can I not care?

I wonder what it’s like for her, looking so much like a dead girl.

You’re insane, you know that?” he says. “It’s the only thing keeping me afloat,” I say.

On tiptoes the redhead wouldn't even reach my shoulders; she is clearly too young to be a bride. And the willowy girl is too forlorn. And I am too unwilling. Yet here we are.

Hope, that risky, illustrious thing. It should have gone extinct by now, but we keep it alive.