No matter how lonely it makes me, and no matter how wide and horrific the loneliness, at least I remember who I am.

There's nothing here to say good-bye to. There's no dancing girl. No mischievous smile. She's gone, off with her sisters, broken free, escaped. And if she were here now, she would say, "Go.

There are so many of us, so many girls. The world wants us for our wombs or our bodies, or it doesn't want us at all.

I used to have only one name; it used to mean something.

But instead of tears, when I press my face against the pillow, a horrible, primal scream comes out of me. It's unlike anything I thought myself capable of. Rage, unlike anything I've ever known.

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.

Momentum,' She repeats. 'You can't just stand there if you want something to fly. You have to run.