When we were first married, I thought he must have been the most heartless, hateful man I'd ever known, but he was just as much a prisonor as I was. Where Vaughn imprisoned me with walls, he imprisoned his son with ignorance.

You can't be afraid. You can be sad if you like. You can be angry. But it's the fear that'll freeze you in place.

Dystopian, by definition, promises a darker story.

I've done it all before, I tell myself, and I can do it again. Trust is the strongest weapon.

Fate,' I said, 'Is a theif.

I nod like I'm not at all unnerved by this new cold side to him. Not cruel like his father. Not warm like the husband who sought me out on quiet nights. Something in between. This Linden has never woven his fingers through mine, never chosen me from a line of weary Gathered girls, never said he loved me in a myriad of coloured lights. We are nothing to each other.

Perhaps... you love too fiercely.