It's the rule of the wilds. You must be bigger, and stronger, and tougher. A coldness radiates through me, a solid wall that is growing, piece by piece, in my chest. He doesn't love me. He never loved me. It was all a lie. "The old Lena is dead." I say, and then push past him. Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone. You must hurt or be hurt.
Lauren OliverBut this isnโt like anything Iโve ever seen, or imagined, or even dreamed: This is like music or dancing but better than both.
Lauren OliverI am growing stronger. I am a stone being excavated by the slow passage of water; I am wood charred by a fire.
Lauren OliverIt was unfair that people could pretend to be one thing when they were really something else. That they would get you on their side and then do nothing but fail, and fail, and fail again. People should come with warnings, like cigarette packs: involvement would kill you over time.
Lauren Oliver