I loved to be alone in the woods, especially in the late fall when everything is crisp and golden, the leaves the color of fire, and it smells like things turning into earth. I loved the silence - the only sound the steady drum of the hooves and the horse's breathing.

Amor deliria nervosa. The deadliest of all deadly things.

Feelings aren't forever. Time waits for no one, but progress waits for man to enact it.

There's always some relief in giving up.

But from the beginning, I knew that in a world where destiny was dead, I was destined, forever, to love him. Even though he didn't - though he couldn't - ever love me back.

That is the rule of the Wilds: You must be bigger and stronger and tougher. You must hurt or be hurt.

No one had ever told her this basic fact: not everyone got to be loved.