TODD!" I yell again and I reach him and his Noise opens even farther and wraps around me like a blanket and I'm grabbing him to me, grabbing him to me like I'll never let him go and he calls out in pain but his other arm is grabbing me back - "I thought you were dead," he's saying, his breath on my neck. "I thought you were dead." "Todd," I say and I'm crying and the only thing I can say is his name. "Todd.

People say they want freedom, but what they really want is freedom from worry. If I take care of their problems, they don't mind being told what to do.

No," I say firmly. "If you ever doubt anything here, if you ever not know what to think or who to trust, you trust Todd, okay? You remember that.

And it hurts her, but it's an okay hurt, but it hurts still, but it's good, but it hurts.

But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again.

Stories are the wildest things of all. Stories chase and bite and hunt.

Everything that's happened has brought me here, to this place, with this knife in my hand, and something worth saving.