Survival strategy. If you’re not careful, this place will eat you alive, and Kaylee’s like bait for the beasts.

But more than any of that, I was thankful for the possibility he'd shown me: that a man really could love a woman enough that he'd do anything to protect her. That's how much Tod loved Addy. That's how much I wanted Nash to love me.

The world lost something when you died, Tod, and I know that wasn't easy for your family. But the world's loss was Kaylee's gain. I hope the two of you have the forever her mother and I never got. I will do my damnedest to make sure of that. I know you will.

He took both of my hands, twisting to face me more fully on the flattened box beneath us, and again the colors in his irises seemed to pulse with my heartbeat.

Leave the door open," my dad said, the second most common warning in his arsenal. Right behind, "Nash, go home.

Ethan was loyal and funny and protective. When we were little, he was the brother most likely to make me cry—and mostly likely to wipe away my tears.

The dead have a way of becoming saints in the eyes of their survivors.