“Don't be offended, but you seem to be one of those people who just attract accidents like a magnet. So... try not to fall into the ocean or get run over or anything, all right?” He smiled crookedly. The helplessness had faded as he spoke. I glared at him. “I'll see what I can do,” I snapped as I jumped out into the rain. I slammed the door behind me with excessive force. He was still smiling as he drove away.

Our relationship couldn't continue to balance, as it did, on the point of a knife. We would fall off one edge or the other, depending entirely upon his decision, or his instincts. My decision was made, made before I'd ever consciously chosen, and I was committed to seeing it through. Because there was nothing more terrifying to me, more excruciating, than the thought of turning away from him. It was an impossibility.

If this is how you’re going to react, I’ll freak out more often.

But the absence of him is everywhere I look. It's like a huge hole has been punched through my chest.

I was perfect- not healed, but as if there had never been a wound in the first place

Your hold on me is permanent and unbreakable. Never doubt that

Never before had I recognized the ring of majesty that was in Billy Black's voice, though I realized now that this authority had always been there.