I guess I didn't know him as well as I thought I did. Even now, as he's trying to speak, I have no idea what he wants to say. His bloodied lips move laboriously, but no sound comes out. He's dying. Is he trying to curse at me? Tell me something? I can't tell.

I start to laugh despite myself. It's just a response I have to stress. I guess it's a little ridiculous, too. Me, standing over him on...

"Words are wasted on those who do not listen."

"You're too young to be doling out words of wisdom." Arigen shook his head, amused.

"It's from the book you left me. The Philosophies." Elrona leaned back in her large, cushioned seat. She smiled proudly. "Do I know your books better than you?"

"Well, Elrona, I have a profession." He put his hands up. They both kept their voices down i...

Across the field, I caught his eye,

His terror staring into mine.

A twitch would let my bullet fly,

And on that barren ground he'd lie.

But I awoke as in a dream,

And on the stretching field did seem

A patch of roses there to be,

And life and death and us between.

I called to him and he replied,

Our rapture thusly halting time.

We told each other of our lives,

And I knew his and he knew mine.

I...

We all look the same in the the dark.

We all sound the same in silence.

We all feel the same in blankess.

Obscurity makes no victims.

There's no pain where nothing's perceived.

After all, hate can turn on you for a color or a tone.

But nothing is only that: nothing.

To live in perfect safety is to die, and worse-

To never have lived.

The ultimate beholder views you from within,

And casts an ine...

"You're really committed to this? How do we know your information is reliable?" The masked figure towered over Cirse, his features completely obscured by his mask and the darkness of night. Even the moonlight was almost entirely blocked out by the boughs of the pine trees above them.

"Did Raktorda tell you to ask me that?" Cirse couldn't read his reaction in the near-total darkness. His sile...

The footprints trailed out far past the door. It was a clear morning, and I could follow the trail to the treeline with my eyes, where it disappeared into the woods. The sun had just crested the nearby mountains, and I hadn’t been outside yet. My hand tightened on the door. I went back inside.

“Tab,” I knocked on her door, though it was wide open and I could see her asleep on her bed. She gro...

"Souri, if we're lost, I'm sure we can ask someone for-"

"_No_." Souri adjusted his hood, making absolutely certain his face was obscured. The marketplace buzzed around him, completely unaware of him and his companion. "Do you know what these people would do for a sliver of the Imbrolis' money?"

"But they don't know who we are," Aurinel pleaded. "We don't know _where we are,_ Souri."

...

"I'm so sorry,"

Fake my crying,

Pretend to curse at justice,

But yesterday invoked it?

"I told you so"

But there I'd go,

And break your fragile heart-

I'd known it from the start-

I wanted this,

Your shot to miss,

To validate my pains

And break us from the same.

A final time,

Success sublime,

To free me at long last,

And remedy our past.

But chiding me-

Humanity.

I'd loathe to hurt you now

As ...

"Rory." He stopped in his tracks, turning around to see the girl who'd called his name. She stood just beside the school entrance, arms crossed, staring him down.

"Tiffany," he responded apprehensively.

"You've been avoiding me." She twirled her long, blond hair around a manecured finger. Her voice was that sort of fake sweet that sets off alarm bells and tells you to get away.

"Rea...

Lorraine felt sick. She leaned against the counter, gloved hand clasped over her mouth, eyes squeezed shut. She gripped the counter with her other hand, but all the strength in her body could not save her from swaying with nausea. Horror had settled into her stomach, but she had to push it out. She didn't have long.

It was a test. Someone had to do it, and she had to prove her loyalty. Her he...