Alexandra Bracken

You are your abilities and they are you. I can't put it to you more plainly. Do you know why I hate this cure? It's a statement that what we are is inherently wrong. It's a punishment for something that isn't our fault - all because they can't control their fear about what we can do, anymore than they can control their resentment that there are people out there stronger and more powerful than they are. They want to strip you of yourself - your ability to protect and enforce your right to make decisions about your life. Your own body. Mark my words: in the end, it won't be a choice. They'll decide this for you.

You want to know the real reason they never let us touch or talk to each other if they could help it? It made us strong. If you have people who love you, you can fall back on them when you're afraid.

I was coming to see the heavier your heart got, the strongest you had to be to keep carrying it around.

Free the fire fluttering inside her rib cage. Work her muscles, the bow, the violin, until she played herself to ash and embers and left the rest of the world behind to smolder.

__he longer you silence a violin, the harder it is for it to find its true voice again.

Etta saw the way Sophia took a deep breathe, set her shoulders back, and moved with practiced grace on her way out _ and she understood something about the other girl, truly understood for the first time. Sophia wanted it, when she was only ever sent out.

Why are you so weird?""Because my weird has to be able to cancel out your weird, Lady Cross-stitch.""At least what I do is considered an art form.""Yes, in ye olde medieal Europse you would've been quite the catch-

You wanna go build some shelves with me?

Those rabbits stopped fighting the system, because it was easier to take the loss of freedom, to forget what it was like before the fence kept them in, than to be out there in the world struggling to find shelter and food. They had decided that the loss of some was worth the temporary comfort of many.

I hugged him without any kind of fear or self-consciousness, fiercely, with a rush of emotion that almost brought tears to my eyes."I could kiss you!" Chubs cried."Please don't!" I gasp out, feeling his arms tighten around my ribs to the point of cracking them.

...crackers..." a voice breathed out nehind us, "yesss..."Both of us turned, watching as Chubs twisted around in his seat and settled back down, still fast asleep. I pressed a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. Liam rolled his eyes, smiling. .

Let's carpe the hell out of this diem.

My fear for you outweighs my fear of him,_ he said simply. __nd I told you, didn__ I? If you left, I__ follow you.__ut should you try to leave on your own, know that I will go to the ends of the earth to bring you back.

Oh my God, Green,_ I heard Chubs say from somewhere in the room. __ust take the damn socksand put the kid out of his misery.

She shows up everywhere, at any time, like she can guesswhat we__e going to do before we do it.___he lady is good at what she does,_ Liam confirmed.__an you please not compliment the person trying to drag our asses back to camp?

Familial betrayal is, to me, the most heartbreaking kind - because if you can't trust your family to love you and protect you, who can you really trust?

Life isn__ fair." I said. "It__ taken me a while to get that. It__ always going to disappoint you in some way or another. You__l make plans, and it__l push you in another direction. You will love people, and they__l be taken away no matter how hard you fight to keep them. You__l try for something and won__ get it. You don__ have to find meaning in it; you don__ have to try to change things. You just have to accept the things that are out of your hands and try to take care of yourself. That__ your job.

My mom said once that education was a privilege not afforded to everyone, but she was wrong--it wasn't a privilege. It was our right. We had the right to a future.