Alexandra Bracken Quotes

Do I look as pretty as I feel?

I don't do well without you," he said. "Who I was before
I never want to be that person again. But I told you when I took you away from here that when everything was over, it would be your choice. You would get to choose where you wanted to go and who you wanted to be.

Is this how you got around before?" Vida wondered aloud. "It is a miracle you dumbasses survived.

As far as Nicholas was concerned, half-truths only added up to a whole lie. Glancing

The thing is ... what they don't tell you about forgiveness is this - you don't give it for the other person's sake, but your own.

The kids in the League knew about the camps-vaguely. There were only a few of us who had actually lived in one and experienced the life firsthand, but there was an unspoken rule we didn't talk about it. Everyone knew the truth, but the truth didn't live inside them the same way it did for us. They'd heard about the sorting machines, the cabins, the testing, but most of their stories were gossip, completely wrong. These kids had never stood for hours on end in an assembly lime. They didn't know fear came in the shape of a small black camera lens, an eye that followed you everywhere at all times.

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.

One day they will name a plague for you," he said.
"Hopefully a particularly nasty one," she answered. "A girl can dream.

If there was one good thing that came out of all this, it was that I got to meet you. I would go through it all again - I would, as long as it meant I'd met you.

I'm a monster, you know. I'm one of the dangerous ones."
"No you aren't," he promised. "You're one of us.

The only thing we got to keep were our memories, and now I was about to take those from him, too.
"Close your eyes," I whispered. "I' going to finish the story.

By the time he was finished with that task, finished with that family for once and all, Chase and the others would already have the Ardent in the hands of the Lowes' agent, who'd then bring her and her cargo to the prize courts for a ruling.

A crucial part of that process was the testimony of the ranking officer of the captured vessel. He couldn't stab his fork into Wren's eye - well, he supposed he could. The man only needed his mouth to serve as witness to the courts that the vessel had been fairly won. Did every nicety need to be observed?

It was amazing how small you could feel when someone wouldn't so much as look at you.

Ir's just that nowadays people are so quick to boil you down to the bare bones of info and upload you into a system, you know? And I think no one can ever really know another person unless you really pay attention ... I don't want to just see someone's face; I want to know his shadow, too.

Jedi Master. What would happen if Luke ever came face to face with the Sith? If he hunted Luke down, looking for the droids, looking for the princess? Luke had had a few hours of training; Ben had had decades! And still Vader had cut the Jedi Master down with a single blow. Leaving ... nothing.

I guess I don't see what's so insulting about being called a girl. The two of you seem to do okay when you're not biting my head off or acting like five years old.

It was better not to talk. They had a way of hearing one thing and processing it as something else.

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," Chubs said. "Yes, in ye olde medieval Europe you would've been quite the catch -

Etta shifted in her seat, drawing a look of concern from Nicholas, who'd been studying his water for the entire duration of the conversation, as if he couldn't quite believe there wasn't dirt swimming in it.

There's a difference between broken and ruined. With one, you can hope to piece the object back together, but the other- there's just no coming back.

Me and nice things didn't go well together.

And that song, it wasn't ending. It kept on playing, that stupid, upbeat swing of voices and plucked strings, the promise of a future that would never be mine.

I closed what little distance was left between us, one hand sliding through his soft hair, the other gathering the back of his shirt into my fist. When my lips finally pressed against his, I felt something coil deep inside of me. There was nothing outside of him, not even the grating of cicadas, not even the gray-bodied trees. My heart thundered in my chest. More, more, more - a steady beat. His body relaxed under my hands, shuddering at my touch. Breathing him in wasn't enough, I wanted to inhale him. The leather, the smoke, the sweetness. I felt his fingers counting up my bare ribs. Liam shifted his legs around mine to draw me closer.

I was off-balance on my toes; the world swaying dangerously under me as his lips traveled to my cheek, to my jaw, to where my pulse throbbed in my neck. He seemed so sure of himself, like he had already plotted out this course.

I didn't feel it happen, the slip. Even if I had, I was so wrapped up in him that I couldn't imagine pulling back or letting go of his warm skin or that moment. His touch was feather-light, stroking my skin with a kind of reverence, but the instant his lips found mine again, a single thought was enough to rocket me out of the honey-sweet haze.

The memory of Clancy's face as he had leaned in to do exactly what Liam was doing now suddenly flooded my mind, twisting its way through me until I couldn't ignore it. Until I was seeing it play out glossy and burning like it was someone else's mem

I see it in colors," I said. "A deep blue, fading into golds and reds - like fire on a horizon. Afterlight. It's a sky that wants you to guess if the sun is about to rise or set.

How can you miss something, feel so awful about it, when you're not sure you had it in the first place?

THERE IS A CURE. The insanity of that thought made me feel like the hand on Jude's compass spinning, and spinning, and spinning, searching for its true north.
He deserved this. I blinked back the prick of tears and let my anger rise to swallow the anguish for now. I let it propel me forward. Because Jude deserved to live to see this moment- he should of been here, now, next to me, suddenly seeing that everything was alive with the possibility of change.

If he were to fall over dead, would they just push the body out of the seat and use it as a footrest, do you think?

No part of you is dark or ugly,' I said sharply, squeezing his hand. 'Not to me, not ever. Do you understand?

Cate had told me once, a long time ago, that the only was to survive your past was to find a way to close it off behind you, to shut one door before passing into another, brighter room. I was afraid. That was the truth. I was terridied of the guilt and shame that would come flooding in when I retraced my steps, turned the lock, and found the girl I had abandoned.

It was the quality of her feelings that shattered him - the pure belief and care that she had for him. He'd underestimated her, and he was more the fool for it, for denying this regard...this love for him. There was no other word to describe it. It truly was the same for her. The thought flooded him, filled his veins with equal parts relief and agony.

I had to be alone for a little while, but I'm okay now."
"All right. But next time, don't go where I can't find you.

His presence was larger-than-life, bigger even than his physical body.

Time to carpe the hell out of this diem." Less

D-Dorothy - " My throat burns. It's the only way I know the words are leaving it. "Guess we ... shouldn't have left Oz. ...

Do you think the memory of someone should dictate how we live going forward?' he asks, threading and unthreading his fingers together.
'It depends,' I say. 'I think you can probably honor someone's memory, but you can't live for them, because that means living in the past.

We have no idea, but its not like we're going to win any awards for normalcy anytime soon. So you get into people's heads? The two of us can throw people around like toys. Zu once blew up an AC unit, and all she did was walk by it.

Crazy is only crazy when it works.

I hope that when you have the chance to crack your world open wide with new possibilities, to meet new people, and to take a turn down an unexpected, new road, you do just one thing: carpe the hell out of that diem.

A mannequin? An unfeeling heartless bitch who feeds on others' misery and is physically incapable of crying, unless it's tears of blood?

I would have torn this whole damn country apart looking for you, I said softly.

I love you." He turned toward me, that agonized expression still on his face. "I love you every second of every day, and I don't understand why, or how to make it stop-

I tried telling myself it wasn't because of me, but there are some thoughts that live in your mind like a chronic disease. You think you've finally crushed them, only to find them morphing into something newer, darker.

There are tests, but there are also small mercies. Life tossed us up into the air, scattered us, and we all somehow found our way back. And we will do it again.
And again.
And again.

When I caught up to him again, my fingers closed around the soft, loose leather of his jacket's sleeve. At the
slightest tug, Liam turned, his blue eyes lit up in surprise. I took a step back and pulled my hand back to my side,
shocked at myself. It had felt natural to do it - I hadn't been thinking at all, only feeling a very sharp, real need
to be close to him.

In the whole course of history, war had always fallen on the shoulders of the young.

How do you fight against a mountain? How do you move it when you don't even have a shovel?" "Maybe you don't have to move it," Etta said, folding the gown over the lid of the trunk. "Maybe you have to climb it.

When the deaths finally came to light, my elementary school put a strict ban on teachers and staff talking to us about what was then called Everheart's disease, after Micheal Everheart, the first know kid to have died of it. Soon, someone somewhere decided to give it a proper name: Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration-- IAAN for short. And then it wasn't just Micheal's disease. It was all of ours.

But I guess what I mean is, being afraid can't be a reason for us not to do something now ... '
'Our voice will only get louder the more of us we bring together.

I think.. I just want to look different.'
...
'Is that ridiculous?'

Priyanka came toward me, her expression contemplative.

'No, it's not. The only way to live is by following whatever message your heart is beating out for you.'

'Did you read that on a greeting card?' I asked.

'No, on some kind of medication ad,' she admitted, 'but it doesn't make it any less true.'

I turned back to the mirror and picked up the scissors again.

You are so full of it. You think we're just going to skip away with you into the sunset?"
"No, I expect you to fucking prance, and you're going to do it with a smile & the least amount of bitching possible

I didn't have time for tears anymore. I had questions.

Also, screw you - maybe you can be all stealthy and break into their building to get the woman out, but I can get
us there and back safely. I did this for months and never got a second glance from anyone, including PSFs."
"Probably because your ugly-ass face blinded them on the first look," she muttered.

One voice could be drowned out, but not a dozen. Not a hundred. Not a thousand.

You were the gawky one," he corrected, "Lee was the reckless one, Zu was the cute one, and I was the wise one."
–Chubs

Can you not see it? Can you not feel how badly I want you? I'm a selfish bastard, I'm worse then you'll ever know, but I'll answer to God or anyone else who tries to stand in our way so long as I know you're safe.

You aren't responsible for what other people do, good or bad. Everyone is just making the choices they think will help them get by.

I can't
I can't think about anything or anyone else," he whispered. A hand drifted up, dragging back through his hair. "I can't think straight when you're around. I can't sleep. It feels like I can't breathe
I just
"
"Liam, please," I begged. "You're tired. You're barely over being sick. Let's just ... Can we just go back to the others?"
"I love you." He turned toward me, that agonized expression still on his face. "I love you every second of everyday, and I don't understand why, or how to make it stop
"
He looked wild with pain; it pinned me in place, even before what he had said registered in my mind.
"I know it's wrong; I know it down to my damn bones. And I feel like I'm sick. I'm trying to be a good person, but I can't. I can't do this anymore.

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.
"He dreams about food," he said. "A lot.

She sounded so incredibly proud if this, and I honestly could not have cared less.

You need to be able to control it, otherwise it'll always control you," he said. "It'll scare you and manipulate you until you go crazy, die, or they find the cure. And guess which one of those things will propably happen first.

I bet it gets pretty lonely with only your ego for company.

Black ia the color that is no color at all.
Black is the color of a child's still, empty bedroom. The heaviest hour of night - the one that traps you in your bunk, suffocating in another nightmare. It is a uniform stretched over the broad shoulders of an angry young man. Black is the mud, the lidless eye watching your every breath, the low vibrations of the fence that stretches up to tear at the sky.

The only way to survive your past was to find a way to close it off behind you, to shut one door before passing into another, brighter room.

I couldn't bear the thought of even your face here, left alone, for only the jungle to admire." He shook his head. "Never. I'd never allow it. The only thing is to hire an artist to turn you into a figurehead for a ship, so some part of you will always be venturing out where you belong.

Why do you have to take every good thing we try to give you and break it into pieces?" Nico said. "You let them turn you into this ... "
"This is who I am," Clancy snapped. "I won't let them change me. I won't let them touch me. Not again.

Why would I ever search out someone who abandoned me? Someone who had no regard for any of us, who ran because he's too much of a damn coward to stand up to his family!

I want you to remember that - it's our choices that matter in the end. Not wishes, not words, not promises." Etta

For the first time in years, I could see the stars that Thurmond's monstrous lights had faded into nonexistence. They were so bright, so clear that they couldn't have been real. I didn't know what was more shocking–the endless stretch of road or the sky. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes.

Mom?" Then again, louder. "Mom?"
She turned around so quickly, she knocked the pan off the stove and nearly dropped the gray paper into the open flame there. I saw her reach back and slap her hand against the knobs, twisting a dial until the smell of gas disappeared.
"I don't feel good. Can I stay home today?"
No response, not even a blink. Her jaw was working, grinding, but it took me walking over to the table and sitting down for her to find her voice. "How - how did you get in here?"
"I have a bad headache and my stomach hurts," I told her, putting my elbows up on the table. I knew she hated when I whined, but I didn't think she hated it enough to come over and grab me by the arm again.
"I asked you how you got in here, young lady. What's your name?" Her voice sounded strange. "Where do you live?"
Her grip on my skin only tightened the longer I waited to answer. It had to have been a joke, right? Was she sick, too? Sometimes cold medicine did funny things to her.
Funny things, though. Not scary things.
"Can you tell me your name?" she repeated.
"Ouch!" I yelped, trying to pull my arm away. "Mom, what's wrong?"
She yanked me up from the table, forcing me onto my feet. "Where are your parents? How did you get in this house?"
Something tightened in my chest to the point of snapping.
"Mom, Mommy, why - "
"Stop it," she hissed, "stop calling me that!"
"What are you - ?" I think I must have tried to say someth

Mind the hour, mind the date, and find that path which does not run straight.

That was the dangerous thing about dreams-how quicly you became tangled in it all. People naturally let their guard down when they slept.

You could be a Hemlock, as I could be an Ironwood; or you could sign your name with Linden, as I might sign mine with Hall. Or perhaps you are Miss Spencer, and always will be," he told her, his thumb skating over her cheek. "Or you could choose, one day, to be a Carter. Or we might be nothing beyond you and I, and be done with this business of names once and for all, for they have never once had a true bearing on who we are or who we intend to be.

Many humans do not care about what is "unfair," for it varies so much between them.

Cause, frankly, the way I see it, you and me? Inevitable.

I looked up to the clouds, turning my face to the pounding rain. It looked like the sky was falling, piece by piece.

Thank you," he was whispering, "thank you, thank you. ... " And then he was kissing my face, every inch of it he could find, wiping away the tears and soot, chanting my name.

They don't burn, do they? Not like us.

Liam was a great many things, but mysterious and unpredictable weren't included in that deck of cards.

Alice had this magical look about her, like she would be at home in front of a hearth, wrapped in a large quilt, telling nursery rhymes to sweet-faced forest critters.

Every relationship is a transaction. Every so-called friendship begins with a promise that must be kept by both parties.

I don't need a protector," Etta said. "I need a partner.

Say something. Please, say anything, just don't hide your thoughts from me.

Ruby used to say that we'd earned our memories, but we didn't owe them anything beyond their keeping. I guess she'd know better than most.

We were moving forward, and the past was best left to its darkness. Its ashes.

So help me God," I said slowly, clearly, when Cate looked up at me. "If you go back on your word, I will tear you apart. And I won't stop, not ever, until I've destroyed your life and the lives of every single person in this organization. Believe me, you may not always keep your promises, but I do.

If a heart could break once, it shouldn't have been able to happen again.

The question stayed with me every day, through every class, through every Op. I felt its teeth tighten around the back of my neck each time I was dismissed without a second look; it had locked it's jaws and wouldn't let me or my conscience go.

Red Five standing by, Luke said when it was his turn.

I would like to register the fact that this fucking sucks," she said.
"Noted," he said, shutting the gate.

Yes, you are," Chubs agreed. "But you're our idiot, so be more careful next time."
"Cosigned," Liam said, hooking his fingers over mine on top of the armrest.

It feels like we should do something," he said. "Like, send her off on a barge out to sea and set her on fire. Let her go out in a blaze of glory."
Chubs raised an eyebrow. "It's a minivan, not a Viking.

Say something," he whispered. "Please…say you despise me for withholding the truth, that you'll never forgive me…say anything, just don't hide your thoughts from me."

"I will," she said evenly, eyeing him past a loose strand of hair that had fallen across her face. "Once I figure out the best way to cut out your heart and eat it."

The laugh that burst from his chest was little more than a weak chuckle. "I wish you would. At least then you might see the whole of the sorry thing, the absolute mastery you have held over it from the moment I saw you.

This was the danger, the seduction of time travel, she realized - it was the opportunity, the freedom of a thousand possibilities of where to live and how to start over. It was the beauty open to you in your life if you only stopped for a moment to look.

Because, my weird has been able to cancel out your weird, Lady Cross-Stitch.

That was not like riding a bike, you asshole!

You realize that by doing this, all you're accomplishing is reinforcing in America-throughout the world- that the word different means bad, ugly, dangerous.

It'll be enough for now. Don't rush the horses.

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.

And for the love of God, bitch, don't get stabbed this time!

And the minute the doors slammed shut, his arm slid around my waist, his other hand wove through my hair, and I was being kissed to within an inch of my life.
'Hi,' he said when he finally came up for air.
'Hi,' I said, now both dizzy and breathless as he leaned down to rest his forehead against mine.

Can't seem to stop looking for their reflections behind mine in each window or glossy surface I pass.