Barnabas’s voice helps me drift off to sleep. I think briefly about how I’ve never felt this way about anyone else. I care about my family and friends, but this is a different feeling. This must be how my father feels about my mother. This must be what it feels like to be in love. Somehow, I’m certain.I know I can’t leave him here to rot. I can’t leave him at all.

Because…sometimes I think you meet people and they make you better, even if you’re not with them forever.

Some of the worst things are done with the best intentions, Petra,” August said. “You shouldn’t have done this to me.

Then August knew. Thomas didn’t dwell on things. Thomas was strong, and he didn’t know what it was to be afraid. He knew he could get what he wanted, never questioning his identity or who he would be the next day.He was everything August wasn’t, and that’s why August hated him.

You need to tell me why it won’t work.”“Because you’re seventeen and I’m eighteen. Because your first love isn’t supposed to last.