Here and there, plumes of dark smoke reach into the sky like the fingers of a drowning man reaching up for the last time.

...there’s no such thing as a dirty fight.

Sometimes, as we're stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.

That's crazy," I say"In case you hadn't noticed, the whole world has gone crazy. It's time to adapt or die.""By throwing crazy at crazy?

NO!" Raffe grips me as if he can bind my soul to my body. An upside-down view of the doorway shows up in my field of vision. Smoke waft through it. Although the pain obscures Raffe's warmth, I feel the presure of his hug, the rocking of our bodies back and forth as he repeats the word, "No.

You don't even like me, remember?" That's what I try to say. What actually comes out of my mouth is closer to a baby's first attempt at babbling. "Shh." He runs his fingertips along my cheek, caressing my face. "Hush. I'm right here." He looks at me with deep anguish in his eyes. Like there's so much he wants to tell me but feel it's too late now. I want to stroke his face and tell him that it will be okay. That everything will be all right. And I wish so badly that it would be.

The ocean wind blows against me, making me shiver like a frail petal in a storm.

It's strange to see such an evil-looking pair of eyes fill with pity. You couldn't get a more sympathetic response if Raffe had just told him they'd castrated him.

Why were the other angels attacking you?""It's impolite to ask the victim of violence what they did to be attacked.