I sent a silent prayer up to the Phoenix to keep her safe a little longer, because I would tear the shifters limb for limb until I got my baby sister back.

My dad had always said to not trust something unless it’s taken a tumble in the dirt. He’d meant it for people, and for things. Shiny and new didn’t exist for humankind any more.

Being inside this cottage, with dark wooden walls and hand-carved furniture like my own home, cast a darkened stain onto my heart.

You’ve never had someone you love snatched, ” I shot back, annoyed by her ignorance. “Any sense of safety kind of bites it after that. You watch your back because no one else can.

Guilt chilled me more than all of this rain combined.

Are you telling me Kara Orris is afraid of rain?” Hunter’s grin twisted into a smirk as his eyes lit up, relishing his new discovery with absolute delight. “Why, that’s adorable!

My hands trembled, so I took a deep drag to calm my frayed nerves. I just wanted to forget that terrible sight, but questions multiplied in my mind as the smoke furled.

A sullied green “S” stood out on a graying backdrop that made for a road marker up there. We called it the wasteland.

Never before have the tools of value creation been so great and the potential artisans so busy watching the Kardashians.

My only struggle has been trying to empower people who falsely believe that they are already empowered.

The failure to dissect the cause of war leaves us open for the next installment.

My imagination, my ability to understand the way love and people grow over time, how passion can surprise and renew, utterly failed me.

The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out.

Every single day in a marriage, we influence each other. It is a matter of am I going to have a positive influence or a negative influence?

Borders are scratched across the hearts of men By strangers with a calm, judicial pen, And when the borders bleed we watch with dread The lines of ink across the map turn red.

I like keeping my work so open that it can be interpreted on different levels. Art can't be compared with journalism; it can't discuss concrete issues.

The friend of the present order of things condemns all political speculations in the gross.

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.