Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

“I grabbed Liam's arm as he passed me on his way to the tunnel door, kissing his cheek. "See you later tonight."
He stepped down into the tunnel, shouldering a backpack Cole had left for him there. When I turned to say good-bye to the other Stewart, he'd stooped, turned his cheek toward me, and was waiting. I flicked it with my finger, making him laugh again.
"You're impossible," I informed him.
"It's all part of my charm," he said, shifting the heavy bag on his shoulder. "Take care of things, Boss."
"Take care of him." I said, pointedly.
He gave one last mock salute before shutting the door to the tunnel. I waited until the sound of his and the others' steps faded completely before locking the door after him.”
― Alexandra Bracken, In the Afterlight

“A moment later, Liam's bright blue eyes opened, and he was seeing me. He just wasn't seeing Ruby.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“The most important-' I was almost too outraged to string a sentence together. 'Liam's life is worth more than that stupid flash drive!'
'My, my.' A feral grin spread across Cole's face. 'Little brother must be a good kisser.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“I felt the familiar warm tingling at the center of my chest and had just enough time to gasp as some invisible hand yanked me forward, smacking my forehead against the dashboard with enough force to stun me dumb.
Chubs slammed on the brakes, forcing my seat belt to do its job and lock against my chest. I was thrown back into my seat, an explosion of colors bursting in my vision.
"Oh, hell no!" Chubs roared, slamming a hand against the steering wheel. "That's it! We don not use our abilities on one another, goddammit! Behave yourself!”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“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 memory and not mine.

And then I realized—I wasn’t the only one seeing it. Liam was seeing it, too.

How, how, how? That wasn’t possible, was it? Memories flowed to me, not from me.

But I felt him grow still, then pull back. And I knew, I knew by the look on his face, that he had seen it.

Air filled my chest. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, I didn’t want—he—�

Liam caught one of my wrists and pulled me back to him, his hands cupping my cheeks. I wondered which one of us was breathing harder as he brushed my hair from my face. I tried to squirm away, ashamed of what he’d seen, and afraid of what he’d think of me.

When Liam spoke, it was in a measured, would-be-calm voice. “What did he do?�

“N´Ç³Ù³ó¾±²Ô²µâ€”â¶Ä�

“Don’t lie,� he begged. “Please don’t lie to me. I felt it…my whole body. God, it was like being turned to stone. You were scared—I felt it, you were scared!�

His fingers came up and wove through my hair, bringing my face close to his again. “He…� I started. “He asked to see a memory, and I let him, but when I tried to move away…I couldn’t get out, I couldn’t move, and then I blacked out. I don’t know what he did, but it hurt—it hurt so much.�

Liam pulled back and pressed his lips to my forehead. I felt the muscles in his arms strain, shake. “Go to the cabin.� He didn’t let me protest. “Start packing.�

“L±ð±ð—â¶Ä�

“I’m going to find Chubs,� he said. “And the three of us are getting the hell out of here. Tonight.�

“We can’t,â€� I said. “You know we can’t.â€� But he was already crashing back through the dark path. “Lee!”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“Look,â€� I began, “I get it. You don’t like me, but—â€�
“I don’t like you?�
He let out a low, flat laugh. One fell into the next, and it was awful—not at all him. He was half
choking on them as he turned around, shaking his head. It almost sounded like a sob, the way his
breath burst out of him.
“I don’t like you,� he repeated, his face bleak. “I don’t like you?�
“Liam—� I started, alarmed.
“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 every day, 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 it anymore.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“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.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“Cate:"What are you doing?"
Ruby:"Locking Clancy Gray in a closet.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“Stay out of this, Green!â€� He was still wholly focused on Chubs. “What else did you tell her?
What else did she get out of you?�
I jerked back, one single word throwing me off balance.
“What did you just call her?� Chubs interrupted. Of course he had caught it, too.
“What? I’m not allowed to use her name now?� he demanded. The look on his face was ripe
with derision. “What do you want me to call you? What clever codename did the League think up for
you? Pumpkin? Tiger? Tangerine?�
“You called me Green,� I said.
“No I didn’t,� he said. “Why the hell would I call you that? I know what you are.�
“You did,â€� Chubs insisted. “You called her Green. You really don’t remember?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“Why do you assume I forced him to do anything, darlinâ€�?â€�
“Don’t,� I gritted out, “call me that.�
Cole’s light brows rose. “I guess that answers my question about why you lied to Alban. Care to
explain how you even know my brother?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“You had day-of-the-week underwear growing up, didn't you?”
― Alexandra Bracken Never Fade

“I think I'm losing it--I don't know what's happening, what happened, but I look at you, I look at you, and I love you so much. Not because of anything you've said, or done, or anything at all. I look at you, and I just love you, and it terrifies me. It terrifies me what I would do for you. Please...you have to tell me...tell me I'm not crazy. Please just look at me.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“The smile that curled his lips was as arrogant as it was beautiful.

“You need to accept the fact that you’re Orange and that you’re always going to be alone because of it.� A measure of calm had returned to Clancy’s voice. His nostrils flared when I tried to turn the door handle again. He slammed both hands against it to keep me from going anywhere, towering over me.

“I saw what you want,� Clancy said. “And it’s not your parents. It’s not even your friends. What you want is to be with him, like you were in the cabin yesterday, or in that car in the woods. I don’t want to lose you, you said. Is he really that important?�

Rage boiled up from my stomach, burning my throat. “How dare you? You said you wouldn’t—you said—�

He let out a bark of laughter. “God, you’re naive. I guess this explains how that League woman was able to trick you into thinking you were something less than a monster.�

“You said you would help me,� I whispered.

He rolled his eyes. “All right, are you ready for the last lesson? Ruby Elizabeth Daly, you are alone and you always will be. If you weren’t so stupid, you would have figured it out by now, but since it’s beyond you, let me spell it out: You will never be able to control your abilities. You will never be able to avoid being pulled into someone’s head, because there’s some part of you that doesn’t want to know how to control them. No, not when it would mean having to embrace them. You’re too immature and weak-hearted to use them the way they’re meant to be used. You’re scared of what that would make you.�

I looked away.

“Ruby, don’t you get it? You hate what you are, but you were given these abilities for a reason. We both were. It’s our right to use them—we have to use them to stay ahead, to keep the others in their place.�

His finger caught the stretched-out collar of my shirt and gave it a tug.

“Stop it.� I was proud of how steady my voice was.

As Clancy leaned in, he slipped a hazy image beneath my closed eyes—the two of us just before he walked into my memories. My stomach knotted as I watched my eyes open in terror, his lips pressed against mine.

“I’m so glad we found each other,� he said, voice oddly calm. “You can help me. I thought I knew everything, but you…�

My elbow flew up and clipped him under the chin. Clancy stumbled back with a howl of pain, pressing both hands to his face. I had half a second to get the hell out, and I took it, twisting the handle of the door so hard that the lock popped itself out.

“Ruby! Wait, I didn’t mean�!�

A face appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Lizzie. I saw her lips part in surprise, her many earrings jangling as I shoved past her.

“Just an argument,â€� I heard Clancy say, weakly. “It’s fine, just let her go.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“What?â€� The word exploded out of me. “What do you want me to tell you? You want to hear about how they tied us up like animals to bring us into the camp—or, hey! How about that time a PSF once beat in a girl’s skull so badly she actually lost an eye? You want to know what it was like to drink rotten water for an entire summer until new pipes finally came? How I woke up afraid and went to bed in terror every single day for six years? For God’s sake, leave me alone! Why do you always have to dig and dig when you know I don’t want to talk about it?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade

“You really didn’t have White Noise? Calm Control?â€� I demanded, surprised by the anger licking
at my heart. What camp had these kids been in? Candy Land?”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I walked until I lost the light from the fire pit, clawing at my T-shirt, trying to pull it away from my skin. It smelled like his room. Like evergreens and spice and old, decaying things. I pulled it over my head and threw it as hard and far as I could, and still—still—I couldn’t shake the smell. It was everywhere: my hands, my jeans, my bra. I should have run straight for the lake, or even the showers. I should have tried to soak his venom out.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I thought I had escaped the monsters, that I'd left them locked up behind an electric fence. But the shadows were alive, and they had chased me here.”
― Alexandra Bracken

“Let’s see if I remember all of this—born in Charlottesville, Virginia, but raised in Salem by her mother, Susan, a teacher, and her father, Jacob, a police officer. Attended Salem Elementary School until your tenth birthday, when your father called into his station to report an unknown child in his house—â€�
“Stop,â€� I muttered. Liam looked over his shoulder, trying to divide his attention between me and the boy reciting the sordid tale of my life. “—but, bad luck, the PSFs beat the police to your house. Good luck, someone dropped the ball or they had other kiddies to pick up, because they didn’t wait around long enough to question your parents, and thus, didn’t pre-sort you. And then you came to Thurmond, and you managed to avoid their detecting you were Orange—â€� “Stop!â€� I didn’t want to hear this—I didn’t want anyone to hear it.”
― Alexandra Bracken, The Darkest Minds

“I started at the beginning, the escape. Fleeing through the forest, meeting a new danger at every turn, the desperation that came with trying to protect everyone when you could barely take care of yourself. The boy with the bottomless dark eyes, the betrayal, the fire, the smoke. And by the time I realized I had told him my own story, Jude was fast asleep, tucked firmly into dreams.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Never Fade