Deathless Divide (Dread Nation, #2)

by Justina Ireland

Sometimes, when sharp-edged personalities like ours rub against each other, it generates nothing but sparks and heat. But after a while, well, they can wear each other down until the pieces fit together.

when I am dressed and looking my best, I feel like I actually have power over something. And even the smallest feeling of security is a comfort in a brutal, unforgiving world.

I want to run out to the middle of the prairie and just lie down, see if I can pull myself together, or if my parts just disintegrate and float away on the wind. But time ain’t a luxury I have.

“The Angel of the Crossroads.” It was a ridiculous name for a homesick girl who cut down the dead in order to work off her loneliness and anger. Thinking about it makes me think about Jackson. The memory of our last argument is like a letter opener through the ribs, small and deadly. I take a shuddering breath and blink hard and fast. I will not let a single one of these bastards see me cry.

It doesn’t matter, I tell myself. I’m not long for this cell. There’s only two ways this ends: with a noose around my neck, or with me hightailing it across the plains. And hemp ain’t my color.

Jane is the proverbial bull in the china shop, and while she is highly effective against the dead she is terrible at navigating the intricacies of human interaction.

Jane told me once that Daniel Redfern is too pretty by half for a man, and while I can understand her attraction I just do not feel it. To be fair, I think Jane is attracted to just about any human who gives her a passing glance. Though Jane’s tendency to jump without looking is so often a source of vexation for me, I cannot help but be charmed at times by the way in which she so gleefully gives in to her appetites.

I am not glib like Jane, and I do not have her knack for spinning words into stories that ease the worries of those around her. And I am not clever like Jackson was, I cannot tell Lily the one thing she wants to hear so that she will trust and believe me. But I know how to spot a problem and solve it, and Lily’s broken heart is not so strange a thing. We have all lost someone we have loved. It is practically the only guarantee in this terrible world.

The Jane that I once was, that girl is gone. All the dreams and hopes I had back then are ashes, and that means I need to build something else in their place.

Sometimes it can feel like the unknown is worse than the hardships you’re enduring.

I think you must have a very lonely life if the only person you care about saving is yourself.”

I have to believe there’s more to life than just surviving.

My heart thumps painfully in my chest, and for a few heartbeats I am fearful, truly afraid. I know what betrayal feels like, and I have let that pain drive me to become the woman I am today.

I assure you, I know what I am doing.” I turn to leave, and Carolina’s parting words follow me out the hatch. “I know you do, Katherine,” he says. “I just hope that you aren’t disappointed if it turns out you’re wrong.” I pause only long enough to look over my shoulder. “Darling, disappointment is the only sure thing in this world.”