I resisted the urge to point out that since Alona was already technically dead, it wouldn’t really be homicide. I do have some sense of self-preservation.

Most people didn’t even think aliens really existed. And among those who did believe, “my” relatives had a bad rep. Little, gray and creepy. Known for cattle mutilations, abductions, and an extreme fascination with probing of all kinds. Not that any of those rumors were true, as far as I knew. Exept for the being little and gray-that bit was accurate, as far as I could tell, based on my own physiology and the Internet, of course.

You are more than someone’s experiment, more than Dr. Jacobs’ brain child,” he whispered fiercely. “You have a right to want things for yourself, Ariane, to see yourself as a person. How do I get you to believe that?

The mistake, I think, is believing that once someone else checks the ‘yes’ box on you, then you’ll have what you need. Then you’ll be happy, then you’ll be okay with yourself. I don’t think it works like that” -Lexi.

People did crazy things for love. And being responsible for someone else’s feelings like that felt powerful and terrifying. As if I’d been given some delicate and fragile object to carry over rocky and uneven terrain with shaky hands.

I hate this hypothetical guy already. He’s probably taller than I am.

So what did it matter where she came from? Who-or what-her parents were? Everyone’s family was messed up in some way including my own. And she was still the same Ariane.” – Zane, page 400.

Life is too short to hold yourself back. From love, from happiness, from the fear of falling when you could have the joy of jumping.

Nice. I like a little desperation in a guy. It builds character.

Would Alona be gone before I even got a chance to say good-bye? A real good-bye? One last kiss and the chance to tell her that she’d made my life better even as she’d made me crazy? That we were better together than I would ever be by myself, but that because of her, I would be okay? Not great, but okay, and I owed that all to her? No. I needed to see her one last time.