Tally tried to return it, but something shifted in her stomach as she looked at Shay's face. Shay swooped in beside Tally, their fingers brushing for a moment, and flashed a smile. That was the thing about being a Cutter: Everything was icy now, as if the world were opening her skin. Icicles whipped past in glittering streaks, and moonlight silvered the world, like an old, colorless movie come flickering to life. She squinted against the cold, eyes watering, but the tears made her vision even sharper. Over its frantic beat Tally heard every twitch of her new monofilament-sheathed muscles.

Fausto was pumping dance music straight through her skintenna, but that was silent to the world outside. The cold air seemed to make sounds crisper: The loose tail of her dorm jacket cracked like a wind-whipped flag, her grippy shoes squeaked against the hoverboard surface with every turn. She breathed in the forest, tendrils of pine coating her throat and tongue, thick as syrup. Tally felt everything with an icy clarity: the brittle, freezing wind across her bare hands, the shifting gravities that pressed her feet against the hoverboard. In their wake glowed a crystal rain, tiny icicles shaken from the pine needles to fall behind, aflame with moonlight. The riders ducked and weaved among ice-heavy branches, laughing, knees bent and arms outstretched. The six hoverboards slipped among the trees with the lightning grace of playing cards thrown flat and spinning. Rabindranath Tagore, 'Stray Birds' CRASHING A BASH By Scott Westerfeld ĬONTENTS Part I BEING SPECIAL CRASHING A BASH HUNTERS AND PREY NIGHTFIGHT RESCUE THE PROMISE NEW PRETTY TOWN ZANE-LA THE CUT THE ARMORY BREAK OUT FLIGHT Part II TRACKING ZANE CUT FREE OUTSIDE BARBARIAN SPLIT INCOMPETENCE INVISIBLE BONES NEW ARRIVALS PURSUIT HARD LANDING RANDOM TOWN REUNION VIOLATIONS OF MORPHOLOGY VOICES LIGHT Part III UNMAKING WAR PAYBACK BLAME PATIENT GOING HOME DAVID EMERGENCY MEETING CONFESSION CRUMBLING OPERATION TEARS RUINS THE PLAN MANIFESTOīy plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.

Extras scott westerfeld