Behind lay loneliness and delusions. Ahead lay answers, and yes, Riley. So bent double beneath my load, but naked no longer, I followed the two demons deeper into Hell.

— Heather Heffner

Clinging to the rags I had left, I gazed out upon the full breadth of the Furnace and shook at what I saw. The world had been wiped clean of all trace of humanity. Sharp sandstone peaks protruded into the gray sky like a humped backbone, spilling into vast seas of sand on either side. Boulders and driftwood, the castaways of some bygone mountain, cast the only disruption upon the land. And I realized—no sun crossed the sky; there was only constant, lingering grayness.

— Heather Heffner

Father never went into depth about what happened if I woke up, unable to remember how I’d died, but most definitely in the hands of those not selected to have s’mores and sleepovers for all eternity.

— Heather Heffner

I blew a strand of black hair from my face. “A demon treating another with kindness is something I have yet to see.”“Careful,” the demon whispered. “You may have already seen the rough shape and form it takes in this world, and yet you do not recognize it.

— Heather Heffner

I’d like to sit there,” I said softly to the girl sitting in front of the other mirror. She scampered. I took over her abandoned make-up and painted my face. Red cheeks, to attract hungry vampire glances. Black liquid eyeliner and mascara, to draw attention away from my bitter eyes. My silky-thin, raven hair, undone in waves over my bare shoulders. The magenta shade of apple gloss on my lips, to make them plump and inviting. Finally, a strapless golden dress that hugged my hips and not much lower. I stood up, feeling the cold air slide down the bare skin of my back like fingers, and panicked. I couldn’t wear something like this! Not without a cardigan! A light dress jacket, at least! I took a gulp of Ambit’s wine and detached myself from the fretting child in my head. Then I strode from the sleeping chambers.

— Heather Heffner

In a world of fog and gray, the youth is a shining being dressed in dark violet, his golden-flecked hair smoothed back from his bronzed temples. He resembles a human, but no man I have ever seen holds himself like a king, like a gleaming statue chiseled from topaz. I swallow. I am standing before a demon, the most beautiful being I have ever seen, and I can’t run. Furthermore, I can only stand in the hushed glade and stare, snowflakes falling in the space between us.

— Heather Heffner

It felt as if I’d been teleported to the dark side of the moon, forced to gaze out at the stars and wonder which one I’d come from.

— Heather Heffner

I want to be humbled. I want to meet people more messed up than I am. Furthermore, I want to get lost and come out the other end having no idea who I am.

— Heather Heffner

My body slid from human to wolf in a crack! Of black smoke. Wolf was panting, and I watched frost dissipate on my hot tongue, sending tiny rivulets of steam into the air. The world was sharp and clear, and I never realized how many different colors of shadow there were. It made me savor the dark beauty of night even more.

— Heather Heffner

The Bloodsucker Queen has lived for what, a millennium? She can wait on her decaying ass a little while longer.

— Heather Heffner