he coach, he looked back. Collette was a small, white-clad figure against the dark, heavy iron of the trestle

p disbursements. I want her to feel the weight of her 'opportunity.'" While Ian spent his college years in drafty labs, calculating the shear strength of steel, Collette spent hers in mahogany-paneled lecture halls, learning how to dismantle men with a single paragraph. They wrote letters on physical

quarry was bathed in a ghostly, silver light. The moon hung low, reflecting off the sheer

ust the smell of impending rain and the heavy v

tar of

ed years ago. Ian had brought a small lantern, but he didn't light it. He didn't need

trembling slightly under the weight of t

nst the whistling wind. "But I've studied the old cathedrals. They don't stay up because of luck. The

cube he had finished polishing. He didn't place it on her finger; he

and the city and the people like Victor Hale try to crush you, I will take the weight. I will be

try to span a gap that seems too wide, when you're stretched to your limit, I will hold the lines. I will be the

al of

be faithful; they were promisin

m of the forces must always equal zero. If you're hurting,

ate ceremony of Static Equilibrium. They knew that the next four years would try to pull them apart with th

leaving the limestone cube hidden i

ure they hadn't yet built Coll

an," she said, looki