“Our mother the City is not a merciful mother,′ she says as she gathers my hair in one hand. ‘To be a girl in this city is to be weak. It is to call evil things down upon you. And the City is not kind to weak things. She sends Death the Endless to winnow the frail from the strong. You know this.”

“Our mother the City is not a merciful mother,′ she says as she gathers my hair in one hand. ‘To be a girl in this city is to be weak. It is to call evil things down upon you. And the City is not kind to weak things. She sends Death the Endless to winnow the frail from the strong. You know this.”

— Kester Grant