“Hope is a torturous thing. It wrenches one from despair just long enough to allow one to take a breath before plunging her back beneath the icy waters. If it wasn’t for those breaths, it would be easy to let ice claim the soul. Easy to let surrender swallow the struggle. But hope – cruel mistress that she is – is not satisfied with so neat an ending. Like a house cat with a tiny prisoner, she wants only to torment the soul again, and again, until it dies from a burst heart.”