“I could run forever. He was so much larger than me—I had to take two strides for every one of his—but somehow, our pace became one as the lights across the lake flashed by. This is what he’d wanted. To run side by side. Just the two of us. Free. Jaxson nodded to the far promontory ahead. Almost there. The point. The finish line. Desire sparked in my mind. I realized I could win, no matter how big he was, no matter how fast. I was strong. I gloried in the knowledge. Memories of old races and past victories flooded into my mind. The final sprint. The burning in my muscles. The intoxicating call of the finish line. The tape breaking on my chest. Once, a decade ago, those moments of victory had been everything to me in a bleak and lonely world.”