Before They Choose
In Calder City, no one falls in love before twenty-one. That's the law. Not written in cruelty — written in *wisdom*, the Matchers say. Grow first. Learn who you are. Trust the Institution to find who you're meant to become, and on your twenty-first birthday, they'll hand you a name and a lifetime, ninety-four percent guaranteed.
Wren Callahan has already broken the rule. She broke it at fifteen, the day Theo Ferrow made her laugh so hard she forgot to be careful. She's been breaking it every stolen night since — on a rooftop no Matcher knows about, behind a door that doesn't lock, whispering two words that have become the only vow that matters to either of them: *always you.*
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