He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her full on the mouth. His skin was wet with rain. When she didn't pull away, he took her face between his hands and kissed her again, on her forehead, on her nose, on her mouth once more. "You will come, won't you? Promisse!" he whispered.

When it came to hiding, even Gwin had nothing to teach Dustfinger. A strange sense of curiosity had always driven him to explore the hidden, forgotten corners of this and any other place, and all that knowledge had now come in useful.

The Fairy's dress rustled as she turned. Human women dressed like flowers, layers of petals around a mortal, rotting core.

Let's be off before he gets his great horsey teeth into my poor lines of verse!

She pressed her hand against her chest. No heart. So where did the love she felt come from?

Books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them.

Fire and water," he said, "don't really mix. You could say they're incompatible. But when they do love each other, they love passionately.