Just then, lit only by the flicker of his wings,the sight of him was so..right somehow. He was right. It made no sense at all, but the feeling flooded through Karou

Hey! My body may be small, but my soul is large. It’s why I wear platforms. So I can reach the top of my soul.

Happiness. It was the place where passion, with all its dazzle and drumbeat, met something softer: homecoming and safety and pure sunbeam comfort. It was all those things, intertwined with the heat and the thrill, and it was as bright within her as a swallowed star.

...magic was ugly—-a hard bargain with the universe, a calculus of pain.

I want to build spires in their minds and dance shadows through like marionettes, chased by whispers and hints of the unspeakable.

Then there were things-- epic, terrible things-- that he didn't tell her but skirted around, like caressing the edges of a wound, hesitant, testing for pain.

With the infinite patience of one who has learned to live broken, he awaited her return.