Perhaps Fate laid out your life for you like a dress on a bed, and you could either wear it or go naked.

It's all a quilt of fairy tales with a patch here and there of truth.

Kizzy wanted it all so bad her soul leaned half out of her body hungering after it, and that was what drove the goblins wild, her soul hanging out there like an untucked shirt.

She had a sadness that was so deep, but it still could turn to light in a second, and when I saw her smile I wondered what it would be like to make her smile. I thought... I thought it would be like the discovery of smiling.

He dropped the pretense, and dropped his head, so his brow came to rest against the sun-warmed top of hers. His arms went around her and drew her in, and Karou and Akiva were like two matches struck against each other to flare starlight. With a sigh, she softened, and it was pure homecoming to melt against him and rest.

How could you tell if your instincts were just hope in disguise, and if your hope was really desperation parading as possibility?

Follow me," said Karou. As if he could have done anything else.