There is a silence so great that I can hear the ice crystals cracking and falling from eyelashes of girls who will never blink again.

I nod like I'm not at all unnerved by this new cold side to him. Not cruel like his father. Not warm like the husband who sought me out on quiet nights. Something in between. This Linden has never woven his fingers through mine, never chosen me from a line of weary Gathered girls, never said he loved me in a myriad of coloured lights. We are nothing to each other.

But I know all the things you're too sweet to know.

On tiptoes the redhead wouldn't even reach my shoulders; she is clearly too young to be a bride. And the willowy girl is too forlorn. And I am too unwilling. Yet here we are.

I was born into a world that was already dying; I belong to it.

It's best to let her go," he says. No, no, that's wrong. It's never right to give up on someone.

She has the majesty of hurricanes and explosions.