Ah, love. That’s what the world has lost. There’s no more love, only the illusion of it.

I'm suddenly finding it hard to know the difference between nightmares and consciousness.

What have you done? What have you given up?' So many things, Cecily. More than you know.

‎I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again.

Forget who you are and what you think is there, and you'll discover things that don't exist to be known.

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.

You've been captive for so long that you don't even realize you want freedom anymore.