Every star has been set in the sky. We mistakenly think they were put there for us.

I can hear my brother's voice in my head. Your problem is that you're too emotional. But how can I not be emotional, Rowan? How can I not care?

Even the human race can't claim to be natural anymore. We are fake, dying things. How fitting that I would end up in this sham of a marriage.

Time was our very first king. We all live our lives to the aggressive ticking of the clock. We don't question that our lives are a grid of seconds; even our pulses oblige. No succeeding king can hope to hold this kind of power.

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

Life is much different from the days when there were lilies in my mother’s garden, and all my secrets fit into a paper cup.

I used to have only one name; it used to mean something.