I love you," you said, simple as anything.

The sand stretched out gray and ghostlike and illuminated, a column of light leading forward. It was like something a dead person would see, a tunnel leading toward heaven.

Because it's magic, this place . . . beautiful. And you're beautiful . . . beautifully separate. It all fits.

Far, far away something made a single ghostly howl, like a banshee in the dark.

Then your fingers moved down to my chin. You pushed it up with your thumb to look at me, almost like you were studying me in the artificial lights above my head. And, I mean, you really looked at me … with eyes like two stars. [...] And I had wings fluttering away inside me all right. Big fat moth wings. You trapped me easily, drew me toward you like I was already in the net.

Everyone wanted answers I wasn't ready to give.

You won't be able to hurt me, or touch me.