As if fixing the little errors would made the big stuff manageable.

A clear division between good and evil, right and wrong, would simplify everything, but life was rarely simple.

How was I to know? ... You didn't say anything.""I said lots of things," he corrected gently. "You just didn't hear them.

He looked good, like sin in a suit.

Rejoice as summer should...chase away sorrows by living.

Then he kissed her, not just a brush of lips as she'd done, but a kiss a kiss that scalded her tongue. The tree burst into full blooms. The garden fluttered around her. A riot of flowers shot out of the earth. She was mud-covered as he pulled back.

In the end mortals always expired before faeries. They were such finite creatures. Their first heartbeat and breath were but a blink from death. To add the weight of nourishing his insatiable court in a time of peace was to hasten that unconscionably.