The Summer King stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Can you offer me your fidelity? Your heart and your body and your companionship for eternity? Do you want my fidelity? Either love me or kiss me goodbye, my Summer Queen.

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.

Stab one or two healers, and everyone overreacts.

I was thinking it was worth the risk if it meant forever with my faery girlfriend.

It was the only way he knew to protect the court, the faery, and the only mortal who'd ever mattered to him.

I was very afraid to write a novel - it was a dream for a very long time, and it was one of the few things that I was afraid to try.

Maybe the girl would get strong enough to withstand an ink exchange with one of the chosen faeries. If not, he could always give her to one of the weaker fey. It seemed a shame to waste a lovely broken toy.