Midnight in Everwood

Never dull your sparkle for anyone else, flame fiercely into your own glittering future.

Chasing after your dreams is a peculiar kind of suffering; it is not for the weak-hearted or cowardly-minded. It requires deep strength and endless determination.

Wherever I go, wherever this life may take me, I shall find you again, you may be certain of that. It is in the stars that we shall meet again.

Dreaming is as intrinsic part human nature, on par with love and hate and hope.

If you should ever need it to find me once more, my starname is Vivoch. Each time I look uo at the stars, I shall fill my thoughts with you.

Dreams hold power, and when one truly believes in them, it feels as if there isn’t anything on this earth you might not achieve.

May the stars shine ever brightly on you.

Ballet resides in your bones; it courses through your blood. For a dancer, it is the very essence of our identity, stripped down to its rawest, most intrinsic parts; you cannot leave it behind no more than you could forsake your own soul. Feel it. Feel the exquisite pain that comes from the purest form of love, for that is what it means to dance ballet.

Marietta Stelle's mother always said that nothing good came of a rainy day. However, it was a rainy day when the magic came, and once magic has entered your life, you stay in its glittering clutch forever.

The stars have gifted you with such beautiful eyes", he murmured. "Blue as the rarest ice, pools I would willingly drown in.

She could not sleepwalk through a life of luncheons and dinners and a marriage that would pin her in place, a butterfly with steel pins puncturing its wings, preserved and beautiful in its glass cage though its heart beat no longer. She needed to set herself free.

It's in the stars that you shall dance in your own world once more.

Life's too short to deprive yourself of a little extravagance.

I would share the world with you if I could." "And I you.

It is in the stars that we shall meet again.

Marietta folded it in tissue paper in an attempt to retain the last, lingering snap of magic in a world that couldn't sustain it.

Only the most magical things happen at midnight. When mortal folk are dreaming, safe in their beds, it is then that the sprites and goblins creep out and the air crackles with wild magic.

Marietta was so very weary of men that behaved like generals in the war of life.

Captain Legar was perched on the edge of the stonework, petals fluttering down onto his shirt and hair like snow. He rose upon sighting her and handed her a long-stemmed flower.

Be safe and strong. Never dull your sparkle for anyone else, flame fiercely into your own glittering future. We are not so unlike, you and I. We're hungry girls with hearts made of glass.' Marietta smiled over the shine of threatening tears. 'It's not like you to so freely admire a weakness.' Dellara's grin reappeared, bloodier than before. 'Who said anything about it being a weakness? Nothing can cut like glass.

This was but a game of chess. A game of wills and control and power. And King Gelum may have been the king but kings were the weakest piece on the board. Nothing more than a figurehead. One that craved power,

Now the scent of souffled root vegetables, crispy, brown-sugar-glazed slices of cheese, bowls of frostberries, spiced apple cake and whorls of pastry dripping with salted caramel sauce summoned her hunger.

It was a maze, constructed from sugar, between a pair of ice cliffs that teetered up to brush the stars. Studded with alcoves and delicate sugar-stairs, signs heralded all manner of sumptuous delicacies crafted within. Marietta's heart beat faster as she took it all in, illuminated by strings of tiny ice-lanterns above. chocolate truffles imbued with the finest liquor that promised euphoria with a single bite. Petits fours laced with beautifying charms. Caramel buttercream birds granted with flight. This, then, was Sugar Alley.