Silver in the Bone

A library was a home to those who dreamt of better places.

The problem with siblings, I decided, was that they spent years gathering up all these little daggers of observation and learning exactly where to slip them between your bones.

Let the dead die, Tamsy," he told me once "It's only memory that truly pains us, and they release it when they go.

Showing you care about something or someone makes you vulnerable, because it gives the world another way to hurt you. But there comes a time when you have to decide if feeling empty is really any better than the risk of being broken.

Yes," he repeated. "Anytime you doubt it, anytime you start to worry you did the wrong thing, I'll tell you that. And even if we're old and gray and I can barely remember my own name, I'll remember this and I'll still tell you the same.

You do not have to keep the thought of him from your heart, but do not let the love in you harden because of him. He was not worthy.

I looked down. "You shouldn't have put yourselves at risk." "Too bad," Neve told me. "You don't get to decide that. I'm sorry to inform you that, despite your best efforts, people care about you, myself included.

Why? I know you think I'm too trusting-too softhearted, or whatever-but where's the bravery in pushing everyone away the second they get too close?

The quiet stillness of the isle gave me the gift of sudden clarity. An understanding that the pain I'd feared for so long was the very thing that told me I had survived the loss.

That one looks a bit off-kilter, right?" "It's probably just from the storms," I said , setting my bags down. "You can hope, you know," he said. "It won't kill you." Kill me, no. But like all good torturers, hope drew out you suffering, taking its time to loft your spirits so the inevitable crash of disappointment would come twice as hard and painful.

I raised my head and began to walk, letting the chaos in my chest settle and new calmness take hold.

That was a very moving speech, Trust Fund," I said. He flinched at the name. "But I'd prefer you tell me why you took this job, and why you're so worried about Daddy Dearest finding out about it?

Any thief who dares to steal this book will find it's not the only thing they took. A curse shall fall upon their wicked eye, ensuring that their love of reading die. May every page appear as blank as snow as they suffer in eternal woe.

Why are you so set on it being Caitriona?" Neve asked. "Why are you so certain it's not?" I countered. "I don't understand why you're defending her when she treated you so horribly." "Why not?" Neve asked absently as she returned to her book. "I still defend you to the others.