The Thirteenth Child

I was tired of living in the between—not just the Between itself, but the in-between I'd nestled myself into. Not quite in the past, but not wholly in the present. Unsure of how to move ahead, unwilling to let go.

I couldn't have a lifetime, but I could have this moment.

There is one thing I’d like to ask of you,” I started. “One small favor.” “Anything.” He said it immediately, unconditionally. “Will you stay with me till the end comes? Will you sit with me in the dark?

Leopold dared to look my way, meeting my eyes with a stare so blue my heart began to rekindle some of those ridiculous daydreams. "For a girl who's so terribly smart and skilled, there's a surprising amount you don't know.

I couldn’t imagine a love like that, so pure and earnest and insistent on existing in a world where things that were pure and earnest were so often crushed. I wondered what it would be like to feel such a love so wholeheartedly.

I wondered if isolation could make someone go mad.

A wish was nothing but a hopeful regret, and here, at the end of my life, I had none.

A wish was nothing but a hopeful regret.

presence of nobility, that dreadful day when I’d met Prince Leopold. I had no desire to move anywhere near him.