Upon a Frosted Star

Yet no matter how great I shone, I was the glitter of a single star amid a galaxy of constellations.

I have no need for money or a manor; I would be perfectly content living in a hut so long as I had you by my side. You know that I love you a thousand times more than any reason you could give for why we ought not be together. There is no other possible future for me than you. I would sooner die than stop loving you,' he growled. They stared at each other, their chests rising and falling in unison. 'Then you had better make sure you find Rothbart because I'm not letting you go after a speech like that.

Grief is like a well: you can never truly leave it but the walls grow wider and wider until one day you look up and realise that you can see the sky again.

I have never needed a man to save me and I do not intend to start now.

...love is always enough. There is no greater force in this world and nothing it cannot do.

For a true fairy tale never did end happily.

After a year marked with painful loss, I had come to realise the only way I might become happy was in the pursuance of my dream:

And I would live until it hurt.

He had been sleepwalking through his own life, a life that was a canvas devoid of colour, and at last, he had awoken to a dazzling reality.

Stay with me, Detta,' he told her through his tears. 'Please don't leave me, I can't bear a world without you in it; you're the love of my life and nothing makes sense without you. Stay with me. Just stay,' ...

I would marry you a thousand times over, Odette Lakely. Until the moon falls from the sky and the stars no longer glitter.

...I do not care for any future that doesn't include you. You, Detta, are my everything and I plan on loving you for a very very long time to come.

No,' he told her fiercely, tilting her chin up and looking deep into her ocean eyes. 'You deserve more. But I shall never stop trying to give you everything. For you, I would cut the stars from the sky.

I love you, Forster; whatever the future may hold for us, I want us to face it together,' she whispered. 'I will never leave you.' His heart swelled. 'It's you, Detta. For me, it's always been you.

Will you miss me when I've left?' I tried instead. 'Of course, but such is life. We are all birds in a wide, wide sky. Oftentimes we might fly alongside another but we must each soar on our own current.

...all I want, all I could ever need, is you.

I would gladly wait a hundred months for a single day like this,' he told her.

A life was so fragile, spun from magic impossible to understand...

You know, birds always find their way home, no matter the distance. Perhaps you will, too.

You want to know how I see you?' Forster's voice turned husky. Detta's mouth was swollen from grazing his stubble and he couldn't stop looking at it, at her. 'When we are together, all I can think of is you, and when sleep comes, I dream of you.' Detta had stilled yet he continued, unable to stop. 'And when we're apart, I ache for you. Missing you is a physical pain that I cannot rid myself of and nor would I ever choose to because there is no sweeter pain than that which reminds me of you. You are my everything.

I will be here. Each and every day it snows. I am yours.' 'I want to see the bluebells carpet the woods, bathe in sunlight and swim in the lake when it's warm and golden with summer, and dance through fields of wildflowers with you.' Her eyes darkened. 'But that will never happen. It is an impossible dream. And I shall not have you condemned to a life of waiting for snowfall.

...magic does not belong solely to the young.

After all, there's nothing more dangerous than love.' She looked up, her breath catching. 'You might find yourself losing your wits entirely. Or worse, your heart.

I am far too advanced in years to cast off my clothes and dance in a fountain,' Vivian said. 'My body is a temple that my lovers may only worship at my candlelight.

Why, it can never be too cold for a picnic. Besides which, we have one every year. It's tradition. And you must never break a tradition,' she said solemnly. 'I firmly believe that old ones are to be cherished and new ones cultivated as often as one feels inclined...

Life is made up of a thousand moments, and if you do not mark them, you run the risk of losing them altogether.

For their was no finer family than the one you had chosen yourself.

The funny thing is, the more people I surround myself with, the lonelier I feel. I could be dancing in a sea of people and still be completely alone. You may be the very first person at one of these parties to see me.

It is the snow,' Detta said simply. 'I am only human in the snow. When it melts away, so too do I, for then I am cursed to be a swan.