She looked up. “A world of nevers under a never sky.” She fit in well then, he thought. A girl who never shut up.
People can be cruelest to those they love.
She absorbed the terror and beauty of him and his world. Of every moment over the past days. All of it, filling her up like the first breath she’d ever taken. And never had she loved life more.
Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame.
In the afternoon, they stopped to eat on a rocky outcrop. Perry brushed a kiss on her cheek while she was chewing, and she learned that it was the loveliest thing to be kissed for no reason, even while chewing food. It brightened the woods, and the never sky, and everything.
She’d fallen into a deep silence once, when the sun appeared, and it was then he’d wondered most what she was thinking.
She’d survived the outside. She’d survived the Aether and cannibals and wolves. She knew how to love now, and how to let go. Whatever came next, she would survive it, too.
If there was no fear, how could there be comfort? Or courage?
I miss you. I miss you. I miss you, I miss you. Be ready, because when I see you, I’ll never let you go again.