Despina sat here, on all fours, and no-longer-mother Nell played The Swan by Saint-Saëns with her no-longer-daughter’s teeth. She didn’t play Flight of The Bumble Bee anymore. The smile on her face wasn’t one that enjoyed her suffering, but rather was unaware of it. In an elegant and gentle recital, she helped no one except herself to her music, and Despina sat here, on all fours, with the desire to scream as her muscles were stretched to play a beautiful song. She was a tad off-key.
A...
Born again from the pianoman, I escaped from below his enveloping shroud with the help of my half sibling. Stella embraced me.
I spent years in a dark haze gathering the EverPass. Belfree wouldn’t tell me what he wanted it for or why he chose me.
I just knew that, as a changeling, I was bound to his word.
And every movement I made was in accordance with his will. He wanted me to squeeze harder. To take the breath out of her.
I didn’t have the strength to.
‘I’m nothing but bone, remember?’
It’s...
I remember now.
Isabel wore a white dress with a blue corset; her voice like the friction of turning pages to the next beautiful word.
“Do you think Sol'Mano and the rest only fear loss?” asked Isabel. Corwyn threw herself over her partner’s arm.
Corwyn enjoyed showing skin: a black ruffled blouse trimmed to reveal her navel. The sound from her lips was as if the ears learned the experience of taste; impossible and begging the listener’s attention: the smoothness of sweetest vanilla.
“It’s as if...