But Gemma, you could change the world.””That should take far more than my power,” I say.”True. But change needn’t happen all at once. It can be small gestures.””Moments. Do you understand?” He’s looking at me...

She shrieks above the din. “If you wish a battle, I shall give it. I am the last of my kind. I shall not lie down without a fight.

I know it. I know I shall make beastly mistakes, Father-“”The world does not forgive mistakes so quickly, my girl.” He sounds bitter and sad.”If the world will not forgive me,” I say softly, “I...

Centuries of fighting, and for what? I say. “Today it ends. I can’t live in fear any longer. I’ve cursed this power. I’ve both enjoyed and misused it. And I’ve hidden it away. Now I...

No one asks how or what I am doing. They could not care less. We’re all looking glasses, we girls, existing only to reflect their images back to them as they’d like to be seen....

I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I’ve got to think.

You and I, we must carry on, Gemma. I cannot afford the luxury of love. I must marry well. And now I must look after you. It is my duty.””If you wish to suffer, you...

I know you adore Father, but he isn’t the white knight you imagine him to be. He never was. True, he’s charming and loving in his way. But he’s selfish. He’s a limited man determined...

I change the world, the world changes me.

Do you ever feel that way?””Lonely?”I search for the words. “Restless. As if you haven’t really met yourself yet. As is you’d passed yourself once in the fog, and your heart leapt – ‘Ah! There...

I’ve heard it said that God is in the details. It’s the same with the truth. Leave out the details, the crucial heart, and you can damn someone with the bare bones of it.

A man bumps me on his busy way without so much as an apology. But that is all right. I forgive you, busy man about town with the sharp elbows. Hail and farewell to you!...

Pippa’s laugh is bitter, tinged with tears. ‘Ha! Why do girls think being beautiful will solve every problem? Being beautiful just creates problems. It’s a misery. I wish I were someone else.

Oh, I didn’t think it wise to hide it. Might not be able to find it again,” I say, cheerily. “It’s sitting in plain view on your chair in the great hall. I do hope...

One day, as Sarita tended to the wash, Gemma played in the garden. She was a knight, you see, with a sword fashioned out of wood. Most formidable, she was, though I didn’t quite know...

I’m an oddity of one, my strangeness too complicated to explain or share.