Cate Tiernan

“Yes. Reyn is our resident horse master. He has an excellent seat."I grinned. "I've noticed."Reyn's face tightened and Nell flushed, looking embarrassed. "It's an equestrian term.""Really? I thought you were talking about his ass.”

“At that moment I remembered something Cal had told me: that there is beauty in darkness in everything. Sorrow in joy, life and death, thorns on the rose. I knew then that I could not escape pain and torment any more than I could give up joy and beauty”

“I cared about them. I wanted them to feel better, to live better lives. And then it occurred to me - I cared about myself. I wanted me to live a better life, too Caring about myself was allowing me to care about others.”

“The Goddess teaches us that every ending is also a beginning. May there be rebirth from this death.”

“No, officer, I have no idea why I'm wearing this possum costume. I called you what? OH. My bad."-Nastasya”

“Anytime you feel love for anything, be it stone, tree, lover, or child, you are touched by the Goddess's magick...”

“Maybe what River had meant was that time itself was like a river, moving steadily forward, and you got to be in a new river every day, every hour. All my life I'd felt like a lake. A lake where everyhting was contained, forever. All my experiences, all the different people I'd been, everything I'd had, everything I'd lost...I carried them around with me, all the time”

“He gave a hard smile and the oxygen in my lungs evaporated. “Weboth know I’m not a gentleman.”“Yeah. Okay, let me out. I’m tired.”“There’s something else,” he said, and I groaned.“What now?”“This.” He stepped closer to me, so close that the containers weresandwiched between us. His eyeslooked down into mine, intent and golden, like a lion.“Oh, no, you don’t!” I hissed, dropping everything. I pushed hardagainst his chest; it was like shovinga tree.“Yes,” he said very softly, leaning down. “Yes, I do.”

“I felt an overwhelming gratitude in my life right now and wanted a chance to acknowledge it. I felt that any thanks given to any god all went to the same place, anyway, no matter what religion you were centered in.”

“I'm here by choice, I reminded myself. I'm here because I can't bear to be not- here anymore. I'm here because I can't tell right from wrong, light from dark. I'm here because I can't stand being me. I'm here because I don't want anyone to know where I am.”

“I held a nail in place and slammed it with the hammer. Best. Chore. Ever.”

“There is beauty and darkness in everything. Sorrow in joy, life in death, thorns on the rose.”

“Being good is something that one must choose over and over again, every day, throughout the day, for the rest of one's life," Asher said. "A day is made of a thousand decisions, most small, some huge. With each decision you have the chance to work toward light, or sink toward darkness.”

“There is darkness in light, there is pain in joy, and there are thorns on the rose.”

“I looked deeply into the fire, and the timeless, eternal dance of colors I saw there was so beautiful, I wanted to cry. Cal's deep voice floated toward me as clearly as a whisper in a tunnel, as if his words were meant for me alone, and the found me unerringly even as the group dissolved into talking. He said the words under his breath, his gaze fixed on my face. "I banish loneliness.”