Unfulfilled need makes a painful companion—an unwelcome follower, waiting for the moment it is allowed in, allowed to pierce through and fester inside, until such yearning becomes rage, and then—      And then Chaos.

Awakened—I whispered it into the dark, rolled onto my back, hugging my arms close like I'd spilled some secret. I smelled the bell roses so sweet, felt the wetness of the dew seep into my skirts, and tasted the dark, almost, on my tongue.

To see this dance of stars across the sky, to feel the stone beneath us vibrate with its tiny hum, and taste night on the air. To hear the trees breathe and the sky shimmer with each exhale, to smell the Earth growing, changing. It's all I've known, this awareness. Earth fills me—all the things that surround us pulse with life, and they . . . they pour into me like music.

Each breath of the fire changed it; each glowing pulse subtracted something from its place. Giving and taking—a breath of air, a wisp of smoke, a flake of wood; heat into chill. Nothing was every the same, and yet nothing could change.      Nothing.

I felt a stirring in my chest, and in his, as if a flame burned bright between us.

I was wary of all my feelings now, intent as they were on usurping any sane thoughts.

It is one thing to be awed by the beauty of a creature that one has only dreamed of; it is another to claim it, to climb on its back and to share its power.

—his face had lit as he spoke my name, as if he'd made some great discovery or some burden was lifted.