While she was on hold with the attorney, arranging for Atlas to have guardianship of the girls if she died, the email flashed across her screen, and she set down the phone to read it ( Read more... )

The scent of fresh-baked bread and warm blood, hot metal.

She could barely stand to eat it, let alone bake it.

Funny, she thought, it's supposed to be bread and the body, wine and the blood.

Grief took interesting shapes, grief and wakefulness.

Vitrum stares at Janus the whole time, her eyes red-rimmed, blinking often. A rosary is clutched tightly in her hand, hard enough to make the beads impress against her skin.

When Janus is done, she turns to Payday. "If I may..."

She doesn't bother to wait for her cabalmate's response, she simply begins to speak, her voice soft.

"'To break an unjust ( Read more... )

Behind a wall
There is a boy
I've tried to reach
For many years

She did not know why she was kneeling in the snow, except to pray. "God, you have crushed me into the dust. I am nothing, and all my dreams are like ashes. I ask not for you to save these, for you have shown me the arrogance of those requests. Give me only the strength to do what I must, ( Read more... )

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. what has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not ( Read more... )

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death ( Read more... )

The divorce papers tremble in her hands.

It is over.

I hate that word. I'm an older mage? For crying out loud, I'm only thirty-three... thirty-four next week, I guess. This makes me older? Do we all die at forty or something? Not likely. Assuming I don't succumb to the struggle, I'll live a very long time.

I don't like to think about what that means. I may outlive Eleanor, if she doesn't awaken. I'll ( Read more... )

She orders the food, has half of it delivered to the chapterhouse, and half of it delivered to hers. Delivery grocery, the most brilliant invention ever. She's feeding a small army, and how do you explain those kinds of things to the neighbors. She doesn't know, so she just halves where it's going. When it arrives, someone calls her and one of the ( Read more... )

He walked away from them, chasing after Suiten. She raised her voice, but maybe not loudly enough. "Go on D, run away. Just like you've run from all your responsibility."

Cold. She was cold. She was hot, and her eyes burned with tears.

She found a corner to sob in, Baojia clinging to her leg, and hoped no one noticed. She was not that lucky. The ( Read more... )