27
" There passed a child of four, a small girl on a footpath over the fields, going home in the evening to Erl. They looked at each other with round eyes." Hullo," said the child." Hullo, child of men," said the troll.. . . " What are you?" said the child." A troll of Elfland," answered the troll. " So I thought," said the child." Where are you going, child of men?" the troll asked." To the houses," the child replied." We don't want to go there," said the troll." N-no," said the child." Come to Elfland," the troll said.The child thought for a while. Other children had gone, and the elves always sent a changeling in their place, so that nobody quite missed them and nobody really knew. She thought awhile of the wonder and wildness of Elfland, and then of her own house." N-no," said the child." Why not?" said the troll." Mother made a jam roll this morning," said the child. And she walked on gravely home. Had it not been for that chance jam roll she had gone to Elfland." Jam!" said the troll contemptuously and thought of the tarns of Elfland, the great lily-leaves lying flat upon their solemn waters, the huge blue lilies towering into the elf-light above the green deep tarns: for jam this child had forsaken them! "
37
" As I turned over the last page, a wave of sorrow enveloped me. Where had they all gone, these people who had seemed so real? To distract myself, I walked out into the night; instinctively, I lit a cigarette. In the dark, the cigarette glowed, like a fire lit by a survivor. But who would see this light, this small dot among infinite stars? I stood awhile in the dark, the cigarette glowing and growing small, each breath patiently destroying me. How small it was, how brief. Brief, brief, but inside me now, which the stars could never be. "
― Louise Glück , Faithful and Virtuous Night
40
" Feyre," he said--softly enough that I faced him again. " Why?" He tilted his head to the side. " You dislike our kind on a good day. And after Andras . . ." Even in the darkened hallway, his usual bright eyes were shadowed. " So why?" I took a step closer to him, my blood-covered feet sticking to the rug. I glanced down the stairs to where I could still see the prone form of the faerie and the stumps of his wings." Because I wouldn't want to die alone," I said, and my voice wobbled as I looked at Tamlin again, forcing myself to meet his stare. " Because I'd want someone to hold my hand until the end, and awhile after that. That's something everyone deserves, human or faerie." I swallowed hard, my throat painfully tight. " I regret what I did to Andras," I said, the words so strangled they were no more than a whisper. " I regret that there was . . . such hate in my heart. I wish I could undo it--and . . . I'm sorry. So very sorry. "