And she awoke each spring, pale as the moon, lithe and hungry and fertile.

She slumbered in winter, when the sap ran slow and her forest lay silent. She wore very little because she had no need of clothing, no matter the time of year. She was tall and beautiful, still in the full health and vigor of her prime despite having lived more than a thousand years near the heart-spring of her magnificent forest. “She had waited so long and worked so hard to reach this place, to stand on the deck of this ship, that she hadn’t noticed how incredible her life had already become.T should have been impossible, but his mother was dying. He knew Wendy had a predilection for science, and he found himself hoping that particular fondness did not extend equally to scientists.” 153 “I’m Lieutenant John Abbot.” John stressed the lieutenant bit, just for good measure. “Followed by mornings of barnacle scraping, lunches of rock soup, afternoons of button polishing, and sea ration suppers.” 152 “Are you ready to come with me to the ship?” he asked, his voice more gentle than she had ever heard it.” 112Ĭontemplating the form of his punishment made for a welcome distraction. “Ever since the first time he had done so (which had been a bit of an accident), he had been practicing the move, trying to make it faster and even more heart-stopping every time and leaving knee-shaped depressions all across the southeastern fields of England.” 108 “He would have burned the entire report to ash and returned it to her in a snuff box, just to make a point, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.” 99 “Michael was dressed for the occasion in a pair of tall black boots, polished to such a shine that they could have turned Medusa herself to stone if no mirrors were handy, and the coat was his very best-which is to say, the one upon which he received the most frequent compliments from the ladies.” 67 “Wendy knew, however, that sometimes the best way to win an argument was to not engage in it.” 63 It wasn’t right that such an indecent man should have such a memorable gaze.” 56 “She met his regard with a confident, upward tilt of her chin, and discovered in doing so that his eyes were the exact blue of the forget-me-not. “She lay on her simple cot and stared up at the bare ceiling, a thousand thoughts and memories swirling through her mind like a rainbow of glittering debutantes, each idea more enticing that the last, all jostling for her attention.”46

“Pray tell,” Michael echoed, smirking at John with the confidence of a man who has just been catapulted miraculously out of trouble by someone else who has had the misfortune of stumbling into it.” 45 “sounding much more like himself and at the same time nothing like himself at all” 28.

Tigerlilja by Erin Michelle Sky