“In this present body he hadn't been loved, and he found almost nothing to love about himself.”

“She cared about him too much, and he was a dangerous person to love. He wouldn't love her back.”

“He tricked himself into thinking that she would look into his eyes and remember, that love would conquer all.”

“He'd given up blessings he hadn't been worthy of for the chance to be with her, and now he'd lost that, too.”

“Could she kiss him? Would he allow her that? Was that something he could pretend was nothing? What about making love? Could she just open up her legs and pull him inside her and have him all she wanted and later give her assent that it was nothing?”

“...he had found the courage once in his life to seize a chance at love from a person who knew how to give it. Lena prayed on these two moons that she would find that same courage.”

“The most haunting thing was not that he didn't love her anymore. She could have accepted that eventually. The most haunting thing was that he did. He loved her from afar. He loved her in a way that was preserved in time, that couldn't be sullied. And she tended it in her careful, curatorial way.”