“What does that mean?' Anna whispered. 'What does that all mean?Abel ran his fingers through her hair again, and his hand wandered down and stayed on her throat. 'It means everything,' he whispered back. 'And nothing.”

“And she imagined how things could be later. It was stupid, but the picture just appeared in her mind. Abel and Magnus shoveling snow together... in twenty years, in thirty. Magnus had grown old, his broad back still strong but bent from time, his hair nearly white at the temples. And Abel... Abel was a different Abel, an adult one, one who was absolutely self-confident and didn't let his eyes dart around the room at lunch, as if he were caught in trap. "Nonsense," she whispered. "Thirty years? You don't stay with the person you meet at seventeen... what kind of fairy tale are you living in, Anna Leemann?" And still the picture seemed right.”

“Abel put his hands on her shoulders. "You're cold. You're shivering." She nodded. "It's not important..." "Sure it is," and then, in a very low voice, with a private kind of smile, he said, "Rose girl, I told you the branches would wither and you would freeze. You wanted to stay on board..." Anna nodded. "I'm staying.”

“I am not staying with the murderer," she said, her words muffled by his jacket. "I am not staying with the victim Abel Tannatek or the culprit Abel Tannatek. I am staying with the storyteller.”

“Next to that dragon Micha had wirtten: 'KIS EacH OthER'. Abel looked at Anna. Anna looked at Abel.'She is the little queen,' said Abel, 'in our fairy tale, at least.''One must obey the queen,' said Anna.”

“But what does he want my heart for?" the little queen asked."He just wants to own it," replied the sea lion. "That is enough. He wants to look on its beauty and know that his hands alone can touch it.”

“And the snow that fell onto the roof in winter... it fell softly... softly... and it covered the house, the armchair, the books, the children's voices. It covered Anna and Abel, covered their parallel world, and everything was finally, very, very quiet.”