“Once upon a time, an angel lay dying in the mist.And a devil knelt over him and smiled.”

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying. Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness. This was not that world.”

“Once upon a time, the sky knew the weight of angel armies on the move, and the wind blew infernal with the fire of their wings.”

“Once upon a time, a little girl was raised by monsters.But angels burned the doorways to their world, and she was all alone.”

“Once upon a time, a girl lived in a sandcastle, making monsters to send through a hole in the sky.”

“Once upon a time, there were two moons, who were sisters.Nitid was the goddess of tears and life, and the sky was hers. No one worshipped Ellai but secret lovers.”

“She'd heard the word before; seraphim were some high order of angels, at least according to the Christian mythos, for which Brimstone had utter contempt, as he did for all religion. 'Humans have gotten glimpses of things over time,' he'd said. 'Just enough to make the rest up. It's all a quilt of fairy tales with a patch here and there of truth.”