“I would bring down the sky, if it meant I was able to stay with youalways.”

“Now I’ve officially seen everything.” Leonidas muttered. “Howoften do you see them?”Ari laughed weakly. “Do nightmares count?”Leonidas bent down to look in her eyes. “Nightmares alwayscount.”

“There probably are, but you would need a thaumaturge for that.They have books upon books of old magic. We only have Google.”

“She bit the inside of her cheek. “You wouldn’t keep secrets from me, would you? I mean we’ve been friends how long?”"We have been friends, thirteen years, eight months, two weeks, four days,” The wheelchair stopped and Ari watched the long shadow look at his watch. “Sixteen hours, four minutes and forty seven seconds and counting I’d say; give or take thirty minutes. Or if you want the short version: five thousand and four days plus or minus a few hours."She put her hands to her face and laughed to keep from crying. “Please tell me you made half of that up. Who actually keeps track of time like that?”

“It’s not a threat. It’s simply fact. He is Greek and of a bloodlinenearly as old as yours. He is required to be what he was made to bewhether he wishes it or not. He swims against the current, Ari. He thinkshe can outrun his fate. He cannot. No one can.”

“It never stops hurting, the big losses never do, it becomes a part of your bones. It rips you apart and leaves you to figure out what to do next. It becomes a part of who you are and runs through your life like thread, coloring everything you are and do. It has informed how I choose to live, what I do, how I love. You will ache and you will hurt but you will be feeling, remembering how much love there was and how much there still is; death can never touch that. You heal and the wound closes, becoming a scar to remind you how precious things are and how well you were loved, how well you can love if you let yourself.”

“It wouldn’t bring her back.” “I know. Trust me, I do. And I would have done far worse,” he says, “if I’d thought there was a way to bring Regina back. I would have traded places. I would have sold souls. I would have torn this world apart. I would have done anything, broken any rule, just to bring her back.”