Kate Alice Marshall

“Whoever you choose to be, I love you. You are the stars, and I choose you. All of you.”

“I could lose you, Rabbit. I could lose the stars, and then where would I be?”

“You’ll be with me,” I said. I took her hands and looked into her eyes. “Even if I shatter into a thousand broken skies, I will be yours. But I have a chance to be whole. I have a chance to be free. If I go back. Trust me, Bryony. Trust that I know what I’m doing. I have all along, even if I didn’t remember. Come with me.”

“Always,” she whispered. “Always.”

In the distance, the sun broke over the horizon.

“No,” the girl said. When he told the story, Leo would linger on this part. The way she stared right through him, like there was nothing but a ghost behind her eyes. “But our friend is dead.”