Nocticadia

by Keri Lake

“Jealousy is a callow schoolboy’s emotion that ends in hard feelings and bloody noses. What I feel for you, Miss Vespertine, would destroy lives.”

I knew that what I felt for him had evolved into something completely foreign. A beautiful complexity that was as pure and thrilling as it was forbidden.

“Don’t hide from me, Lilia. You are no less beautiful than that day you walked into my classroom and stole my fucking breath.”

“That I would kill for you without a beat of hesitation, or remorse. And yet, at the same time, I could be reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash without you. I’m weak for you, Lilia.”