Tales of the Celestial Kingdom (The Celestial Kingdom, #2.5)

by Sue Lynn Tan

along with a silver bow he unslung from his shoulder, intricately carved, the ends curving to sharp points. I had never seen it before, perhaps it was a gift from the king.

The poor are the first to suffer, but death hovers over us all.”

We dare not, if we are to lead, for who would follow a coward? How can we order another to lay down their life when we flinch from it ourselves? So, we bury it deep, and if we are fortunate, we might even trick ourselves into forgetting it exists.

Eternity only meant something when you had someone to share it with, not when it would take you from all you loved.

“You heard nothing because you chose not to listen.

What was eternity to love? To be held by him this way, like I was the only person who mattered in the world, to feel this fullness in my chest, to have him beside me as we lay in our bed—all this was worth more than ten lifetimes.

“What is the point of life, if not to live it?” I agreed. “And there is no better moment than the present, while my time is my own.”

When we were no longer part of the Celestial Army, I would share with her all I was.

I wanted to say more, to lift her face to mine—to ask for her heart, as I was in danger of losing mine.

Yet I would be no slave to desire, no fool for love—my heart would never rule my head.

But you ended up loving her sm!!!!!!!!

She did not think she was a hero, but she was mine.

Life was not perfect; there were always hidden wounds, pain disguised beneath a smile, a price to any happiness possessed. We had to bear our burdens the best we could, for we alone knew their true weight.

I sensed nothing at first, when she came. But she returned again and again, weeping as she spoke to me, until one day . . . I woke from oblivion. She needs me. As I need her.

It would be a joy to banish her misery, to return hope to her life. And perhaps once she was at peace, I would then find mine.

“The past is embedded in who we are, whether we choose to change or keep our course. Without our history, we are unmarked sheets of paper.”

“Even those are bound to the past, for they cannot be new without the old. Whatever the past, it should not be ignored—but acknowledged, embraced, accepted. Only once we understand who we were, and what we are now, can we claim our future.”

“My dreams have changed since we met,” I said bluntly. “Now, I want to spend each day as tonight.”

“Do you wish you could change anything about your past?” “No. Because it led me to you.”

“I do not believe in another fixing our destinies. I believe we make our own, and some of us might even defy that which is written in the stars.” “I would move the stars for you,” I said quietly, as something shifted into place inside me. “I would defy them all.”

There are many types of happiness in the world. Some bring your entire self together, yet those also wield the power of breaking it apart. But there is happiness in smaller things too, that you can piece together to form a whole—no less strong or meaningful.”