A Winter's Promise (The Mirror Visitor, #1)

by Christelle Dabos

You’re more accommodating than a chest of drawers,

An object repaired itself quicker if it felt useful, it was all a question of psychology.

“You have the strongest character in the family, my child. Forget what I said to you last time. Here, before you, I predict that your husband’s will is going to shatter against yours.”

an enormous beehive disowned by the earth,

She stubbed out her cigarette on the bottom of the sweet tin while shaking her little curls into a blond waltz.

Indeed, one never loves someone more than when one knows the least about them.”

A Mirage who conjures up illusions is thus considered better than those who clean his linen and prepare his meals?

“I had predicted that you wouldn’t last the winter, and you’ve proved me wrong. You deem me incapable of one day offering you a decent life; would you permit me, in turn, to prove myself?”

inside her coat, her stomach so knotted she felt nauseous. From Thorn she’d been ready for anything. Brutality. Disdain. Indifference. He didn’t have the right to fall in love with her.

The man had ice in his veins.

Did you really think you were so special as to be an exception to the rule?”

It wasn’t just other people, it was also she, Ophelia, who had constructed her whole identity around her hands.

Reading had always been a passion, but since when were passions the only foundations of a life?

From having seen so many illusions, it had lost its own, and that was just fine. When illusions disappear, only the truth remains. Those eyes would look less within, and more out to the world.

As long as Ophelia had scruples, as long as she acted according to her conscience, as long as she could face up to her reflection every morning, she would belong to no one else but herself.

It’s coming back to me—God was punished. On that day, I understood that God wasn’t all-powerful. Since then, I’ve never seen him again.