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If she thought about it too much, it might have been depressing that her only real wish was for the absence of something—so she didn’t think about it at all.
“The problem with compromise,” he said eventually, “is that, often, everybody loses. You sit on the fence for so long that you discover you’ve built a kingdom on it.”
“They’ll blend right in.” “Oh, yes,” said Arthur. “Why wouldn’t they? They’re only about eight feet tall with flaming red hair, and act like they were raised in a haunted tower away from all human contact—”
It goes by different names, but it’s always there. Other religions have their own magic words—their own rituals. It seems unlikely that magic never existed, and yet everybody came to the same conclusion of their own volition.”
“Is this treason?” he said, muffled by his fingers. “Or is it just a regular crime?”
Usually she’d have muddled through the problem with him, but it had felt too invasive, like she was offering up her own organs to be examined.
Well, there might be a way to let a little bit of my life be my own. Even if it’s secret, even if it’s hard, it’ll be mine. What’s not real about that?”
Knowing that the way Arthur responded to stress wasn’t exactly healthy didn’t mean he could stop himself once he’d started. It was like pulling a bowstring taut, Arthur thought; once you’d begun, all that something had to go somewhere.
All semblance of her usual schedule would be thrown entirely out the window, her days filled to the brim with other people making plans for her and talking over her and poking her, with absolutely no room for what she might want—namely, time to sit in a quiet room by herself or to slip away and see Bridget.
And besides, Arthur had done this before—had found himself caring too much about somebody, somebody who thought the only thing they could be together was a mistake—and look where that had landed him.
She had assumed that Bridget felt exactly the same way as she did, but suddenly she had no idea why. All they had been doing was kissing—a lot of kissing,
He wanted so badly for Gabriel to disagree with him—to tell him that he’d stay—but they truly were a pair of cowards; Gabriel left, and Arthur didn’t do a thing to stop him.
