Kushiel's Mercy (Imriel's Trilogy, #3)

by Jacqueline Carey

“Nothing and no one will ever come between us again.” She kissed me back. “Do you promise it?” The crowd swirled around us, pelting us with petals, laughing and shouting, offering traditional blessings and bawdy jests. Love. It was all done in love. I gazed at Sidonie, at the mixture of love and desire and perfect trust in her black eyes, rose petals caught in her hair. My unlikeliest of loves, found in the last place I would ever have thought to look. My sunlight. My heart swelled, my happiness feeling too vast for my body to contain. I felt the touch of divine grace brush us both like a mighty unseen wing, setting somewhat deep inside me to quivering, filling me with brightness. It felt like a promise. “Always,” I said. “Always and always.”