“I’m going to go back and stop your son from killing her.”
The queen’s face fell. For a moment, she looked as old as the years she’d spent lying in a suspended state. “That is not a small mistake to fix. If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you.”
The Fate gave the queen a look more vicious than any curse. “There is nothing of equal value to me.”
― The Ballad of Never After
The queen’s face fell. For a moment, she looked as old as the years she’d spent lying in a suspended state. “That is not a small mistake to fix. If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you.”
The Fate gave the queen a look more vicious than any curse. “There is nothing of equal value to me.”
― The Ballad of Never After
“Jacks no longer felt like her enemy, he felt like her home.”
― The Ballad of Never After
― The Ballad of Never After
“The Fate didn’t move. He didn’t let the girl go. He looked as if he never would. He continued holding her as if he could return her to life with the force of his will. His eyes were wet with blood. Red tears fell down his cheeks and onto hers. But the girl didn’t stir.”
― The Ballad of Never After
― The Ballad of Never After
“It smelled of him; of apples and magic and cold,moonlit nights.”
― The Ballad of Never After
― The Ballad of Never After
“The girl was dead. If her lifeless body had not confirmed it, then it would have been made clear by the horrible scream of the Fate who held her in his arms. The story curse was familiar with pain, but this was agony, the sort of raw grief that was only seen once in a century. The Fate was every tear that anyone had ever shed for lost love. He was pain given form.”
― The Ballad of Never After
― The Ballad of Never After
swiftlycadence’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at swiftlycadence’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by swiftlycadence
Lists liked by swiftlycadence






















