[ for danielle ]

• icicles that glisten with starlight, moon-pale in the winter night
• the fae are lovely and loathsome, with eyes like diamonds and mouths full of bejeweled lies
• 'rot-hen, a dark beast of slight and slithers . . . you can put all the flowers in your mouth that you fucking want, but dying is dying and rot is rot'
• the cold is as ethereal as it is eternal, and you will never have loved for nothing
• white tulle and silk pointe shoes, trailing thorn-slashed ribbons and dripping with liquid rubies
• moonlight ricochets off the treeline, shimmering silver with sorrow
• your blood is dark with decay, corrupted and crimson-bright when warm rivulets kiss the snow
• you wonder: is this finally the end?