fantasy

... all sorts of wonderful things got washed up on the beach _ crates of clothes and cutlery and children__ toys, boxes of engine parts and television screens and electrical wires like tangled snakes in the water. I found them fascinating, like relics from a distant time, even though I knew it was us who lived in the past.

So tall and lithe in his suede and leather outfit. So utterly gorgeous it almost ached to look at him.

Riding a Dragon is amazing, exhilarating, and murder on the thighs.

And who is to say the truth can__ be a miracle?

If you continue to threaten us, I will act upon my threat._ I felt silly using the precise language of bargaining dictators and gangsters, but they seemed to take it seriously. Stickings_ smirk almost completely faded. __he thing is, Effie __ his voice dropped to barely a murmur, __ I don__ believe you.

Even now I ask myself, what would have happened if I had gone to the cove with Tansy that Thursday afternoon, instead of going to the beach? If I had stayed away from the boat at the jetty, hidden from sight? If I had thrown the pearl back in the sea at the first opportunity when I had seen the look in Rammell__ eyes? But then I reason that it probably wouldn__ have made any difference. The Fates had spun my destiny, and I was tight roping along the threads that tangled in the sky, regardless of the drop below.

I had never seen the view at this time before, at the very pinnacle of night when sunset was far behind us and dawn had not yet risen rosy-fingered from the horizon. The night was ashen, tones of granite and iron and heather in the ripples of the waves, which were calmer than earlier in the day. It was as if even the ocean was drowsy _ a pale, weighty moon hung full and pregnant in the sky, its reflection floating lambent on the water.

She knew that her lifework had changed forever that day. She was being called to use her gift to help prevent a tragedy such as this from ever happening again. And she knew, without question, that the whales and dolphins would reach out to her again, from the other side of the night . . . and she would be there.

The difference between the quest for the Holy Grail and someone saying __ring me a cup_ is the flavor text and the number of stops involved.

The attraction of reading is that it allows you to live, for a few hours, as someone else__rants you access to their head, their thoughts, their secrets.

Jamie was like no one else he had ever met. She had ethics; she had moral integrity. She was clearly not corruptible, at least not for money--that test was over.

She was a perfectly clean slate--a total enigma.

America, and all it had once stood for--all he had fought for--was dying...on life support, and counting.

The sad thing about miracles is that they__e unique. They can__ be explained, or shared, or duplicated. And they absolutely cannot be captured and made to perform on demand. If that day ever came, our world would die for lack of wonder.

Shining with craving, his emerald gaze penetrated her soul. "I desire you so much". His whisper melted her heart. His soft touch set her ablaze.

Unbeknownst to most of its dormant and otherwise distracted inhabitants, one beautiful tiny blue sphere, spinning through the dark cloak of galactic space, was clearly under siege.

Maybe they want us to feel uneasy. Maybe they think we__l make a mistake if they__e constantly breathing down our necks._ I shivered violently, as if I really could feel the hot, hungry breath of evil intentions panting just behind me.

I no longer hated the whining, menacing dragonfly we rode in, but admired its grace as we surged towards the clouds, the lights of Edinburgh twinkling below us like the starry constellations of a world upside down.