Though the witch complained softly, she did not make Shade move his hand away. Instead, she opened her arms and wrapped them around his neck:
"This feels so nice right now. After a tense, thrilling adventure, being able to hold you like this and talk slowly... Look, the sunlight through the glass dome is lighting up my face. Isn't it beautiful? Shade, your face is beautiful too."
Their noses lightly touched, and she smiled gently:
"If the time you could stay weren't so limited, I really would want to hold you like this, talking with you until evening, and then take you to see the starry sky of this era. The stars here really are beautiful."
"I can still stay—"
Shade said, but the witch's small hand covered his mouth:
"No, don't tell me."
Her golden eyes, shimmering with starlight, looked into Shade's:
"I want to treat every second I spend with you as though it were the last, so that I can cherish you even more."
She was truly remarkable.
"She" whispered gently beside Shade's ear, while he felt as though Miss Violet's tenderness was about to melt him:
"Then... would you like to hear a story? The story of what happened after I disappeared. Theresa and the others still cannot hear those things about gods, but I want to tell you."
"Sure, go ahead. Wait a moment, I need to adjust my position."
She had Shade lean back against that pile of soft pillows, and he vaguely sensed that more than one of them was made from Unicorn hair. Once he had settled in, Miss Violet rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat:
"And then, like this."
The hand Shade had used to "examine her condition" was guided by her back to where it had