But gods are born of ichor and nectar, their excellences already bursting from their fingertips. So they find their fame by proving what they can mar: destroying cities, starting wars, breeding plagues and monsters. All that smoke and savor rising so delicately from our altars. It leaves only ash behind.

He was a poison snake, and I was another, and on such terms we pleased ourselves.

Little by little I began to listen better: to the sap moving in the plants, to the blood in my veins. I learned to understand my own intention, to prune and to add, to feel where the power gathered and speak the right words to draw it to its height. That was the moment I lived for, when it all came clear at last and the spell could sing with its pure note, for me and me alone.

I was a golden witch, who had no past at all.

Circe," Apollo said, and it was the greatest chime of all. Every melody in the world belonged to him.

But endurance had always been my virtue, and I kept on

But endurance had always. been my virtue, and I kept on.

But endurance had always been my virtue, and I kept on.

She seemed to fit into the air like a jewel in its crown.