Only you could be more important than what I wanted...what I needed. What I want and what I need is to be with you and I know Ill never be strong enough to leave again.

Sometimes you have to learn to love whats good for you.

Her existence alone was excuse enough to justify the creation of the entire world.

You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever.

Surely it was a good way to die in the place of someone else someone I loved.

Eight full lives I whispered against his jaw my voice breaking. Eight full lives and I never found anyone I would stay on a planet for anyone I would follow when they left. I never found a partner. Why now Why you Youre not of my species. How can you be my partnerIts a strange universe he murmured.Its not fair I complained echoing Sunnys words. It wasnt fair. How could I find this find lovenow in this eleventh hourand have to leave it Was it fair that my soul and body couldnt reconcile Was it fair that I had to love Melanie too Was it fair that Ian would suffer He deserved happiness if anyone did. Itwasnt fair or right or evensane. How could I do this to himI love you I whispered.Dont say that like youre saying goodbye.But I had to. I the soul called Wanderer love you human Ian. And that will never change no matter what I might become. I worded it carefully so that there would be no lie in my voice. If I were a Dolphin or a Bear or a Flower it wouldnt matter. I would always love you always remember you. You will be my only partner.

Im gonna fight for you until your heart stops beating.

You are my life now.

Even more I had never meant to love him. One thing I truly knew - knew it in the pit of my stomach in the center of my bones knew it from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet knew it deep in my empty chest - was how love gave someone the power to break you

The bond forged between us was not one that could be broken by absence distance or time. And no matter how much more special or beautiful or brilliant or perfect than me he might be he was as irreversibly altered as I was. As I would always belong to him so would he always be mine.