Camila

“It was only when she sat and the hem of her dress lifted that I noticed the blood pooling in her glass slippers, the fine crack along one side. Indigo removed the shoes carefully. Two of her toes were blue. Later, we would discover they were broken. Later, I would cradle her ankles and tell her I loved her and insist on carrying her up the stairs and all throughout the house. I had always found the rejected stepsisters of Cinderella far more captivating than the story’s namesake, and now I knew why. When the shoe did not fit, they cut off their toes, sliced off their heels, squeezed their feet into glass, and lowered their skirts to cover the pain. Perhaps, in the end, the prince made the wrong choice. Such devotion is hard to come by, after all. Look how I will carve myself to fit into your life. Who will not do less? In Indigo’s blue toes and ruined skin, I saw a love letter. Gruesome, yes, but for all that it became in the end, it must be said that it was always true.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

“I loved her in a way that almost made me wish never to love again, until I met you.”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

“I am scared of you," she said in a quiet voice. "You terrify me, and that is how I know I love you... but you're not scared of me at all, are you?”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride

“We’ll be untouched, forever, folded into the roots. We’ll have toadstools in our arteries and ant nests in our mouths. We’ll sprout roses in our eyes, and we’ll be knitted together, and I will never leave you, and you will never leave me—”
― Roshani Chokshi, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride