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“There’s a lot of that going around,” Luke said quietly. He pushed her wet hair off her face, his fingers lingering on her skin, and said, “I don’t know if this is a good time to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. I don’t want to leave.”

Her heart leapt. She stared into his eyes and caught a glimpse of a quiet, terrible fear, and she realised she’d made a lot more mistakes than she’d thought.

“I’m so sorry. I was so afraid of how much it would hurt if I asked you to stay and you said no that I never asked.

I should have, Luke. I should have told you how much we want you here. Please stay. Stay .”

He let out a shaky breath. “As long as you’ll have me.”

She flung her arms around his neck, not completely sure if she was crying or laughing or both.

He pressed his mouth to hers, which ended that confusion because now she was no longer crying or laughing but just kissing him back.

The rain was cold, but his mouth was warm, and she would have quite liked to stay there forever.

Then Luke said, “Can I take you upstairs?” and she decided that actually no, she didn’t want to stay here forever, and she stumbled to her feet, as unsteady as a fawn.

They made it as far as the threshold of Sera’s warm, cosy room before she yanked at his wet shirt, pulling it off over his head, and started wriggling out of her leggings. Really, she reasoned, it was only good sense. They were far better off out of their wet clothes.

Luke closed her door with a click, making sure to strand Roo-Roo on the other side.

He cupped her jaw between both hands, tangled fingers in her hair, and kissed her.

She flattened her palms against his bare skin, feeling the warm, hard planes of his chest, listening to his sharp intake of breath, listening to the thunder of his heartbeat, and kissed him until it occurred to her that as long as they were kissing, she couldn’t get her jumper off, and that was not acceptable.

She tore her mouth away and grabbed the hem of her jumper. His eyes burned into hers, inky dark, and he stopped her, took the jumper from her, and peeled it off, bit by bit, his throat working as he ran his hands up her ribs.

She reached for his belt buckle. He paused. “Wait. I don’t have any—”

“I do.” She yanked open the drawer of her nightstand, looking for the condoms she knew were in there somewhere. She almost expected not to find them, her luck being what it was, but happily, the universe decided to be kind to her.

He gave her a wry look. “Is this from that time you got to know the Black Knight in the biblical sense?”

“You sound a teensy bit jealous, Luke,” she teased.

“I am jealous.” He backed her against the wall beside her nightstand. “Not as glad as I am that you have them, though.”

The familiar wall of her bedroom pressed against her back. Her thin, faded, and wet white T-shirt, the only thing left between him and her bare skin, did nothing to hide anything underneath. Luke stared at her for a long time, pupils wide and black, desire driving out all thought and reason.

“Luke, stop looking and get back here,” she complained.

He obeyed, crossing the space between them, and, mouth half a breath from hers, said, “If you knew the things I want to do to you.”

Heat blazed across her skin everywhere their bodies touched, driving out the last of the cold. “Show me. Show me all of it.” She pulled his mouth back to hers.

He slid a knee between her legs, leaning into her until she was more or less straddling his thigh, and she could feel how hard he was, and she didn’t think she’d ever wanted anything as much as she wanted more of this.

She kissed him harder, teeth scraping against his lip, thrilling at the sound of his groan.

“Tell me to slow down,” Luke said unevenly.

Sera rocked against his thigh, needing the friction, needing more, needing everything. “Do not slow down.”

He swore into her mouth, low and ragged like he was in pain from wanting her, and God , she could relate.

He broke the kiss, yanked off her T-shirt, and kissed her throat, her collarbone, her breasts, all teeth and tongue and heat.

She dropped her head back, eyes fluttering shut, and it felt like the world was gone and there was only her and him and the frantic sound of their breathing.

They tumbled onto the bed and she got his belt buckle off at last. “I know I asked you to show me all the things you wanted to do to me, but that’s going to have to wait,” she said. He raised his head to look at her, questioning. “I need you inside me.”

“Now?” His voice wasn’t much more than a rasp.

“Now.”

He let out a shuddering, relieved breath.

She pressed her mouth to his again, hands and legs tangling, kicking off the last of their clothing.

Then, as he braced himself over her and she hooked her bare legs around him, her eyes met his and they stopped, for just a moment, to look at each other. To see.

Because they did see, at long last. Each other, yes, but also, by that act of looking, they saw their own selves too.

He, the Tin Man who recognised his own heart at last, and she, not a shadow or a ghost of what she once was but alchemy , a phoenix who had gone up in flames again and again and yet, each time, had outlasted the fire.

Then Luke was inside her, at long last, and Sera stopped thinking altogether.

* * *

Much later, Sera was yawning and on the edge of sleep when there was a clink of metal outside her door, followed by a soft knock.

She got up, put on one of the oversized T-shirts she usually wore to sleep in, and opened the door. Nicholas stood in the hallway, sheepish, her necklace in one hand.

“Did I wake you? I would have waited until the morning, but I thought you’d probably want this back sooner rather than later…

” Nicholas trailed off as his eyes moved past her, landed on Luke in her bed, came back to her, noticed that she was a bit rumpled and glowy and wearing very little, and, finally, went hilariously, impossibly wide.

He immediately clapped his hand over them. “OH MY GOD! MY EYES!”

“Nicholas, everything’s covered,” Sera insisted, ignoring the choked sound of Luke trying not to laugh behind her. “It’s safe to look.”

“Er, I don’t think I should. I’m sure there are rules against knights seeing, er—”

She interrupted hastily. “How did it go with your father?”

“What? Oh. It was fine. Well, no, it wasn’t. I was terrified. I almost turned the car right around and came back, but I didn’t. I went in and I did it. I saw him. I said everything I needed to say, and I feel so much better now.”

She smiled at him. “I’m really proud of you.”

Nicholas peeked between his fingers, looked at Sera, looked at Luke, and looked at Sera again. For just a moment, the knight was gone and a shy, silly, boyish grin broke across his face. “I’m really, really glad you two did, er, this. Can I be the one to tell Matilda?”

“Have at it,” said Sera.

Once he’d clattered off to bed, Sera shut the door again and looked down at the necklace in her hand, surprised by how difficult it was to accept that she had to let it go. Luke watched her without speaking, letting her have the moment she needed.

She slid the crystal swan off the chain. The glass teapot was on the windowsill, glowing with the swirling golden mist that the artichoke heart and the strand of Clemmie’s hair had left behind.

She held the pendant in her hand for a moment longer, missing it already.

Then, her heart fluttering in her throat, she lifted the lid of the teapot and dropped the pendant in.

The swan vanished.

The spell was complete.