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W e stood in flames, but I knew Callista was perfectly safe now. They were my flames, and we’d touched each other’s hearts enough that my magic would only protect her.

Plus, they gave us a little privacy, and that light show was going to bring an audience.

Callista stared at me in wonder and confusion. I lifted a hand and held it between us. No claws. No fingers as large as legs. “I’m not a drekkan,” I explained.

She took my hand and wove her fingers between mine. “What happened?”

I smiled, pressing the emotions into my chest enough so that I could speak. “Your mother called on the magic I’d wasted in deception to make me suffer the effects of my own monsters until I… until I begged for the kindness I’d refused to offer her and felt the pain of love I did not deserve.”

My emotions broke free from the walls I’d surrounded them with, and I coughed as they worked their way past my throat and into my eyes. “When you chose to stay with me as I shifted, my heart bled for the truth that no matter how much I loved you, I would never be able to show it properly. We would always be ripped apart at dawn. And you deserved so much more than that.”

I ran my thumb along hers, embarrassed at how hoarse I sounded. “I thought I was begging for your kindness when I suggested you punish me for what I did to your mother, but that was pathetic compared to the tortured feeling I had when I asked you to forgive me for dying.”

I lowered my forehead to hers. “I don’t know exactly which moments satisfied the magic, but I am eternally grateful that all the moments have turned me into an elf that you’re willing to share your life with. Because, in truth, that is all I want right now—to share my life with you.”

She grinned at me, and I swooped her into my arms in a bridal carry. A warmth filled my chest when my arm bumped against the dagger I’d given her yesterday, still strapped to her waist. “It was never a curse,” I whispered in her ear. “I thought it was, but I was wrong. It was a gift that I desperately needed to help me grow. I’m sorry she isn’t here to witness it.”

She brushed a kiss on my cheek. “I’d like to believe she is.”