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W hen Aedan and I finished kissing, he set me back on my feet and waved at the flames around us. “They probably think we’re both dead by now.”

I laughed. “No, they would have tried saving us if they thought that.” I stuck a hand into the flames. “These must be a little transparent.”

His eyes lit up with a mischievous glint. “Is your brother out there?”

I swatted at his arm, and he laughed. Then he extended a hand to me. I interlaced our fingers again and smiled at him. “Let’s go celebrate.”

The flames disappeared around us, revealing Mylo, Corva, Koan, Jolter, Fagan, and Salor standing in a line just outside of where the flames had been. Alastor stood a little closer to the door with a plate full of pastries.

Everyone stared at us, each of them too full of questions to actually voice any of them. So I broke the silence. “Alastor, that’s more sugar than I remember you having for breakfast.”

“Ha!” he barked. But it broke him out of whatever trance had held him by the door. He walked closer. “I was going to share, but I had to wait for the cook to finish a batch. Then, when I came back, all I could see was you two getting burned alive while you kissed.”

I raised my free hand up high in front of my face and flipped it over. “Nope, not burnt.”

Koan laughed out loud, clapped, and then walked closer to us. “Should I start calling you, ‘Highness’ now?”

“No,” Aedan answered before I could. “She is my queen; therefore, she is your queen too.”

“Ah,” Koan said, straightening and folding into an elegant bow. “Then it’s Your Majesty .”

I dipped my head as politely as I knew. Aedan was going to have to teach me a few things about the Hemlit High Court. “We’re among friends, Koan. I think that in a setting like this my name is still appropriate.”

He grinned and dipped his chin, and everyone turned to Aedan, clearly hoping for an explanation better than “not burnt.”

The king squeezed my fingers gently. “The magic that forced me to turn into a drekkan every morning has been satisfied. I know I have cursed that magic too many times to count, but I will not complain about it again. I am a better person because of it.”

He glanced briefly through the ruined Dining Hall at the charred dais. “I suspect it also kept me alive by trapping Guyan outside of Sirun for so long, though it did not keep Acantha out of trouble.”

“She’s dead.” Mylo met Aedan’s eyes. “She died from a stilled heart, a particular talent of your cousin’s, I believe.”

Aedan nodded at Mylo, and then smiled at me with so much warmth that my chest heated. “Since I am not obligated to shift into a drekkan, I expect the barrier has fallen. I will go inspect it next. I believe—” An excited, generous smile sprawled across his face as he flexed the fingers on his free hand. “I believe I can change into a drekkan at will.”

He turned his gaze from his hand to me. “Would you like to fly with me?”

I squeezed the hand where our fingers were still woven together. “Is it even a question?”

He squeezed my hand back, like a silent signal of love. “It’s always a question. Because you always have a choice. No promise and no bond we make will ever change that.”

It was a promise he’d made in several forms over and over, since the first day we met. It was a manifestation of the honor that I’d first found attractive so many weeks and months ago. “I would go flying with you every chance I can get.”

His untamed grin returned as he bowed over our hands and kissed the knuckle on my thumb. “Then come.”

I tightened my grip on his fingers, and he squeezed back. Then we took the next step toward our future hand in hand, side by side, and heart by heart.