“So you didn’t really mean it?” She stops, and turns so that we’re facing each other. Then she bites her lip and looks up at me. “It doesn’t upset me.”
I smile.
“It’s actually times like this that I wish we could be normal.” She sighs. “I wanted to choose something very normal for myself, when I had the chance to choose. My dad chose my mom, and we kids didn’t really get a choice. But when I did, I wanted someone close to me, someone who was the same as I was.”
“A human like you.” I frown. “This Gideon I’ve heard about?”
She squeezes my hand, and sadly, she turns to start walking again.
I tug her back and press a kiss to her mouth. “Did you do that with him?”
“You may not remember everything from before, but you’re still the same.” Her eyes are sparkling, and the music around us is nice. Even the cool air appears to be making her happy.
“I take it that I didn’t like this Gideon person before I forgot everything either?”
Her lip curls. “Not at all, but yes. To answer your question, my parents fought all the time, constantly, and I wanted something. . .safer. Something easier. Something more normal, like Gideon, I guess. But then, I met a dragon who was masquerading as a person, and everything in my life changed.”
“If you could go back to that moment,” I say, a moment I don’t even remember, “and if you could walk another direction and change how things in your life went. . .” I find the words hard to say. The idea of not having Liz with me is a painful one. But I need to know the answer to this question. “If you could change things, would you choose to meet me or run the other way?”
It’s as if time freezes for me.
People are still singing. Lights are still blinking. The whiff of pine and roasting nuts still floats past us on the crisp winter air, but it all dwindles into something that doesn’t matter at all while I wait to hear what she would choose if she could do things differently now.
For some reason, I care a great deal for this answer.
“You didn’t give me a choice that day.” Liz frowns. “I spent a lot of time angry about that, but later on, you told me that if you could release me, you would, because you wanted me to choose you.” She goes up on her tiptoes, and she whispers into my ear. “And if I had that choice, if I could go back and not meet you at all?” She turns my face until I can see hers perfectly. “I would burn down a building. I would slay a monster. I would sell my very soul to meet you again, Axel Earth Blessed, and I’d consider it a small price.”
My heart does something very strange. I feel. . .light. Bright. Good with the world, and I also feel almost scared.
“What about you?” She’s still staring at me. She’s still holding herself very close to my face. “Would you go back, now that you know you lost your memories, that my choices basically killed you, and that you outed your secret to all the blessed to protect me? Or would you choose not to meet me?”
I run one finger down the side of her face slowly. “You brought my people the heart. It’s the only reason we came back to earth. You’ve changed my people in critical ways, but you’ve changed me in many more.”
She drops back to her feet, but she’s still looking up at me.
My hand braces against the side of her face, my fingers splayed, and then I slide my fingers up and into her hair, her red hair. It’s bright red now, like the red scales of my flame blessed form. “Thunar’s distrustful, but you’ve given my people all that we’ve needed. First you helped us find the heart, and then you were willing to die to get it. You also helped us find a better way to bond the humans that the blessed need to survive. The real question isn’t whether I would choose you.”
Her voice is breathy. “What is it, then?”
“It’s what wouldn’t I do to keep you now that you’re mine?”
She shivers.
I lean closer and whisper in her ear. “And the answer is, nothing. Not a single thing in this world.”
She kisses me then, and it’s unlike anything I could ever have imagined. Everything with her’s like this. New. Better. Different. Something I could never have imagined.
But that makes me think.
I pull back.
“What’s wrong?”
“You know, I should be afraid of you.” I start walking, needing time to think this through.
“Me?” She smiles. “Why?” She touches her mouth. “Because you’re afraid of what things you want to do. . .to a human?”
“No. I’m not afraid of that.” I arch one eyebrow. “I look forward to it. I’ve liked everything you’ve taught me.”
