“It’s a good thing you knew what to do,” said Alison. “All I could remember from the fairy stories I’ve read was true love’s kiss.”
Alison heard her words the moment after they left her mouth. Keir blinked, his lips parting as if to respond, but then closing again.
Alison’s thoughts began to spiral, but then she felt a pulse in the spot of her chest where her power came from. It was warmand tight, almost like an embrace. She looked at Keir and his eyes were soft, his smile stretching to wrinkle their corners.
“I read a lot about the old magic when…” He paused for a moment, a shadow falling over him, but he regained his composure. “A while ago,” he continued. “It’s often metaphorical, sometimes clever, sometimes built on a bargain. I doubt my ideas were the only answers, but at least they seemed to have worked.”
“Well, I’m grateful,” said Rinka. “Should we get going soon? I’m not sure how we’re meant to get back to the road. We followed a fairy light to get here.”
“Hold on, let me see if the way down is open again,” said Alison. She left the room and went into the hall, already knowing the answer before she arrived at the hatch, which was indeed unlocked once more. “Fairies,” she muttered under her breath.
Idris had risen from the bed by the time she returned to the room. “Rinka, may I speak with you before we depart?” he asked. Rinka nodded, and they left the room together.
Alone with Keir once more, she felt the warm pulse as he crossed the room to her. “‘True love’s kiss,’ eh?”
He took her hands as she held her breath.
“Alison, these past months have been some of the hardest of my life.”
It wasn’t what she’d expected him to say at all, and she felt the same sting she’d felt minutes earlier when he’d said he loved Rinka.
“Wait,” he said, seeing her response. He released one hand to lift her chin. “Let me finish.”
Alison nodded, the pounding of her heartbeat filling her ears as she looked at him.
“When we left the vine’s world, I felt triumphant. Like we’d finally fixed some broken part of me for good, like all the bad days were in the past. But unfortunately, that isn’t whathappened. And at first, I was terrified to let you see it. I didn’t want to hurt you and disappoint you after what you risked helping me. I didn’t want you to see the pain I still felt, to know the dread and guilt and shame I battled as I tried to make amends with the town, to come back from my isolation and to take responsibility for the harm I caused. And as much as I wanted to be a good partner to you, I worried that I just wasn’t able to. Not while a part of me still felt so damaged. Not as I realized that a part of me might always be damaged, might never be whole again. How could I be with you? How could I give you the life and the love you deserve when I am not a whole, healthy person? How could what I have to give possibly be enough?”
Alison wanted to respond, wanted to tell him that he was enough, that even without having experienced the same pain, she felt the same fears, the same doubts that she was worthy of his love. It was what, she realized, had kept her from speaking. Kept her from telling him the truth of how she felt.
But instead, she let him finish.
“But as much as I tried to hide it from you, I know you saw it. And the way you responded—your infinite patience, your empathy, your kindness—it made me fall deeper and deeper. And as much as I wanted to be better, I woke up one day and realized that even if I never quite became the man I was before again, the man I felt you deserved, you would stay by my side anyway. And that you were happy there, and safe. And it made me feel safe to be exactly who I was, too. And maybe that’s enough. It’s not perfect, but it’s ours, and it’s enough.”
He pulled her closer, resting her hands on his waist as he held her head and looked deep into her eyes.
“I’m in love with you, Alison,” he said. “I will love you until the end of my days, and I am yours for as long as you’ll have me. I will never stop wishing I could be more for you, and I willalways worry I’m not doing enough. But whatever comes our way, I want to face it together. If that’s what you want as well.”
Alison could hear the question in his final words, could feel the doubt that she knew would never fully leave him.
It didn’t matter.
“I love you, Keir,” she said. “Exactly as you are. You are more than enough.”
She held her hand to his heart.
“You are everything.”
He took her in his arms then, and they picked up from where they left off earlier in the hallway, keeping as quiet as possible to avoid embarrassing their friends.
Chapter Fifteen
THE SECOND GAME
Rinka
Rinka’s eyebrows lifted as she heard rhythmic sounds coming from across the hall.
“I’m glad to see him so well,” said Idris. He had settled on the bed with his back against the wall, just as he had been in Alison’s room. “He was always a dour sort. Too serious by a mile. I think they just make them that way up here.”
