I sit back against the pillows. I’m wearing one of his button-down shirts; it’s big and comfortable. It also smells like him. I will never take it off.
“What about him?” I tease.
He rolls his eyes. “Are you making me havethis conversationtwelve hours after I first brought you home?”
A smile plays on my lips. “You’re the one who brought it up.”
He rolls onto his side and drops his head onto his hand. “Okay, then I’m bringing it up. Please tell Mr. Grayson that you are taken and that he will have to move on to greener pastures.”
“Aye, aye, captain.” I push him with my toe. “See? Was that so hard?”
“That was the easiest of what we’ve got to talk about.”
“Stop. Just stop. If you’re going to bring up that vision?—”
I lightly jab his chest, and he takes my hand and kisses it. He looks at me earnestly, because this is real. It’s happening. It’s not going away, and it must be faced. “This is what we’ll have to live with—knowing that it’s coming.”
I look him dead in the eyes and say with certainty, “I’ve made my choice.” My stomach tightens, because this is terrifying, but I’m willing to face the future. I’ll be with Devlin. His strength will help me. We will help each other through this. And in my opinion, this is spilled milk, and there’s no point in focusing on it. “I hope my family’s magic…”
“What?”
I shake my head.
“Hey now.” He gets up on his knees and touches my cheeks. “Look at me.”
My gaze drifts up to meet his. “Listen, I am all in with this—you and me. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that your family keeps their magic.Everything.”
Does that mean what I think it does? I scrunch up my nose and give him a curious look.
“And before you start asking me what Imean—Blair Thornrose, now that I’ve got you, I’m never letting you go. I have always loved you and I always will.”
My heart swells with more joy than I thought possible, and my lips tremble as I release the words that have been locked inside my heart for years. “I love you, too.”
“And here I thought that I was unlovable.”
I throw my arms around him. “Only sometimes.”
He laughs as I slip back onto the pillows.
This is it, I realize. I’ve got Devlin; he’s pledged that we have a future. It’s everything that I want.
Except for the dying, of course.
But I’m not going to think about that. Right now I just want to focus on him, on us, on giving myself what I’ve been deprived of.
“When do you think our powers will switch back?” I ask.
He pulls me onto him, and I rest my face on his chest. If I never move, I’ll be happy.
He kisses my head. He smells like a fresh river stream, and he’s warm like the best heating pad in the world.
“I don’t know. Maybe they’ll never switch back.”
I lightly pinch him and he laughs. “Now, now. Violence is never the answer. But I suppose that the spell will break soon. I imagine, soon as we tell your grandmother about us. She’ll be elated that you’ve stopped insulting me on a minute-by-minute basis.”
I nudge him. “You wounded me. I was scarred for ten years.”
“And I loved how much youpretendedto hate me.”
