Trembling, she pressed her forehead against his chest. “Thank you.”

Tell him. Tell him right now.

Just...can’t.

She fisted his robe. “The things you say to me...”

“Come straight from the heart you revived.”

“See! Like that!” She straightened and met his earnest gaze. “They’re beautiful. Like poetry. And what do I give you in return?” Nothing but trouble!

His expression was infinitely tender. “You give me what I’ve never had before. Peace.”

“How? I’m just...me.”

“A puzzle without its final piece is never complete. I am a puzzle, and you are my piece.” His eyes sparked with mischief as he added, “I am a rose, and you are my thorn.”

She snorted. “Thorns aren’t just annoying. They are there to protect the rose, you know.”

“I know.”

“So...stoic Thane just admitted his ladybird is one badass chick?”

“He did.”

“Well, that’s gonna get him laid so hard later.”

He barked out a laugh. With a single flap of his wings, he shot in the air, and Elin tightened her hold on him. The higher they glided, the cooler the air became, but pressed against Thane she never grew cold. When he leveled out, pressure kept her body flat against him, practically bonding them. Wind whipped at her hair, and the strands slapped at her cheeks.

Hours passed before they reached their destination. A castle Bjorn kept in the third level of the heavens, about twenty miles from the Downfall. She gaped at the grand stone stairway outside, with flowers blooming on both sides, leading to something straight out of a fairy tale. Outer walls slightly darker than the clouds surrounded them, with sapphire steeples and stained-glass windows.

“You like?” Thane asked after setting her down and taking her hand.

“The word like makes a mockery of the enormity of my feelings. I want to marry it.”

He smiled. “There is a similar castle for sale on the other side of the world. No one has bought it, because it’s become overrun by trolls. But with only a phone call, it can be ours.”

Ours? Ours! As in, living together for real? Her brows winged up. “Question. Why aren’t you making that call right now?”

He chuckled, and it was such a beautiful sound. Rusty, but beautiful.

“What?” she said with mock fury and a stomp of her foot. “Forget what I said that day of the demon attack. Every girl dreams of being a princess at some point or another.”

“You’ll have to settle for queen of my heart.”

Sappy male.

My male.

“Deal.”

At the massive double doors, Thane didn’t bother to knock. He pushed his way in. The foyer had a domed ceiling, gilded walls with carved swirling designs, and a marble floor.

Footsteps echoed beyond the hallway, getting closer by the second.

Then Bellorie was racing around a corner and barreling toward her. Elin let go of Thane to meet her in the middle. They hugged and they cried, and all the while she felt her man’s gaze on her back, watching over her.

He’s got it bad for me.

Thank the Most High, because I’ve got it bad for him.

She had to nut up and tell him how she felt about him—that was all there was to it. I love you, Thane. With every ounce of my being. Boom. Done. Just like that. The feeling was all-consuming, disconcerting. And yet, somehow empowering. Being with him didn’t take away from her relationship with Bay. Being with him reminded her that happy endings were possible. That she never again had to be alone, or an outcast. Thane accepted her for all that she was. He adored her. And he needed her.

Bay, sweet boy that he’d been, had never needed her. They had been two wholes coexisting alongside each other rather than two halves that made up a whole, each necessary for the other’s survival.

Thane...she couldn’t breathe without.

“You’re the last to arrive, Bonka Donk,” Bellorie said with a sniffle. “We were worried about you when we clearly shouldn’t have been, because, girl, you are glowing like a night-light with Mr. Taken One’s essentia. Far brighter than before...which makes me wonder what the two of you have been doing.”

She blushed. Not because she was embarrassed for being Thane’s woman—she was beyond proud—but because everyone would know what they’d been doing together. Like they didn’t already know. FYI, your satisfied smile is a dead giveaway, too.

“So, anyway, we’re holding a ladies-only memorial outside.” Bellorie peeked over Elin’s shoulder. “Thane, every henhouse could use a cock. Want to be ours?”

Don’t laugh. Elin glanced back at him. He gave her a soft smile and waved her on. “Go without me. I need to confer with the other—men.”

Elin blew him a kiss.

He caught it in the air and said, “I’ll miss you.”

The fact that he could utter those words in front of an audience, and not care, melted her. “I’ll miss you, too.” So freaking bad.

“Gag,” Bellorie said, pulling Elin along. “Be mushy on your own time.”

As quickly as the girl dragged her, Elin had no chance to admire the castle and its interior—every piece of furniture had to have been built by unicorns while living inside a rainbow, because, wow. Talk about magical!

The backyard had a large garden teeming with sweet-smelling flowers and lush green vines, everything shrouded by a thin, glittering veil of mist—and were those fairies buzzing about?

Not full-grown Fae, like Chanel, but small, about the size of her index finger, and—

Chanel.

Threads of remorse wove a tapestry inside her. A tapestry of memories. Chanel’s bright smile. Her adorable giggle. Her killer instinct on the field of boulder battle.

Octavia and Savy each held a bottle of clear liquid. It had to be the most potent alcohol of all time, judging by the smell of it. Bellorie grabbed the two bottles waiting at their feet and handed one to Elin.

“To effing Chanel!”

Everyone raised a bottle before taking a swig.

Elin coughed and choked the burning flames down. “What is this crap? Moonshine?”

“Better,” Octavia said. “Moonshine from Tartarus. You know, the prison for immortals. I’ve got a friend on the inside. Well, the part still standing, that is.”

So. She was drinking alcohol that had been mixed in some immortal’s toilet. Awesome.