Seven years.

Oh God.

The Bargainer’s magic is subtle, if you aren’t looking for it, you’ll never notice it.

That entire time I’d tried and failed to move on, all that time I’d resented the Bargainer, it had all been part of the wish.

“Every day after your last wish, I worked myself raw trying to get close to you,” Des says. “And every day I was stopped by my very own magic, which had turned on me.

I’m shaking my head because I can’t speak. The binding verse I’d spoken out of sheer desperation. As that final evening seven years ago replays itself out in my head, I watch it from a new perspective—Desmond’s. I inhale sharply when I realize how the events unfolded according to him.

He’d been bound to my wish just as much as I’d been. I’d never realized he couldn’t just stop his own bargains.

“Then one day,” Des continues, “the magic’s hold on me loosened. I tried to approach you like I had a thousand times before, and this time, the magic didn’t stop me.” His silver eyes shine as he looks down at me. “Finally, after the longest seven years of my life, I was able to come back to my love, my mate. The sweet siren that loved my darkness, and my bargains, and my company when I was no one and nothing more than Desmond Flynn. The woman that took fate into her own hands when she spoke those ancient vows and declared herself mine.”

A sly grin lifts first one side of his mouth, then the other. “Callie, I love you. I’ve loved you from the beginning. And I will love you long after the last star dies. I will love you until the end of darkness itself.”

“You love me,” I say, letting that sink in.

“I love you, Callypso Lillis,” he repeats.

And then … I smile. My heart feels like it’s going to burst.

“Do you … want to be with me?” I ask, suddenly shy. Part of me is still in disbelief.

Des pulls me in close. “Callie, this may be oversharing, but I’m getting the sense that you want that at the moment …”

My smile widens. “I do.”

His eyes move over my face. “I want to wake up every morning to you, cherub, and I want to marry the shit out of you, and then I want to have lots and lots of babies with you. If, that is, you will have me.”

I stare at Des, with his white blond hair and striking silver eyes. It’s all laid bare, his love, his excitement, his yearning. Des, who saved my life, who is looking at me like I’m his moon and his stars.

For once the King of the Night is not in control of the situation. He doesn’t hold any of the cards, but he has shown me his hand. And his hand is everything I ever wanted.

And now he’s asking me to make the decision of whether or not I still want that man in my life.

I wanted him seven years ago, and all that time between then and now I continued to want him, even when I knew it was impossible. Even when I hated him I wanted him. I wanted him yesterday, I want him today, I want him tomorrow, and the day after. I want him for the rest of my life.

I always have.

“I’ll be yours, if you’ll be mine,” I say.

Des smiles so bright that it reaches every corner of his face. I’m almost bowled over by it. “I’ll always be yours, cherub.”

And it’s pure reaction, but I begin to grin back at him, even as a happy tear slips out.

My heart is breaking, and it’s reforming, and my whole body is lit up from the inside out.

Des clasps my cheeks. “And mountains may rise and fall, and the sun might wither away, and the sea claim the land and swallow the sky. But you will always be mine.” He runs his knuckles over my cheekbone. “And the stars might fall from the heavens, and night might cloak the earth, but until darkness dies, I will always be yours.”

Chapter 24

I blink several times once Des finishes speaking. “That was—”

“My land’s version of a vow.” He still hasn’t dropped his hands from where they cradle my face. “I’ve wanted to say those words to you for years.” He leans his forehead against mine. “Humans aren’t the only ones with archaic lovers’ vows.”

And then Des kisses me.

A kiss to end all kisses. Love is another sort of subtle magic. It can bring people together and tear lives apart. It can wash away sorrow, it can forgive.

It can redeem.

Des’s wings wrap around us until we’re in our own little world. “Truth or dare?” he whispers.

“Truth,” I say.

“Do you love me?” he asks. I swear once he asks, he holds his breath. But maybe I’m imagining things.

“I’ve never stopped.”

For a moment, he closes his eyes, taking in my admission. When he opens them again, they’re full of so many emotions, and I know what happens next.

His hand drifts up from my chest and cradles my neck. He gazes at me like I’m some archaic deity he worships.

“Desmond.”

His eyes move to my lips, and ever so slowly, he lowers his head. I meet him halfway, our mouths colliding. Both his hands move to either side of my face, tangling in my hair.

I don’t try to stop the siren from taking the lead as soon as I give in. My skin glows brighter, and I wrap my arms around him, pulling him in close.

He breaks away, trailing kisses along the underside of my jaw, my neck, the juncture between my collarbones.

I make a small noise at the back of my throat, and I feel his smile along my skin. His hair tickles my flesh where it touches me, and the Bargainer’s lips … they’re moving lower, towards the valley between my breasts.