“We’re still going to date first,” I decided. “You owe me so much for all the shit you’ve put me through.”
“Put you through? What about when you—”
“You waited until your wedding to someone else to announce your feelings for me.”
“Dammit,” he said. “I am never going to win an argument because of that.”
“Never.”
He collapsed down on top of me, miles and miles of naked skin pressed against my own. I could barely breathe. It was awesome.
We were quiet for a time, just the brush of lips and fingers.
Eventually, I said the only thing I could. The only thing that mattered. “You don’t have to do anything. To be the cornerstone. Or, rather, you don’t have to do anything more. I don’t need to love you for all the things you could be. I already love you for all the things you are. So no. There’s no special ceremony. No dancing naked covered in yak’s blood. Randall doesn’t need to approve and Morgan doesn’t need to agree. My magic already knows you like I do. It’s known you for years. One day, and one day soon, it’ll just happen because that’s what you are to me. And I was made for you, you know? I wished for this even before I knew what it was, and I am happy it’s you. And I’m going to spend the rest of my days showing you why.”
“Sam,” he said. He sounded as if he was in awe of me, and I knew I was in awe of him, so I kissed him then, relishing the feel of his lips against mine, knowing that this was it. My magic sang because like the stories of old, of whimsy and fancy-free, this was my ending.
My heart was lightning-struck and it beat for him.
This was it.
This was my happily ever after.
AND IT was.
For three days.
Because of course that was the way my life went.
After all, there was still finding Gary’s horn, finding Tiggy’s family, getting captured by more Dark wizards, taking the Trials, pissing off Randall when I turned his fingers into dicks, finishing my Grimoire, meeting my mother’s roma, learning just how bendy Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart was while fucking him in the most unusual places we dared to take our pants off in, discovering that, yes, I did quite like rimming, and last but not least, finding out in the middle of all of this that I was somehow the center of a thousands-year-old prophecy that named me as the sole owner of a destiny intertwined with the dragons of Verania who I would lead in a battle against some ridiculous Dark wizard who would most likely monologue at me until my ears bled.
Yeah.
I was annoyed too.
Seriously.
Fuck my life.
Because this ain’t over. Not by a long shot.
It’s one thing to be told you’re awesome. It’s a whole other thing to be told you have a destiny of dragons.
But that… well.
That’s a story for another day.