She looked back at him and admitted, “I can’t, but I’ll have responsibilities now. If I’m going to be Alpha or even co-Alpha, things will change. Maili won’t be the only faery to challenge me. There will be fights, and I have to figure out what to do about Sionnach, and if Donia won’t help, I need to deal with Keenan, and—”

“You’ll be busier,” he interrupted. “That’s fine. You do your Alpha thing, and we’ll date around your schedule of fighting rowdy faeries. It’s not like I can’t find things to do when you’re busy: classes, skating, art, climbing. . . .” He caught her hands and pulled her closer. “I have a life of my own, you know? I just want to be a part of yours, too.”

Rika shook her head. It sounded too easy, and she’d never exactly known a relationship to be easy. Maybe he was right though. With more hope than she’d felt since before Sionnach was stabbed and she was captured, she asked, “You’re sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure.” Jayce kissed her, giving her the reassurance that she needed.

When she pulled away, she kept hold of one of his hands. “Fine. Let’s go see the Winter Queen then. With her help, I won’t have to fight as often.”

With his hand in hers, she began to run across the desert. The speed at which she could move was something that she’d cherished about being fey from the very beginning. At first, she’d needed that speed to better serve the last Winter Queen. She’d helped to freeze the earth, a painful process that hadn’t ever gotten easier with time. Carrying some of the weight of winter inside a body was painful for anyone other than the Winter Queen. She’d done it as her punishment for trusting Keenan, the cost of being willing to cross the then Winter Queen, who had wanted no one to take the test. The only benefits of the curse were that she had been made fey—given speed and near-immortality—and those advantages were only conferred on the Winter Girls because without them, the girls would die when they took the test. Now, that same faery speed was simply a benefit that she could utilize for her own purposes. As they ran, the scenery blurred as they raced by cities, fields, and mountains, until they stopped in a busy street in front of a house that had featured in far too many of her nightmares.