He shook his head. “When I saw you strapped to that table,” he muttered, “and that scientist told us what they were doing, it took everything I had not to kill him and every human in that room. If they had succeeded, if they had really taken all your memories so that the Elder Wyrm could move into your body...” His hands, pressed against my stomach, became fists. “It would’ve killed me,” he murmured. “To know that you’re alive, but you’re not...you anymore—I can’t think of anything that would be worse.”

I swallowed. “And you don’t care that I’m just a vessel?” I asked hesitantly. “A thing created in a lab?”

“Ember.” Garret released me and gently turned me to face him. His gaze was intense, worried, but not angry or repulsed. “Do you care that my parents were part of Talon?” he asked, making me frown. “That they were servants of the organization, working for the Elder Wyrm?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Of course I don’t.”

“Why not?”

“Well, because that doesn’t reflect on you, Garret. You’re not responsible for what your parents did in the past...oh.”

He raised an eyebrow, knowing I had just proven his point. “But that’s different,” I argued. “You had normal parents. You weren’t created in a laboratory, like some creepy Frankenstein monster.”

Garret stepped closer, his gaze holding mine. “If I was, would you think any less of me?”

“I...no.”

“And what if I wasn’t entirely human anymore? What if I had some sort of strange blood that turned me into something unnatural? Would that affect anything between us?”

I sighed. “No, and I’m starting to realize how unnatural our relationship really is.”

He chuckled, looking thoughtful. “Vessel is a good term,” he said softly as I blinked in confusion. “I get now why they’re called that.”

“Really? I don’t.”

He sobered. “The Order believes that our bodies are just shells, containers for the soul. It’s what’s inside that’s important—our memories, our consciousness, what makes us who we are. That’s what I was afraid of losing, Ember. You, not your body. Outer appearances aren’t important. Though you are beautiful, you know that, right?” I think I blushed, and he smiled, leaning closer. “I didn’t fall in love with how you looked,” he murmured as his hand rose, gently brushing my cheek. “I fell in love with you.”

My eyes watered, and everything inside me melted into molten goo. “You are getting entirely too good at making a dragon cry,” I said, and kissed him.