His laugh rumbles under me as I trace lazy, lacy patterns over his skin. It’s warm, the lingering scent of Winter so faint I have to breathe deeply to find it. “Are you okay?” I ask, wondering if he misses the cold. If his new magic will ever feel like a fit. The beat of his heart is steady and strong, keeping time with the clock in the corner.

“I’m okay.” He tips up my chin. “I’m more worried about you.”

I know what he’s asking. In my eyes a moment ago, he didn’t just see the memories I showed him. He saw everything. Every fight, every conversation, every trauma I sustained while I was Doug’s prisoner.

“I’m okay.”

“You couldn’t have saved him,” he says quietly. “It was never your responsibility to fix him. He made his own choices. He knew the cost.”

“I know.” And yet, I still feel his loss in ways I don’t think I entirely grasp yet.

“Fleur, I know . . .” He pauses, choosing his words carefully. “I know you never intended to come back to the Observatory. That you probably never would have if Doug hadn’t forced you to come. I know you wanted things to stay like they were, but . . .”

“You don’t have to say it,” I say, resting my chin on his chest. “Things are different now. We have a responsibility.” To the Observatory. To all the displaced Seasons. To our friends. We can’t go back to the villa. Not now. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

I lift my head and look him in the eyes, so he can see that I’d made this choice already on my own. Before I knew Gaia and Lyon intended this exact outcome for us. Before the power was ever ours, when everything seemed hopeless. I knew I would take Gaia’s magic even if it meant losing my freedom. “Someone had to rise up and take responsibility for the future. It might as well be us.”

He cups my cheek, pressing a soft, reverent kiss to my lips. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“We should go,” I say, tempted to deepen it and stay hidden in the crook of his arm for the rest of our immortal lives. “We have a world to save.” The thought is more than a little terrifying.

“We have time.”

“Says who?” I tease.

He grins against my lips. Rolls me over him and pins me to the bed, trailing kisses down my neck. “Says me.”

I erupt in a fit of giggles. “I think the power’s already going to your head.”

“Only because you gave it to me.”

We both start at a persistent thump, like a broom handle pounding against the ceiling downstairs. Julio’s voice booms through the floor. “Get down here, asshole. We’ve already got a million fires to put out.”