She shakes her head and curls into herself, trying to pull away from the entire world, from her beloved, who is lost to her. It hurts to feel his strong arms around her. To smell his comforting scent, her heart breaking as she shakes her head from side to side, leans down and brings her hands over her face.

“I’m sorry, Jarod,” she says again, hollowed out by grief and terrible shame.

“Aislinn.” Jarod gently strokes her hair, refusing to let go. “Look at me. Please.”

Aislinn swallows as the misery contracts her whole being. She looks up to find his beautiful amber eyes blazing down on her with a love so fierce Aislinn has the sensation of her whole world shifting on its axis.

“You’re not ruined,” Jarod insists, emphatic, his voice breaking with emotion. “Aislinn, I love you. I want only you. I was getting ready to go west to find you... I was finally approved to use a Vu Trin portal.”

Confusion storms through Aislinn. “But...you mate for life and... I’m used now...and—” her face twists into a devastated grimace “—dirtied and...impure...”

Shock overtakes Jarod’s expression. “That’s not true. That’s a twisted, cruel way of thinking about anyone. You’re not any of those things. And I love you.”

Her confusion intensifies, her worldview turning on its head—everything she was taught about her worth being so intimately tied to her perfect purity, her perfect submission to Mage ways. But here, under the bright illumination of Jarod’s unflinching love, that worldview shrivels along the edges, revealing itself to be a weak, depraved thing. Still, it reverberates, impressed on the fabric of her soul.

“But, Jarod... I’m...”

“Mating for life,” Jarod says, adamant, “means mating with the person you love with your whole heart. Forever. That’s what it means.” His lips tighten with outrage. “This belief that people can be impure and dirty...that’s something the Mages believe, not us.” His expression turns imploring as he cups her face with his warm hands. “Listen to me... I love you. You are the center of every poem I read. Every sunset I see. You are at the center of everything that’s beautiful and good in this world to me. I love you and want you. Only you. Forever.”

Aislinn holds his impassioned gaze as it rushes through her, a tether of hope she never thought she’d find again. She latches on to it like a lifeline.

“I haven’t lost you?” she says in wonderment as she blinks at him, held up by the bright thread of his unfailing love.

A smile breaks out on Jarod’s beautiful face, his brow tensing with emotion as his tears give way. “Oh, Aislinn. You found me. You could never lose me.”