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Her heart jumped a bit. “How did you know?”

“I went looking for you. But one of the soldiers said Bern had stolen you and Lotta and sequestered the two of you away in her room. I thought you would be with them until morning.”

“I was, but…” she cut off, noticing Elian’s stare had fallen to her sword—and his ring, which she had been fiddling with. She dropped it, hands growing clammy. “I know it’s late, but do you want to…” She swallowed.

Elian smiled. “I would love to.” He slipped back inside to put on proper clothes and a jacket and then the two of them navigated through the halls, avoiding patrolling guards, until they made it through the castle’s exterior doors.

The air around them was perfect, with only the occasional breeze to disturb her loose curls.

“How are you?” Thicket asked. “What happened after I left? Bern said you went exploring?”

Elian laughed at the quizzical expression on her face. “Bern pestered the guards for a good thirty minutes, asking them to take her to the Emperor so she could demand permission to go sightseeing. Alouette and I were half amused and half worried she was going to get us executed. In the end, the Emperor relented and allowed us to explore the city—under heavy supervision.” His head tilted up to the sky. “In the end, I was grateful for the opportunity. The Desert Kingdom used the last century to improve their enchantment practices. I learned a lot from some of the vendors and have several ideas on how to go about enchanting vision glass.”

“That’s amazing!” Thicket said.

Elian’s face glowed with excitement. “I was even able to talk to a few metal workers and they helped put together a prototype!” He pulled something from inside of his coat. Thin strips of metal were attached together, fastening two roughly cut pieces of glass. They were loose and wobbled slightly within their frames, but they were glasses.

No—vision glass.

Thicket couldn’t contain her grin. “May I?”

He nodded. She took the vision glass, stood up on her tip toes, and slid them onto his face, making sure the arms rested securely over his ears. “Can you see me now?”

“As clear as day.”

They roamed the streets, catching each other up on all that had happened while they were apart. As their chatter died down, they walked in comfortable silence, gazing up at the stars. They were fading as the deep midnight hues of the sky lightened with the approach of dawn.

For the first time in a while, Thicket felt like she could breathe easily around him, as though the worries and expectations swirling around them like smog had finally dissipated. Elian was sweet, considerate, and loyal, the kind of person she had always wished Jett would be.

She wished they could be like this forever, comfortable with the warmth of their proximity without the burdens of titles or obligations weighing them down.

Thicket wasn’t the same person she was in the Dream World, the lost girl desperate to do whatever it took to fit in. But she also wasn’t the wild and ferocious girl she had seen in the memoir. The one who blazed through life as bright and untouchable as a meteor.

She was powerful and capable and strong, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be broken.

And just because she cared a little too much didn’t mean she was weak.

There was a strength in finding just the right balance. In knowing when to be fluid and when to hold steady.

Thicket untied the ring from around the sword’s pommel. “You told me to come find you after I beat Lavender and to give this to you when I was ready to talk. About us.”

“Can I say something first?” Elian asked.

Thicket nodded, swallowing down the nervous sparks flickering in the pit of her stomach.

Elian grabbed her hands, clutching them tightly in his own. His eyes, outlined by the silver frames, were full of light. “I love you, Thicket. You were the first person to look at me and see past my flaws, both in your past memories—and your current ones. You helped me find my own dream. For that, you will always hold a special place in my heart, no matter what shape our love takes.”

That was Elian’s truth. It was time for her own.

It had taken her a long time, but after coming face to face with her true self, she knew who she was—and knew how she felt.

She just had to be brave enough to say it.

Of all the dangerous, heart stopping feats she had performed over the last few days, this one was the most terrifying of all. Thicket stared up at the clock tower arcing above the street. It was similar to the one she had climbed her first night, right after she had woken up from the sleeping curse. At the time, she had been so desperate to get home that she had been willing to try anything, including risking breaking her neck to climb to the top of a clock tower with the intention of jumping off.

Now, she was going to climb it for a whole other reason.

Thicket inspected the pale bricks, searching for the hand and foot holds she had utilized last time. The bricks on this clock tower, however, were far less dilapidated, not a single stone out of place. But that wouldn’t stop her. Her eyes caught on the astromeia vines wrapping around the tower all the way to the top. She gave the vine closest to her a tug, testing to see if it would hold. It did.