“I’ll be fine,” she lied. “I’ll be okay here in the human world but you are needed elsewhere. So go, Jaral. Go with a clear conscience and know you are doing the right thing. Claim the life you’ve always dreamed of.”
“But what if I don’t want to?” he murmured.
Her heart squeezed at his words. “You have to go.”
“Why? What do you want, Darcy? Tell me what is really running through your mind.”
She shook her head. “How can I ask you to stay?” The words exploded from her. “This is what you’ve spent your whole life working toward. I can’t ever ask you to give that up. It’s not fair.”
Hope lit his eyes. “But what if I did?” he asked. “What is my alternative?”
She shook her head, unable to voice the words.
So he said them instead. “To be here,” he told her. “With you. Spending a lifetime by your side.” A true smile curved his lips. “That sounds far better than a blood-soaked throne.”
“Jaral,” she cried. “I can’t stand between you and your dream. You will end up hating me.”
The demon laughed, the first joyous sound she’d ever heard from him. “How could I hate the woman who rescued me from a soulless life?” he asked her. “I don’t just think you are my mate, Darcy. I know it. I’ve known it for quite some time.”
She looked up at him, surprise rushing through her.
“You ran from me and I’ll forgive you that,” he said. “You are so young, after all. But even with you doubting me, I knew exactly how I wanted this night to end. I wanted that rift closed no matter the price. You had to be protected at all costs, darling. Whatever world you live in is the one I’ll fight to save.”
“But you’ll be stuck here and I won’t stop being a hunter. Can you live with that?”
“Liam has lasted eons away from the demon realm. I’m sure he can give me a few pointers.” He smiled down at her. “I love who you are. I won’t ask you to change.”
She froze in his arms. “What did you just say?”
“I won’t try to change you,” he assured her.
“Not that,” she whispered. “What you said before those words.”
Understanding lit his eyes. “I love you,” he told her. “I will love you for the rest of my days. You are my mate and I want to spend eternity with you by my side.”
“Really?”
“Hundreds of years I’ve lived, looking for you. And now that I’ve found you, you won’t be escaping me easily.”
“I don’t want to run,” she confessed, stepping closer.
“When demons mate it’s not for a human lifetime,” he warned. “I want all the years of this world with you. If you accept my claim, I’ll share my power with you. My immortality.”
“So I’d live as long as you?” she asked.
“And die when I do,” he replied. “This is not a choice to be made lightly, Darcy.”
“But you would offer that to me? To share your magic, to take part of your life.”
“I have no life without you.”
The words were blunt and honest. She had no doubt he meant them.
Darcy looked up at her lover and realized time didn’t matter. He was it for her. Her one and only. All her life she’d thought love only had the power to destroy, but standing here, looking at him, she realized it was more than that. Loving Jaral didn’t make her weak. He gave her strength, support. He would be there to catch her if she fell just as she would do for him. Loving him didn’t detract from who she was. It made her better, stronger. She wanted lifetimes of loving him and never would she run away from that desire again.
“If I agree to be yours,” she teased, “does that mean you’re mine?”
Jaral laughed softly. “Darling, I’ve been yours since you drove that damn dagger into my shoulder.”
Her mouth curved in a happy grin. “Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s do this.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ll always be sure of you,” she vowed.
He touched his forehead to hers. “I will love you to my dying day, Darcy Snow.”
She closed her eyes, feeling perfectly content for the first time in her life. She had everything she needed. With Jaral in her arms, she was home.
“I love you,” she whispered, words she’d never said to another man. “Forever and always.”
As he swung her into his arms, she knew she’d never meant a promise more.