I was thinking it was worth the risk if it meant forever with my faery girlfriend.

I'd stop anyone from taking that smile from you. I would, if I were allowed.

I don't know what I am, but this isn't happiness.

I was the girl in the black leather jacket with the black fingernails, picked up after school by guys with loud cars and motorcycles. I carried straight-A grades, but I had a little trouble with rules. I tended to have a bit of an authority problem.

She turned so they were face-to-face and gave him back the words he'd offered her their first night together: "I survived. Isn't that what matters?

Then he kissed her, not just a brush of lips as she'd done, but a kiss a kiss that scalded her tongue. The tree burst into full blooms. The garden fluttered around her. A riot of flowers shot out of the earth. She was mud-covered as he pulled back.

And he was gone before she could think clearly enough to explain that her yes was a Yes, I'll marry you.