And besides . . . I don’t want to leave you. Er, you guys.” He smiled, and it lit up his whole face. “Well, ‘we’ are certainly happy to hear that. Oh, and I’m also happy to watch our darling little love child dragon while you’re in St. Louis.” I grinned back.

You and me are going to have so much fun, Rose. Picking out curtains, doing each other's hair, telling ghost stories.

Besides, I could hardly complain to the administration that I was being forced to learn magic.

Our gazes locked, so much passing between us. In those moments, I wasn't in a tent with him, on the run from those who regarded us as villains. There was no murderer to catch, no Strigoi trauma to overcome. There was just him and me and the feelings that had burned between us for so long.

We cannot road trip to Paris.

Conversation was irrelevant. Only pie mattered.

In fact I was fairly certain there was no one in the entire world quite like Adrian Ivashkov.