Clearwing's dreams were troubled and strange.

In one dream, she saw Coal crying over her dead body. In another, it was vice versa.

In a third, she saw the HiveWing queen standing over the corpses of the LeafWing tribe.

She saw the HiveWings surrendering at the spearpoint of the WebWings and FormWings.

The GreyWing queen, as dangerous and glittering as a dragon could get.

Marble.

Fire.

Blood.

Then Clearwing woke up, and felt immense pain radiating from Coal's mind.

Oh, Coal, she thought. He had taken the antidote, while she was sleeping, so that she couldn't have tried to stop him. Somehow, she wasn't mad at him for that.

She shook Coal. He jolted awake and almost clawed her; he had been untied completely. "Oh, Clearwing," he said. "Don't scare me like that." He stood up and faced Clearwing.

"I'm going to scare you like that as long as we live," Clearwing replied sternly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Coal said. He looked to the floor. "Just tired."

"Hey, it's okay," Clearwing replied.

"I meant what I said yesterday," Coal finally choked out. "I love you. Whenever I'm lonely, I think about you, and whenever I'm sad, your smile makes me feel better, and I want to be with you all the time, and it hurts when I'm not, and I hate Wasp for separating us, and-"

"Oh, Coal," Clearwing said, her eyes wet. She didn't need to say anything else. She leaned forward and kissed him.

For what felt like eternity but at the same time was far too short, they stayed like that, tails and wings entwined and the rest of the universe just background noise.

The pain in Coal's mind was dulled by love and happiness as the two sat there embracing each other and just enjoying the moment.

Finally, they broke apart. It was possibly the hardest thing Clearwing had ever done — harder than leaving him in Wasp Hive, harder than leaving him in Jewel Hive, harder than leaving him earlier today to go and meet the queen. Coal edged away from her, curling up in the far corner of the cave. Clearwing realized with a start that he must've moved away from her in the night, after taking the antidote.

Clearwing padded over to him and rested her head on his back. She felt the steady beating of his heart through her chest.

"Clearwing, you shouldn't... I still have Wasp in my head. If she takes me over, she might kill you. I couldn't-"

"Shush," Clearwing whispered. "I don't care about any of that. I only care about now. The worst thing I ever did was letting you go."

Coal didn't argue. For a few moments, he just sat there. Eventually, however, he wrapped his wings around Clearwing and started to doze off. To her surprise, he began purring softly, deep yet calm and tranquil, softly vibrating from his neck and chest to hers, the hum helping her muscles relax.

"I didn't know you could purr," she whispered before falling into a dreamless sleep, her prophetic nightmares replaced by a feeling of safety and content.