Clearsight

There are a surprising amount of different wedding rings you can buy. They're all horribly expensive. Darkstalker probably doesn't even notice; he grew up with a rich family. But I didn't grow up like Darkstalker did, and even though now we're practically Queen Vigilance's right-wing dragons, spending lots of money still makes me a little nervous.

We spend hours going through the massive collections of jewellery before finally deciding which rings we'll get.

His is gold with an obsidian stone on it; mine is silver with a little moonstone. I pretend there aren't dragons gawking, or I try to. But it's hard, to be honest. These days, it's hard to go out in public without being goggled at like this. It makes me feel really self-conscious.

Darkstalker slides the one with a silver stone onto my talon. "There," he says, nudging me with his snout affectionately. "Now we match."

I nudge him back, rolling my eyes. "Now we match," I conclude.

The jeweller tells us we're a cute couple, smiles a little, and asks for a hundred gold pieces, which Darkstalker hands to him, and waves as we go, in a way that for some reason, actually seems... real.

As soon as we step out onto the street, Darkstalker throws his wings around me, squeezing me so tight it's hard to breathe.

I giggle. "I love you too, you goober."

"We're going to get married!"

"Took you that long to figure it out, hey?" I roll my eyes, burying my snout in his shoulder. I can hear his heartbeat, thumping in my ear. I wonder if he can feel mine, too. "What tipped you off?"

"Oh, shush," he mutters.

And I wish I could make time stop. I wish I could drown myself in this moment, wrapped in each others' wings, feeling like the only dragons in the world.

I can't, though. Not anymore.