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Maya wakes me up in time to see Dylan again. I go outside and head to sit on the steps of the back porch. I don't know how long I've been sitting there before I hear him coming at me.

He lands and morphs back into his human form, his feathers sink into his skin, his beak and talons turn into a face and feet, and his wings fade into arms.

Strong arms that I have wanted to hold me for a while now.

I quickly banish that thought and run up to him, and he looks down at me, smiling.

"I missed you so much," I say softly as I hug him. He hugs me back and I feel like my whole year has just been made. And then I hear him respond.

"I missed you," he says, his voice softer than usual. I step back from him, and I see tears in his eyes.

"Dylan," I say, wiping them away gently. "What's wrong?"

"You saw me transform."

"Yes, I did," I say.

"Why? Why did you want to see that?"

"Because it's you. And because I wanted to know what your curse was like, I wanted to see if it was less awful than I thought it was. But now I see it is so much worse ... and if this is my fault, I'm sorry ..."

"Hey, hey, hey," he says softly, putting my face in his hands. "Kaia, I'm not blaming you for this or anything else. You're what's kept me sane all this time."

"Really?" I ask.

"Really," he says. "I know that we just started to do this whole relationship thing, but I want you to know that I truly care about you."

"Yeah?"

He nods. "Yes. Kaia, I care about you way more than you could possibly imagine. And I want you to know that I'm not going to let this curse afflicting you rule us. Or the curse that's afflicting me. Both of these are terrible, terrible things. But somehow, we can make it work."

"You really think that?" I ask.

"I know that," he says.

I smile at him, and hold my hand out for him to take. He does, and we walk out of the woods together.

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