If she was honest she had always known there wasn't going to be any happily ever after. She had known it from the very beginning. And still, somewhere deep inside, she had harboured the hope that even in darkness there might exist happiness. Lasting happiness. But darkness is consuming. Darkness is inexorable. And darkness is lasting. Everlasting.

He had everything he wanted, power and immortality. But he never forgot what he'd lost. If you asked him if he rued it, he'd say there's no room for repentance or contrition where there's not even a conscience. But although he felt no remorse that didn't mean he didn't regret. Sometimes you only know what you've had when you lose it. Sometimes it needs loss to inspire perception.

Everything about him was poisonous, his looks, his power and, most of all, his magic. And yet, she knew she would never want him to change, because, for her, he was perfect the way he was, with this emotionless, dangerous, intoxicating way of doing magic. She knew that he couldn't love; she accepted that he didn't care but she would die to make him understand.