" Tamani checkled. ‘If it makes you feel any better, it scares the daylights our of me on a regular basis.’ He rained kisses on her again, his fingers pressed against her back and her waist, and Laurel realized that his chest was shaking convulsivly.
‘What?’ She asked pulling away. ‘What’s wrong?’
But he wasn’t sobbing-- he was laughing! ‘The World Tree,’ he said. ‘It was right all along.’
‘When you got your answer?’
He nodded.
‘You said you would tell me someday what it said. Will you now?’
‘Commit.’
‘What?’
‘The tree just said, commit.’ He ran his fingers through his hair, smiling a little.
‘I don’t understand,’ Laurel said.
‘Neither did I. I was already your fear-gleidhidh; I’d committed my life to protecting you.
When the tree told me that, I figured you were as good as mine. Easy.’
‘And then I told you to leave,’ Laurel said, sorrow at the memory settling deep within her.
‘I understand why you did,’ Tamani said, threading his fingers through hers. ‘And it
probably was better for us in the long run. But it hurt.’
‘I'm sorry.’
‘Don't be. I was listening to the tree, and to my own selfish desires, when I should have
been listening to you. I think I know what the tree really meant now,’ he said, his voice rumbling against her ear. ‘I needed to commit my life to you-- not to guiding you or protecting you, completely, in my core. I needed to stop worrying about whether you would ever do the same for me. In a way, I think that's what coming to the human world did, and why I wasn't sure I could bare to go back.’ He traced his finger down her face. ‘I was committed to the idea before-- to the love I felt for you. But not to you. And I think you sensed that change or you’d have rejected me.’
‘Maybe,’ Laurel said, although at this moment she couldn't fathom rejecting him for any
reason.
His fingers found her chin, lifting it so he could look her in the eyes. ‘Thank you,’ he said
softly.
‘No,’ she said, running one finger across his bottom lip, ‘Thank you.’ Then she pulled his

face down, their lips meeting, melting together again. She wished she could stay there all day, all year, all eternity, but reality came creeping slowly back in. "

― , Destined (Wings, #4)