Chapter 30

We need in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Piper crept downstairs to the kitchen, her boots dangling off her fingertips so she could tread as softly as a cat. Mikhail was asleep in his bed. They'd spent all night making love, each time more desperate and hungry than the last. A tide of guilt rolled through her, battering her like waves in a cold, numbing way. But she couldn't ignore it any longer. She had to do the right thing and go back to London. Dragons and humans didn't belong together. He was immortal, and she had another sixty years at best.

We have no future. It's the right thing to do. We have to break this up before we get too tangled up in each other and it hurts even more.

Her hands shook as she reached the kitchen and set her shoes down. The empty room still felt welcoming and warm, which only made what she was about to do even harder. But first she had to find the lette