After a great many tears and apologies, Aidan told his story. He was sitting up on the couch now, with Flame Song beside him. “I wish you had just let me die. I don’t think I can live with this,” he said when he finished. “Look what I did to you. I nearly killed you!”

Flame Song frowned. “Do you want Littlespark to grow up without her father?”

“Do you want her to grow up with a vampire for a father?”

“Yes! If that vampire is you!”

Aidan shook his head. “You don’t know what it’s like. I’m a menace to everything I love. You would be better off without me.”

“No. I can never believe that. Think about it. If our roles were reversed, would you want me to die? I know you wouldn’t! And, well, they say every cloud has a silver lining. There’s a good side to this too.”

“What could possibly be good about it?”

She gave him a long look, and then nodded, as if she had decided something. “Aidan, how old would you say I am?”

Surprised by the sudden change of subject, Aidan answered “Well, I seem to recall the Clan records say you’re twenty-four.”

“Yes. When they asked for my age, I decided to give my equivalent age rather than my actual chronological age, just to avoid confusion.”

“Your equivalent age? I don’t get it.”

“Well, you’ve heard people talk about ‘dog years.’ They’ll say a dog is seven in normal years, but he’s 49 in dog years. I gave them my age in firecat years.”

“So are you saying that in real years you’re four or something?”

“No, with firecats it goes the other way. I mean you can see why I did it. People would think it was a mistake if they saw I was down as fifty-six when I look like I’m in my mid-twenties.

“Fifty-six!” Aidan was shocked. “You’re really fifty-six years old!?”

“Yes. I’ve been trying to think how I was going to tell you since the day we got married, but I could never think of the right way to say it. Sometimes I cursed the fate that made me fall in love with you.”

“Because I’m so much younger?” Aidan was puzzled.

“No! Because barring injury and illness I can expect to see nearly two more centuries. Most firecats that survive to adulthood live until they are in their twenty-fifth decade. And by then you would be more than a century dead.” Aidan was stunned. Two hundred years? Then he thought that now he might well live much longer than that. “You see what I mean?” Flame Song asked. “Now I won’t have to watch you grow old and die. I sometimes didn’t think I could bear it.”

Aidan managed a wry smile. “But now I’ll have to watch you grow old instead.”

“I know, and I am sorry, but I can’t help but be selfish about this.”

“I… I’m not sure what to think. In just a few days my whole world has been turned upside down. And I’m too tired to think straight.”

Flame Song nodded. “You’re not the only one.” She leaned her head on his shoulder wearily. They had been through a lot, but they were at least together now. And we will be for the rest of my life, she thought with a smile.

When Belak opened the door to tell them that Littlespark was awake, he found them sound asleep, curled up together on the couch with Aidan’s wings trailing awkwardly off onto the floor. He smiled and decided that he could tend the child himself for another hour or two.