Except for Manohar, of course. The Mad Professor would probably just look at those revelations as a means for his research. He was beyond morality, if not even beyond sanity.

"So you brought me here to show me the life you"ve saved, to not make me angry when I discovered why you"re going to leave me?" Kamila pushed him away, her eyes watery and her voice hurt.

"Leaving you?" Lith asked.

"Well, if you"re going to die, you can"t waste your time with me. I"m older than you, I"ve yet to build my career and make a name for myself. I know that I"m just…"

"No, you got it all wrong." Lith gently shut her up, placing his forefinger on Kamila"s lips to get the opportunity to explain.

"I brought you here because I don"t want you to waste your time with me without knowing that if my line of work doesn"t kill me, my past could at any moment. Because I wanted to be honest with you before moving forward with our relations.h.i.+p, otherwise all we might build together would have lies and omissions as foundations.

"Due to the exchange of life forces, Protector knows almost everything about me, yet he accepted me nonetheless. It makes him one of the very few people I"ve been completely honest with, and I think you deserve to know the truth as well."

Lith told her about his first tribulation in Kandria, how things had started to change, both inside and outside of himself, and how those changes had become deeper over time.

"So, not only do you have a crippled life force, but you"re also…. Inhuman?" She asked, pacing in circles, trying to match the speed with which Mogar was spinning around her head.

"Some say a Dragon, others a demon, but they all agree on the term hybrid." Lith nodded, without trying to get close to her.

"Show me." She stopped abruptly, facing Lith with her hands clenched so hard that her nails pierced her skin, making Kamila bleed.

"Are you sure? It"s kind of unsettling…"

"Just do it." She cut him short, hoping that his story was just a convoluted, s.a.d.i.s.tic way to break up with her. Yet it was all true. Just like Protector"s, Lith"s shapes.h.i.+fting was so fluid that one blink was enough to miss it.

Selia almost yelped from the shadows in surprise and only Protector"s hand silenced her, leaving Kamila"s illusion of being alone intact.

Kamila looked at the black scales, whose tips were reddened by the inner fire burning within. She noticed the razor-sharp claws that had replaced Lith"s nails, the short tail full of bone spikes coming out from his spine, as well as the black wings on his back.

They were different from those he had created a few days before to defend her. They were twisted and unnatural, like the hands of a giant clutching him. Then, she looked up, way higher than she normally had to meet his eyes.

Lith had apparently no mouth nor nose, with just two small curved horns on his forehead and three eyes searching for her gaze. Just like Protector"s, Lith"s eyes hadn"t changed, they were the same as before.

Honest, worried, and full of that pain that so rarely left them alone, making his gaze sad or cruel most of the time.

Kamila took several deep breaths until Mogar stopped playing tricks on her. Only then did she manage to open her hands, touching Lith"s claws first and then his scaly neck.

She expected it to be cold and rough, maybe even sharp. Yet his body was warm and soft under her touch, the scales twitching as if that contact gave Lith gooseb.u.mps, either out of pleasure or fear.

Kamila felt a little itch on her hands, where the nail marks were quickly healing without leaving any trace of their existence. She instinctively flinched, as if she had just got hurt instead of being treated.

"Oh, G.o.ds!" Kamila yelled at the night sky while kneeling on the gra.s.s and holding her head.

"Don"t worry. I understand this is hard to accept." Lith"s voice was different, sounding like a howl coming from an abyss that somehow had learned how to speak. "I also brought you here so that Protector can get you back home without having to see me ever again. I"m sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I…"

"You"re hot, you know?" Kamila cut him short, making Lith aware that his inner turmoil had turned most of his scales into a white-hot color and that they were now steaming in the chilly spring night.

"Yes, I do. The scales actually contain the fire within this body. I"ve got no bodily fluids in this form." Lith explained.

"No, I mean it. You"re hot." Kamila stood on her tip-toes just to drag the collar of his s.h.i.+rt low enough to manage to put her arms around his neck.

"It seems that Selia"s not alone, I"m a pervert as well." She said while stamping a kiss on the layers of scales that hid his mouth unless he willingly retracted them.

"What?" Lith"s knees suddenly buckled and hit the ground, incapable of standing Mogar"s break-neck rotation speed anymore.

"That"s why I was yelling before. Knowing that you"re a pervert is one thing, but admitting it to yourself is hard." She kissed him again, looking Lith in the eyes now that the height difference was gone.

Outside he might be someone else, but the man inside that hardened sh.e.l.l hadn"t changed one bit. He was still full of worry, pain, and scars, but he had been nothing but kind to her.

He had fought for her, for her family, never asking anything in return. Lith had protected her from humans, monsters, and everything in between them, but what made him most precious to her was that he had never taken her for granted.

Suddenly, her mind went back to their second date, when after singing that song for her, Lith had revealed Kamila the trick behind his masterful performance.

That night, he had told her that he wanted to impress her for who he was rather than pretend to be someone else. He had told her that he wasn"t willing to build their relations.h.i.+p on a lie and he had been true to his word.

Lith had risked so much by sharing with her the truth about Protector and about himself, yet he had done it anyway. He had done it for her, with no strings attached.

Lith"s hybrid form started to fall apart in patches, slowly reverting him into his human body and bringing him so low that Kamila had to kneel to not lose eye contact.

"It will take you more than a few scales and bad breath to get rid of me, Lith Verhen." Even though the scale mask had remained closed the entire time, the pungent stench of brimstone was still in the air.

Kamila held him tight and soon Lith returned her embrace. He clung to her as if she was a lifeboat in the eternal storm that his life was, still incapable of finding his balance or even to believe his own ears.

"Are you sure? Wouldn"t it better for you to find someone normal? Someone who can offer you a boring, peaceful life?" Lith asked while listening to the steady rhythm of Kamila"s heart.

She wasn"t afraid of him nor was she lying. All of her body gave off a feeling of tenderness and affection.

"I"m more than sure." Kamila said before kissing him with the same pa.s.sion they shared the first night they spent together.