All those nights we climbed the stars and rearranged the planets with our songs, we were complete and invincible when we stood together.

When he opens his mouth to speak, I place a finger on his lips. “It’s my love for you that makes this hurt so much,” I say, my voice strong and resolved. “I had faith in you and you betrayed me.”

“I can’t give you all the things I once hoped to,” he says. “But I can give you a family and a home. I love you, Al. I just hope you can love a simple mechanic.” I wind my fingers through the wavy hair at his neck. I admire this side of him most of all . . . his fragility, his flaws. His strength in spite of them. And now, he sees that strength with as much clarity and confidence as I always have. “There will never be anything simple about you,” I whisper. “And I already love you.

"Is there something between the two of you?” I pause at the threshold, waiting. “No! I hate the wretch.” His face, crisscrossed with lacework shadows, grows somber. “I hate her with the same changeless passion with which I love you.”

But I do, and the barbed wire tightens once more, until my heart is strangled and broken.

It’s important that he accepts my love for Jeb. I’ll have to tell Jeb the same thing about Morpheus before I’m gone. I will not leave them with lies hanging between us. “I love you both.”

"But love ? Is that what you feel for Morpheus?” I swallow hard. “I’m not sure. It’s all wrapped up in my loyalties to Wonderland. But there’s something real between us. Something powerful.” I sink further into my seat. “It’s complicated.”

It may not seem much when compared to your mortal's gallantry. But for me - self-seeking, arrogant prig that i am - that is the sincerest form of sacrifice. Letting you go.

I start to pull back, but he hugs me tighter. “You love me. You admitted it.”“I do love you.” His body trembles in response, as if he can’t contain his emotions at my confession.