Up in the Stars

Epilogue

I wrote, once, that beginning was the most difficult part of writing a story.

I was wrong.

It is the end.

✰          ✰          ✰

Her hands are steady as she draws the bow across the strings of the cello.

Eyes shut, limbs soft.

Languid and confident, the instrument in her complete and utter control.

She floats.

Every note weaving together to form a new galaxy around her.

Blooming and bursting in atoms of light.

Constellations slipping along her fingers, bending as she dances them across the strings.

"There's always been something ethereal about her playing." A whisper comes from before her.

Her eyes flutter open.

Three silhouettes in the doorway.

Something in her loosens just as it does each time she sees them.

A smile curls along her lips as she grips the bow tighter.

Still up in the sky, the distance between them is measurable in both feet and miles.

A final note swirls in the air, curling around their bodies and pulling them to her.

She can recognize it now, the gravitational force between them.

Like a current of energy, thrumming and tightening as they near her.

Her soul back on earth.

"Is it time?" She asks softly.

Alexander takes the cello from her hands, tucking it safely into its case.

He presses a kiss to her lips, musical fingers drifting along the expanse of her collarbone.

His thumb draws along her skin, tracing up until it met the cool metal of a necklace.

Rubbing fondly at the three golden hearts at the bottom of her throat.

"As much as we'd love to hear you play more, darling, the plane is meant to leave in an hour." Theodore answers, tucking a wayward curl behind her ear.

Her hair is long once more, curls brushing against her hips as she stands.

His eyes are warm as he watches her, open and unguarded.

No mask in place and she could see deep, deep into him.

She could see the love for her that radiated all the way from his core.

Dante steps forward, his hand on the small of her back as they leave the grand villa.

Outside, the air is sweet with spring flowers and fresh peaches.

Salt from the nearby ocean cutting through.

Soft music carries on the wind, childish laughter around the cobblestone corner.

Enid pauses for a moment.

"We can always come back anytime you'd like." Dante wraps an arm around her waist.

His exceptionally tanned limb stark against the light cotton of her top.

Sunkissed from many days spent on the seaside.

Swimming and building sandcastles and finding seashells.

Their time there had been perfect.

Her head tilts back against his chest, seeking solace in the forest of his eyes.