EPILOGUE
Six months later…
People said that grief takes time, that one day, the hurt would heal and that dull ache you feel every time your heart beats would fade away.
Five years after her death, I still felt Lyric in my heart. But now there was something else there, too.Love.
The love I had for Caspian was extraordinary. It was unconventional and at times it felt forbidden, like we were breaking the rules because no one should be this happy. But it was eternal. I had given him my soul, and he had given me his. We truly were soulmates. And tomorrow, I would become his wife.
I held my sandals in one hand, feeling the sand between my toes as I walked along the beach. The breeze blew in off the sparkling blue water. The sun glinted off the diamond on my left hand as I brought it up to hold my floppy hat in place. My hair whipped across my face. I turned and smiled as I looked up at the beach house a few hundred feet away.
I couldn’t see through the window tint, but I knew he was watching.
He was always watching.
Every day, I walked the shore while Caspian sat in his office upstairs, watching me through the windows. With the help of one of Chandler’s friends, he’d started an untraceable, anonymous online group focused on spreading what he calledtruth. They called themselves “O”, and their mission was taking down people like our fathers and Khalid, ripping the power from their hands, so they could no longer use it to hurt people. My brother even joined their cause.
The experience at The Grove had brought us all together. It gave them purpose. It gave me strength. It gave us all hope. Caspian reached out to Prince Liam of Ayelswick, and Chandler contacted some of his powerful friends, and together they formed their own alliances—a new Obsidian Brotherhood, one that would overpower the old one.
I left Caspian to his secrets and opened a dance studio in the village. He saw the world for what it was. I chose to see it for what it could be. I knew darkness lurked beneath the surface. I’d seen it. But I still chose beauty over cruelty, humanity over depravity. Maybe Caspian and his brotherhood could weed out all the evil. Maybe in the end, the good guys would win. Well, if they were to be calledgood guys. He was right when he told me he wasn’t a prince. He wasn’t a villain either. He was the dragon. Maybe the fairy tales got it wrong. Maybe the dragon never intended to hurt the princess. Maybe he was there to keep her safe.
I washed my feet off at the back door, then went inside. Our home was the perfect blend of both our personalities. We had lots of windows—because Caspian had a thing for fucking out in the open—and shiplap walls with white kitchen cabinets. His grand piano was in the living room, and my oversized tub was in our bathroom.
My wedding dress hung in the guest bedroom closet, away from Caspian’s prying eyes. I had to threaten him with no sex if he’d dared to peek. I paused to look at it for the hundredth time. The design was simple—a semi-sheer, beaded lace bodice with spaghetti straps and a chiffon bottom with a side-slit. It was perfect.
The bedroom door creaked open, a gentle push meant to be quiet.
“You really couldn’t waitonemore day?” I rolled my eyes and spun around.
The moment I turned to face him, my heart thrashed wildly against my chest. The air left my lungs, and the floor felt as though it might swallow me whole. I tried to breathe, but it just got caught in my throat. The sound of blood rushing through my veins pounded in my ears. An ice-cold tremor raced down my spine.
No.
This wasn’t happening.
There was no way.
“You didn’t think I was going to let my best friend get married without me?” Lyric’s smile was brighter than the sunlight beaming through the window.
I sank to my knees because my legs could no longer hold me.
Tears streamed down my face.
With every breath I took, it felt as though I might pass out.
She hurried across the room and knelt beside me. Her slender arms wrapped around me, and she pulled my head to her chest.
A sob tore from my throat when I looked up at her. Her blonde hair was now a sleek, jet black, and her pale complexion was a golden bronze.
“How?” I asked her, my voice cracking on the word.
A thousand different questions roared in my mind, but I couldn’t make sense of any of them with everything rushing to my head—my blood, my pulse, all of it. I would think she wasn’t real if I hadn’t heard her heartbeat when she’d pull me to her chest.
She sniffled and let out a short laugh. “Caspian.”
My breath hitched. “Caspian?”
All the times I’d asked him about her, the pain he watched me go through, the grief… I fought to breathe. I fought so hard my body shook.