Epilogue
DOVE
One month later:
New York is beautiful when it wants to be.
From up here, you can almost pretend…
Well, whatever you like. Because eighty-three stories above the glittering city, anything is possible.
A last resort can be a new beginning. The past can turn into whatever future you make it.
My bare toes curl against the concrete as I look out over the sea of twinkling lights stretched out in front of me. But this time, I’m not up on the ledge. I’m standing well behind it, thank you very much, just enjoying the view.
Bane holds my hand as he stands barefoot next to me, looking out over this city of wonder and pain, of dreams and heartache.
“That promise still stands.”
“What promise is that?” I ask.
Bane nods his chin at the ledge in front of us, and the abyss below.
“If you go—”
“I’m not going anywhere.” My hand squeezes his. “Ever. You?”
He shakes his head, then turns to smile at me. “Only if you do, baby.”
“Well, that’s settled then. Neither of us goes.”
He nods. “I think that’s the best outcome.”
“For sure. I mean, think of the mess.”
He snorts. “Stop it. You know your dark humor always gets me hard.”
I blush, grinning as I slide against his muscled body, gripping his shirt in my hands. “Guess you’ll just have to fuck me up here, then.”
He smiles hungrily. “That is a given.”
I giggle and slap his chest. “Oh, is it?”
“Very much so,” he growls, his eyes locking with mine. “But before that, I was hoping to do something else.”
I cock a brow, shivering against him as a cold wind blows over us.
“What exactly might that be?”
“Asking you to marry me.”
My heart jumps as he drops to his knee and holds a ring up. But then a puzzled smile creeps over my face, and my brow arches.
“You do remember that we’re already married, right?”
He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I was there, in case you forgot.”
I smirk. “I've forgotten a lot of things in my life, but not that.”
He sighs heavily. “Can you just please shut up for a second.”
I grin and mime a zipping motion across my lips.
“I’m asking you,” Bane murmurs, “because I really didn’t last time. I told you.”
“Well, it seems to have worked anyway,” I giggle. Then I look at him fully, my heart thudding in my chest. “Wait, you’re really asking?”
“I’m really asking.”
My skin tingles as he stands and pulls me against him.
“Well?”
“I’ll think about it.”
He groans, rolling his eyes again as I cackle. Then I grab his face, rise up on my tiptoes, and sear my lips to his.
“It’s yes, obviously,” I murmur, kissing him.
“I was pretty sure,” he growls back. “I just wanted to hear you say it.”
“Well, in that case, yes,” I whisper into his mouth. “Yes yes yes yes...”
I only stop talking because he gives my lips something else to do.
The wind howls around us as we cling to each other, eighty-three stories above the city, on a roof we’ll be walking down from.
In rehab, they tell you that you’re always going to be addict. The trick is to be one who chooses not to use.
I realize now that that’s what life is, too. Even when it’s hard, and messy, and brutal, you just get up and keep on living.
So that’s what I’m going to do.
I’m going to get up, I’m going to keep on living, and I’m going to do it with him at my side.
The Darkest Dance series continues with Vaughn and Evelina’s story in Dance of Monsters.