“Skyla!” I cry out with all my might as I bolt for her, and we collide in an embrace for the ages.
“Gage,” she moans, her relief palpable as I spin her. “Is this real?” She holds my face in her hands as she looks hard into my eyes. “Tell me right now that you believe me—that you’re for Celestra—that you aremineagain.” Tears streak her face, a wash of water, a baptism after a trial by fire.
I pull her close until I feel her body doing its best to embed into mine.
“Skyla Laurel Messenger Oliver, this is damn real. I am for Celestra. And I have always belonged to you.”
Her chest bucks as she crashes her lips to mine, and we linger just like that for a blissful eternity that neither of us is in a hurry to disrupt—a chaste kiss, something pure, something better than anything on a sexual level.
Skyla and I have arrived.
We have it all back.
The world is no longer upside down for either of us.
It is right side up, just the way it should be, forever immovable.
“I love you so much, Gage Oliver,” she screams and cries as she hikes her legs up around my hips and I spin her. “Tell me again it’s real.” Her laughter marries with tears, and I’m right there with her.
“It’s real, Skyla. I promise. Demetri lied. You were right. This was the grand delusion. I just hope it’s not too late for me to help make everything right.”
She gives a furious nod. “We will. Together. You, me, and Logan. He’s on his way. I couldn’t stop him. We didn’t know what you wanted.” She shrugs. “I’m so glad this is over, and yet it’s far from over.” She presses her lips to mine once again and my wings burst forth. I carry Skyla and me up into the clouds, wrap us in a fortress of my love, invisible to anyone on the ground, anyone in the sky. This is just us, our love nestled in a shield of privacy for a small moment of time.
“Before Logan gets here,” I lift her chin to meet her gaze, “I owe you an apology. I’m sorry, Skyla, for the absolute hell I put you through. I wanted you to fight. I didn’t want you to surrender. That night—the night you showed up in Eversor for what would have been our wedding—I knew marrying you would be a knife in Celestra’s back. Neither of us would have wanted that. I pulled poison from the bottom drawer—Chloe herself. I knew she’d send you reeling in the other direction. And yet I couldn’t pull the trigger, so I brought Wes into my nightmare.” Tears stream from me, but I refuse to acknowledge them. It’s time for me to man up. I owe Skyla this apology and so much more. “You don’t need to forgive me. Not now, not ever. Just know that my heart was always yours. There was nothing I wasn’t going to do to preserve our love. I may be gone, you may be with Logan, but we get eternity.” The words choke from me painfully. “We win. We get it all.”
She nods, her eyes outshining the stars around her. “Yes, to all of it, but I’ve got news for you, Gage. I’m yours. Eternity starts today.” She wipes my tears with her thumbs. “I am wholly yours. And I am so damn glad to have you back.”
My lips crash to hers and we settle into that lingering kiss once again, and it feels far more satisfying than anything physical we’ve ever shared before. It’s done. Skyla and I will never be separated again. There is no future to pine for. I have her now, and I always will. Heaven on earth, and we’re engulfed in it right now.
I land us back onto the sand in time to see a familiar face headed this way.
“Logan!” Skyla gives a jovial shout and waves until he speeds his way over.
“Gage?” His voice roars over the sand, vibrating through my bones as if waking me from a very bad dream.
“Logan,” I say, shaking my head. Soon he crashes into me, and we’re hugging it out, sobbing like a couple of pussies.
Skyla jumps over the two of us, and we pull her in until we form a holy huddle—just the three of us, the way it was always supposed to be.
“We have him back,” Skyla cries out as she smacks my cheek with a kiss before landing a wet one to my lips as well.
Logan nods as he looks me in the eyes. “Welcome home, brother. We’ve missed you, but we never stopped loving you.”
“Never?” I’m only half-teasing.
Logan pinches his finger to this thumb and winces. “Dude, you are going to get an ass beating from me one of these days for the torment you inadvertently put us through.”
“No way.” Skyla presses a hand to his chest as if averting the disaster right now. “We’re a unified front. It’s time to roll up our sleeves. The Earth and its people have been plunged into darkness, and it’s up to us to turn this disaster around.” She wraps her arms around me. “Welcome home, Gage.” Her eyes look into mine with wonder. “Thank you.”
“For what?” I wince, almost afraid to hear her answer.
“For your undying love.” She nods. “You broke me, but tonight you’ve healed me. And now the three of us”—she pulls Logan in once again—“we are stronger than steel, and nothing and no one will ever come between us again. I know this much is true.”
Logan nods. “Damn straight.”
I look into their beautiful faces. “Damn straight, indeed.”
I take in this moment and freeze-frame it into my mind, burn it into my heart to relive over and over again, and I know I will.
