She meets his gaze, searching for him in the dark.She doesn’t have to look hard—he’s right there.Right in front of her.
“Always.”
Her band members knows their way in the dark.Behind her, Selene starts a slow, steady drum beat.Lorraine chimes in, twinkling along the keys of her piano.Even without power, the sound carries in the breeze.
Ellery is the one who got lost.Lost, now found.
The cool metal of Dante’s thumb ring strokes her cheek, soothing her.She anchors in his touch.
She presses her forehead to his.This close, she can taste the salt of his sweat, and she has missed it, so much.“I’m so sorry.I should never have let you go.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.I was wrong.”The tears slide between her lips, ocean-tangy, but she can’t stop.“I thought I would drag you down.Drag you into something you never wanted.Make you be someone else, and you’re perfect just as you are.”
“I fucked up too.El.That’s what people do.Right?We fuck up and then we make it right.We show up.That’s what matters.That’s what people do when they love each other.”
His hands cup her face so gently, like he’s worried she will break.But she won’t, not again.
“But you don’t want this, Dante.”She gestures to the audience, the amphitheater.“You don’t want all this drama.”
“I want you, El.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you.”
“Is that enough?”She wants it to be, so desperately.
“I’d like to think so.”He strokes her cheek with his thumb, the smooth metal of his ring still cool against her skin.“I thought that being with you changed who I was and pushed me beyond the boundaries of my comfort, but I was wrong.Being with you makes me better.”
She waits, not wanting to interrupt.They both need this catharsis.It’s been seven long years of friendship and love and grief and regret.No more.They’ll leave it all here.
“I talked to my brother.”
“Oh?What did he say?”
“He told me I was an idiot.That being with someone doesn’t mean relinquishing who you are.It means when you let in love, you let it build you up into the best version of you.”
She leans into him, into the inches between them, filling them with her hope.“You’re my inspiration.Without you, I can’t find my way.”She presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth.“I love you, Dante.”
“I love you too.”He threads his hand into the hair at her nape and pulls her toward him, matching his lips with hers.
The kiss is sweet, salty from sweat and tears, and feels like forgiveness.Even through the dark, light creeps through her limbs and blossoms through her stomach.
She lost something so great it shattered her.But here, with Dante, she can find herself again.She can find the moment, the inspiration.
A tidal wave of applause thunders through the amphitheater, echoing, rising toward the mountains beyond, carried on the Santa Anas.
The lights come on, and Ellery blinks at the intrusion.Where is her warm Dante cocoon?Right here.He’s right here with her.Always.
The song comes to her like words tripping along a breeze.It was the last one she ever wrote with him, the one they’ve never recorded.The one that after they broke up, she was too defeated to sing again.But she remembers.She couldn’t forget.She kisses Dante again and picks up Jasper.“Will you sing with me?”
He drags his chair to her mic, and they sit side by side as she strums the melody racing through her blood.Dante follows like he remembers it, too, then Selene and Lorraine pick up the cue and add in the harmonies.
It’s the melody that defines them.This song will outlast Logan’s influence, the grief over losing her family, the turmoil of being lost in the spotlight.
The song runs through her and into him, and they meet at the chorus.
