I watched him fade beyond the sand,
A shadow slipping from my hand.
The waves came back. His voice did not.
The sea kept all the boy it caught.
So sleep, my boy, where the starlight flows,
Where no one stays and no one knows.
The tide rolls in, the tide rolls free—
Come home to me, come home to me.
They say he drowned. They always do.
That dreamers die when skies turn blue.
But I believe he found that place—
Where stars fall down to brush your face.
He’s building fires where tides don’t turn,
Where constellations blaze and burn.
And if you find that starlit shore,
Tell him I wait—I’ll wait once more.
So sleep, my boy, where the starlight flows,
Where no one stays and no one knows.
I lit the flame. I watched the sea.
Come home to me… come home to me.
Phoenix stepped up beside me and took my hand.
“Are you ready, Elle?” he asked.
I looked up at him—his quicksilver eyes fixed on mine—and I squeezed his hand.
“I am,” I said finally.
He smiled and squeezed back, then flicked his fingers through the air.
A spark leapt from his wrist, caught the wind—and set the floating raft alight.
Slade moved in behind me. I felt his warmth at my back, silent and solid. I leaned into him.
Leo stepped to my other side and took my free hand, his grip gentle, grounding, Maddie beside him.
We stood together, watching the fire drift out to sea. The waves were quiet. The sky full of stars.
For the first time, I didn’t feel like I was drowning.
