Epilogue

Grey

The coast of Cornwall was bloody lovely on a sunny afternoon. Sunlight sparkled off deep blue waves, and wildflowers dotted the green grass that topped the cliffs.

Beside me, Carrow looked impossibly beautiful, her golden hair gleaming like the sun. She was the sun.

"I think we've almost found it." She pulled me along the coast path. "I can feel it."

We were searching for Evangeline's grave. Her friends were having a picnic a couple of miles down the coast, and we would join them once we were done.

But this was a journey just for us.

And Cordelia, who ran far ahead of us on the path.

A week ago, after we'd visited the seer in Silvius castle, we'd begun to look for the grave. Carrow wanted to do it, and I wanted her to be happy.

She'd saved me. She's saved us.

"I think this is it." Carrow pointed up the hill to a spot about twenty yards off the path. "See the pile of stones?"

"I do. Let's go visit." I held a bunch of flowers we'd gathered along the coast.

Without Evangeline, we wouldn't have each other.

Carrow laughed as we ran through the grass, headed up the hill toward the grave. For the briefest moment, I had a vision of what we must look like. It was an out-of-body experience.

I was running through grass. Laughing.

It was so far away from the interminable years of my immortality that it seemed like a different planet. This one was in color, fully and brightly. The air smelled better, the grass felt softer, and everything tasted divine.

Carrow was here.

We slowed to a stop in front of the pile of stones. They were arranged in a neat pyramid, and pink flowers grew between them, trembling on the cool sea breeze.

"It really is her." Carrow knelt. "I can feel it."

I joined her, laying the flowers on the cairn. "She's with you always."

Carrow nodded, her eyes gleaming slightly. "She and my mother and all the rest of my family." She turned to me and kissed me. "And you, too."

"Always."