Epilogue ◑ The Woman

Lucille’s cup fell out of her slackened hands, landing on the black and white tiled floors with a loud clatter. The coffee exploded everywhere, even on her high-heeled shoes, but she hardly felt it. She only vaguely heard Jamie’s startled yelp, but other than that, there was nothing.

Her eyes were only fixed on the uniformed man before her. The man who looked awfully like Keiran.

But it couldn’t be, right? Surely this was just wishful thinking.

She blinked repeatedly, waiting for the man’s distinct features to break through this illusion, but it didn’t happen. Instead, the man’s face only grew sharper and sharper with every passing moment. The worst thing was, he turned around towards the sound of the crash, and now he was looking at her.

“Miss,” he said, setting down the candelabra as the others from Paradigm began to gather around her, “are you okay?”

“Keiran,” she tried to say, but the name escaped her lips as a mere croak. “Why are you . . . ?”

Shanry took her hand and made her face her. “Lucille, what happened? Come, let’s—”

“Follow me, please,” the man interjected, striding briskly towards Lucille and holding out a hand. “I’ll take it from here.”

To Lucille’s surprise, none of her friends reacted. None of them seemed to find this weird. All of them took on a dazed expression and nodded simultaneously at the man’s request, as though under some sort of a spell. She herself was slowly being drawn to the man. Before she knew it, she’d already taken his hand, and now they were heading towards the small door at the side of the altar, which lead into a small room slightly bigger than a broom closet.

Only then did it occur to Lucille that no ordinary man could’ve done that.

She backed against the wooden wall, blinking rapidly just to make sure for one last time. Staring back at her was still Keiran’s face.

And he was smiling.

“Lucille.” He held his arms open. “Lucille, I’m back!”

Disbelief gripped her heart like a fist. She couldn’t move. She was still pretty sure that the world was being extra fucked up right now and she was the butt of the joke.

“Oh, come on.” Keiran let his arms fall limply on his sides. “Look, darling, I know it took us a while. But we’ve been drifting back and forth from different points of time and it wasn’t exactly a quick ride. We had to wait till we somehow got thrown back into our palace in Ancient Greece.”

His words swam in Lucille’s head. She clutched her chest, a scream rising in her throat.

Keiran rolled his eyes at her aghast expression, but his tone was soft when he said, “We were worried about you. We wanted nothing more than to get back to you, to support you and be exactly what you need, but time slipped away from us. We had no choice but to choose this day. And we couldn’t exactly show up as we are. We were planning to show ourselves to you once you are alone, but we did kind of get excited and we really, really missed you. So yeah. I really hoped for a more enthusiastic welcome from you, but I guess this stunned silence is alright too.”

All the things he’d said were slowly finding purchase in her mind, but the fact that he’d mentioned he wasn’t alone was the only thing that stuck with her. She didn’t know why she believed him all of a sudden, why she was suddenly hyped, but now was not the time to wonder if this was all just a dream.

If this really was a dream and she’d wake up alone and miserable again, she might as well make the most of it and see Dimitri too.

Lucille started to pace around the cramped room, whipping her head around to look at the cabinets and the candle stands as though the God of Death was just there hiding.

“*We*? Did you just say *we*?” Lucille’s lower lip quivered. “Is he . . . is he here?”

“Ah.” Keiran let out a short laugh and shook his head. “I should’ve known you were looking for that bozo.” He cleared his throat and called out, “Dimitri! Yoo-hoo!”

There was a set of heavy footsteps from outside. Lucille’s heart started to beat erratically inside her chest. So many emotions were rocketing inside her that she could hardly stand, but she steeled her nerves enough to turn around and face the door as it creaked open.

Entering the room, clad in the black suit that the funeral home staff wore, was no other than Dimitri himself.

His hair had gone longer, now sweeping along his jaw in lush waves. Even though nothing else about his appearance had changed, he still felt so different, so new and so fresh, that for a second Lucille forgot to breathe.

And when his amber eyes fell upon her, she just disappeared. Into the moment, into his gaze, into him.

A sob hitched at her throat. Her eyes got filled with tears. She felt like she could collapse any moment, even though time had seemed to stop.

Still, she wiped her cheeks frantically, ran to meet Dimitri, and threw herself into his waiting arms.

Oh, he was warm. He was alive. He still smelled sweet and musky, still felt solid against her. She wound her arms around his middle and nuzzled his neck, a smile curving her lips as he hugged her back and lifted her into the air.

“I missed you,” Lucille whispered, pulling away just enough to kiss his jaw. “I love you.”

“I missed you too,” Dimitri said with a little chuckle. “And I also love you.”
“So he gets a hug and I get a horrified face. The pain of being single,” Keiran grumbled, but he was smiling. Lucille let out a laugh, released Dimitri, and came to hug Keiran too. He rolled his eyes, but he embraced her as tightly as his brother did. “I told you we’d come back, darling.”

“You did.” Lucille sprang back from him and laughed, tears still streaming from her eyes. She looked at the twins, the only ones left from her old life. “You really did come back.”

◑≡◑≡◑≡◑

One Year Later

“For the last time, Dimitri, it’s not my birthday,” Lucille snapped. “Will you please stop covering my eyes now?”

“Shh.” Dimitri breathed into her ear and tightened the blindfold around her head, making her whimper in complaint. “We have a surprise.”

“Keiran’s in on this?”

“When hasn’t he been in on anything fun?”

She huffed. “This isn’t fun.”

And it wasn’t. Lucille didn’t like being ushered around blindfolded in her own suite, still in her pajamas, waiting to see a surprise that two unstable gods had cooked up. Judging by her memory of the place and the twists and turns she’s been taking with Dimitri steering her from behind, she could conclude that she was being led to her garden in the balcony near the kitchen.

Her guess was confirmed when she heard the door creaking open, meeting her with the cool night wind and the brush of the growing vines over the wooden braces above.

“Why are we here?” she demanded.

“We’re here because we are,” Keiran answered somewhere in front of her in a mocking tone. When she aimed a kick in his general direction, he let out a booming laugh. “I just knew you still hate surprises. Now, brother, take off her blindfold and let us reveal her reward.”

Dimitri followed his order and undid the knot at the back of her head, slipping the strip of fabric off and pulling her hair back.

Lucille blinked rapidly, taking note of the bright mix of lights of New York and the inky black sky. The vines on the wooden beams were swaying slightly in the breeze, and the flowers that had just began to bloom stood out in the yellow glow of the fairy lights.

The place looked quite picturesque, but this was nothing new.

She sighed. “Funny prank. Can I go back to bed now?”

“Wait up, eager girl,” Keiran said and pushed his brother forward. “Take it from here.”

“Are you proposing?” Lucille blurted out.

Dimitri’s reddening cheeks were visible even under the dim lights, growing more intense as Keiran burst into laughter. “Er, yes and no.”

Great. Now she was embarrassed too. “So what is it?”

He flashed a warning look at Keiran (“Gee, sorry,” he mumbled.) before reaching into his coat pocket and taking out something almost spherical in the size of her fist. It was gold and shiny, catching the yellow glare of the fairy lights. He held it out to her and opened his palms, revealing a perfectly golden apple.

“Um. . . .” Lucille extended a finger and tapped it. “What’s this?”

“That’s one of Zeus’s golden apples,” Keiran replied easily. When Lucille raised an eyebrow, he cocked his chin up and proudly declared, “It’s the apple of immortality. Dimitri stole it when we wound up at Olympus in our weird time travel period. He was going to use to make you marry him—”

“Thank you, brother,” Dimitri interjected through gritted teeth, stomping on Keiran’s foot before turning back to Lucille. “I’m not making you marry me. I’m just presenting this to you as an option, if you want to live forever with us or not.”

Lucille tilted her head. “But I thought you wanted me to die.”

“I never did,” Dimitri said, looking away. “I was trying to flirt.”

“And what a fantastic job you did too,” Keiran put in dryly, earning another stomp. “Ow!”

Dimitri pocketed the apple. “I’m not forcing you to take it. But just know that the option is here.”

Lucille couldn’t stop smiling. “So you’ve been flirting for centuries?”

“Like you didn’t know,” Dimitri mumbled, making her laugh.

She took his hand and led him to the corner of the balcony. “Well, you’re right. I did know. I think I do know everything.”

He stared straight ahead and squeezed her hand. “Not everything, but okay, I’ll let you dream.”

She laughed. “So that was the surprise, huh?”

Dimitri turned to her, his gaze soft. “No.”

“What’s the other one?”

He reached into his pocket again, and this time he took out a small piece of folded parchment. He slipped it into her hand and watched her unfold it.
Written on the paper were the words, “How are you?”

And it was in Agnes’s handwriting.

Lucille’s throat closed up. “Is this . . . ?”

She trailed off, and Keiran sidled up next to her with a smug smile.

“It’s what you think it is, kiddo,” he said. When her expression lit up, he amended, “Okay not exactly what you think. Agnes is still dead, and she’s in the Underworld.”

“But I thought the ones who’d die from our fight would not have an afterlife,” she said, her voice shaking. “It was one of the stakes.”

“Yes, provided if one of you died in each other’s hands.” Dimitri shifted. “And technically, Cade did the deed to himself.”

A faint stab of pain and pity appeared in her chest. “Oh.”

“It means you can see Agnes,” Keiran said.

She bit her lip. “I’ll see her when I die?”

“You’re forgetting who your boyfriend is,” Dimitri said, totally deadpan. “I’m the God of Death. I can take you to see her. Just follow my instructions and we’ll be—”

Lucille jumped into his arms and pressed her lips on his. She kissed him softly, and after a split second, he started to kiss her back, his hands on her waist.

“Ugh,” Keiran winced as they broke apart. “I’m out of here.”

With that, he promptly entered the suite, closing the door behind him and leaving them alone. Lucille and Dimitri exchanged dubious glances, then they both laughed.

She rested her head on his shoulder. “About the apple . . . was that really a proposal?”

“Yeah,” he replied after a beat. “But you know, I’m not in a rush or anything. I’m just—”

Lucille pressed another gentle kiss on his lips. “The answer is yes.”

*THE END*