Dusk Flowers

Epilogue

     Eliza awoke to the sound of breaking glass. She rolled over in bed, trying to cover her ears with her pillow, but to no avail. "Keep it down!" She yelled, her voice muffled by the cotton and down.

     Stupid clumsy Uso.

     This was their second week in Eliza's apartment. After the attack on Boston they'd agreed to switch houses every week and so far, it had been going alright.

     Except for Uso's strange new need to drink a full mug of cranberry juice every morning at seven. She always managed to drop the cup on the floor somehow, blaming it on the dark and her sensitive eyes. 

     Yawning loudly, Eliza reached for her glasses, slid out from under the blankets, and shuffled out onto the carpet. She'd gotten a lot less clean since Uso moved in... She also happened to wear shirts less than usual. So picking up a clean one from her floor, where her wardrobe had been relocated, she tugged it on. 

     Willow the cat lay before the slightly ajar door like a guard dog. Nudging her cat out of the way, Eliza yawned again. Ever since she'd missed those days, the workload at college had only gotten heavier, and witchcraft practice hadn't let up either. Certainly not with Uso as her mentor.

     She stepped out into the dark hallway, her eyes struggling to adjust to the shadows. Concentrating, she raised a hand. A tongue of yellow flame flickered across her fingertips, illuminating the short hallway like a candle wick. She smiled as she watched the fire dance Uso told her she was a fast learner and now she believed it.

     Walking into the kitchen, Eliza remembered telling Missy about her new strange life... And the fact that she liked girls and now had a girlfriend. Missy, worn out from the entire escapade, had accepted both parcels of knowledge cheerfully. "Wow, that's so cool! It's like a sci-fi novel or something!" She had squealed, "Can you make me a car like Evan has? Oh, and don't even worry about it, you know my brother is gay, right?" She'd also apparently looked up their family line on Ancestry.com, and as it turns out, they were related to The Paladin (otherwise known as Johann Grey).

     Surprisingly, Uso was no longer in the kitchen, and the glass had been cleaned up. After the storm, Eliza recalled, all the damages had been attributed to wild weather conditions, not a raging horde of monsters. 

     Turning, Eliza saw something move out on the deck, masked by pre-dawn shadows. Extinguishing the flames at her fingertips, Eliza marched through the small living room and flung open the the sliding glass door to find her (she was still getting used to the word) girlfriend, smoking a cigar over the railing.

     "You smoke?"

     Uso shrugged. "When the mood strikes me. I picked it up in the 20's. I used to be in the mafia, remember?"

     "Yeah, I think." Eliza settled down on her elbows, barely an inch from where Uso herself leaned out over the city.

     On the subject of May Panik, the woman was doing just fine. She'd been a little confused by nearly everything except her daughter's dating status, which she congratulated her heavily on, and begged her for an invitation to the wedding.

     She smiled at the memory, watching the Sun's far-off glow begin to light up the horizon. Sighing, she let her head rest against Uso's angular shoulder. "Do you think what Krylo said was true?" She asked quietly, "Like, if you really believe in something, it becomes reality?"

     Twisting her fingers together with Eliza's, Uso pursed her lips in thought. "Y'know, this is coming from someone whose name literally means 'lie' but I really think he was right. Insane as Krylo is, he can really spew pearls of wisdom sometimes."

     Eliza grinned, the dawn like the flash of a camera, capturing the two in a brilliant burst of light. "You're so articulate," She teased, "You're lucky I love you anyway."

     Uso snorted almost guiltily. "Sorry my slang is so whack."

     "Whatever you say, you dork."

     Feeling warm inside, the spark content, Eliza tightened her beautifully scarred hand around Uso's.

     "Well... If he was right, then I don't think I was the same person I was before. Not in a bad way. I'm just not so scared of everything now. At least, I think I'm not, so that makes it true, right?"

     Uso nodded slowly. "It does. I noticed it too. I think I like it."

     Laughing, Eliza straightened up, the glowing city beneath her holding her captive. "And whoever said," She announced, to herself, to Uso, to the world, "That I wanted a normal life anyway?"

     With that, the two witches, still in their pyjamas, vaulted over the railing, Eliza dragging Uso down into the golden, dawn-coated city.