Page 168 of Sweet Venom

Oh… wow.

The tears came freely now, sliding down my cheeks. I must look like a mess but I didn’t care.

“Poe,” he said, voice steady and strong, “I know I once said you didn’t belong. And in a way, I was right. You didn’t belong in the broken world I lived in… because that world wasn’t worth anything until you were in it. You’ve lived in my breath, my blood, my scars, my soul since we were kids. You’re it, little fox. You’re my world.”

A sniffle broke the silence—my mom.

My aunts and cousins clutched each other, trying not to cheer. My dad looked bittersweet. Uncle Enzo was recording. Everyone was here.

But all I could see was him.

Azariel.

The boy who once broke my heart. The man who now held it in his hands.

“I wanted to rewrite that night, baby,” he said. “To give it a new ending. I want to be the man you write your stories about. The man you give your forever to. I want to be the man who walks alongside you. Will you marry me? Will you be mine until death do us part?”

The wind rustled through the blue roses—our roses.

Tears streamed freely, but I was smiling. Smiling so widely it hurt.

This was it.

Our forever.

I just had to say the word.

My voice barely rose above a whisper, but he heard it.

“Yes,” I said. “A thousand times… yes.”

And just like that, he slipped the ring onto my finger and rose to his feet. When he kissed me, the past—every bitter piece of it—melted away. Not forgotten. Rewritten. In blue. In love. In us.

Aunt Kadra played the violin as applause broke out behind us—laughter, cheers, even cries. Uncle Vitali clapped Azariel on the back. His sister teased him. My mother wrapped me in a hug, tears glistening in her green eyes.

But all I could feel was him.

All I could think about was how, after all these years, he’d turned our saddest memory into the most beautiful one.

A memory written in stars.

A love that never stopped.

Mom stepped back, and Azariel pulled me into his arms, trembling as he held me close. He kissed the top of my head and breathed me in like he did the roses.

“I don’t deserve you, Poe,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. “But I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to prove that I do.”

I looked up at him, my heart overflowing. “You already have,” I whispered, fingers gently tracing the small tattoo beneath his eye.

And with our cats and everyone we love around us, we danced beneath the stars, surrounded by blue and the beautiful certainty that neither of us would ever walk this earth alone again.

We have each other now.

We have blue.

We have love.

Forever and ever.

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