Page 100 of Last Chorus

First verse to last chorus.

epilogue

EVANGELINE

ONE YEAR LATER

“Did everyone have fun tonight?”

The roar that answers me raises the hairs on my body and buzzes beneath my skin. I look across the stage at Lily, who grins back from behind her DJ deck.

“I think that’s a yes,” I tell her.

She leans toward her mic and says with mock seriousness, “I’m not convinced. Let’s try that again.Horizon Fest, did you have fun tonight?”

The volume of sound almost doubles, drowning out my laughter and filling me with effervescentjoy. The stage lights flash, purple and blue beams obscuring the stars overhead and strobing across a sea of twenty-five thousand screaming faces.

A subtle, atmospheric beat begins courtesy of Lily.

“You’ve been amazing,” I tell the crowd. “We have one last song for you. It’s a new one you might have heard recently.”

I pluck a series of chords on my guitar, and the crowd responds immediately to the melody of our newest single’s chorus.

Lily’s beat silences abruptly, the light display freezing.

“Wait a sec,” she says. “Aren’t we missing something?”

I look offstage, my heart skipping when I see Wilder already watching me.

“You’re absolutely right. Hey, Night Theory, are you guys too tired from your set last night or can you help us out?”

The crowd goes berserk as the men walk onstage. Wilder angles for me, Zander beelines for the baby grand piano, and Jax takes a seat behind my cello. Eddie walks out last and wanders in exaggerated circles until Lily offers him a set of maracas.

“I handle the beats on this stage,” she says sweetly.

As the crowd laughs and screams, Wilder’s handslides across the bare, sweaty skin of my lower back. When his fingers clench on my hip with dark promise, my small, involuntary gasp is amplified. Which, naturally, the crowd loves.

Wilder’s soft chuckle floats around the amphitheater, followed by low words that drip suggestion.

“I’m alwaysavailable to help you, Evangeline.”

Catcalls fill our ears as I roll my eyes. “Flirt with me later. We have a song to sing.”

“Actually, there’s something I have to do first. It’ll just take a minute.”

My lips part in shock as he steps back. He looks offstage and nods at someone I can’t see.

“What’s going on?” My question falls flat, the mic in front of me having been turned off remotely.

Lily’s mic, however, is still on. She says lightly, “No problem, Wilder. Take all the time you need.”

I whip around to see her grinning at me. Quick glances confirm that Jax, Eddie, and Zander wear similar expressions of conspiratorial glee.

My heart stampedes.

My breaths turn shallow.

I spin back toward Wilder right as the stage lights go out completely. Momentarily disoriented, I seek the ever present glow of phones in the crowd.

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