Page 237 of Gathered Sparkle

So now, the man before me with a bright smile and clear eyes is NicholasLane.

Koen had shrugged at the gesture, saying he’d felt like a brother for years anyway. Levi, on the other hand, cried as he hugged Nicholas so hard I thought they’d both fall over.

We’d all considered changing our names at first, thinking we’d have to disappear after what went down in Vegas. But Ezra kept an eye on the police reports for weeks, and Sylus hacked into everything he could get his hands on to monitor the fallout, and we realized it wasn’t necessary.

In the end, the charges against us were minor.

Staging an unauthorized public performance.

Disturbing the peace.

Reckless endangerment due to crowd panic.

Tampering with private property.

Illegal drone usage.

Grand theft auto.

All things we could live with or, more accurately, pay our way out of if they ever managed to track us down.

Veronica couldn’t say the same, though. The evidence we’d presented at the show was so damning that even her best lawyers couldn’t spin it. She went down hard, along with her lackeys.With her empire crumbling, the authorities didn’t have much interest or time to spare for us.

Before long, Levi’s predicted headline became a reality, and Veronica Harrington was sentenced to life for murder, money laundering, and human trafficking.

Calling it gratifying doesn’t even begin to cover it. Watching her fall was nothing short of poetic justice. It wasn’t just victory. It was vindication.

For Oscar.

And for us.

When Nicholas steps back, Sylus moves forward, kneels before the headstone, and sets a piece of elaborate, gorgeous embroidery down next to the sunflowers.

Rest in Magic.

The words are stitched in swirling gold thread, and a ring of stars frames the letters. It’s his best yet, thanks to the practice and guidance he’s had in Tuscany.

Sylus brushes his fingers over the edge of the fabric as if smoothing it into place. “You know, you always said the magic wasn’t in the tricks but in the people you share it with.” His voice cracks, but he powers through it with a laugh. “Guess you were right.Again.”

“He’d love it,” Ezra says softly. “It’s perfect.”

Sylus shrugs, but his lips twitch with a small smile as he glances at him. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t gonna stitchEat a Dickon there, was I?”

Koen snorts a laugh and then pulls me even closer to him. “Pretty sure he’d have laughed at that too.”

“Damn right, he would’ve.” Sylus stands up and brushes grass from his knees. “Rest easy, Oscar. You deserve it.”

My throat tightens with emotion as Ace easily throws an arm around Sylus’s shoulders and pulls him into a one-sided hug.

Sylus has flourished in Italy in a way I could’ve never anticipated. It’s like the slower pace of life agrees with him, even if he would probably never admit it. He spends his days lounging by the pool, gaming in the shade, or zipping around on his Vespa, weaving through narrow, cobblestoned streets like he was born for it.

And don’t even get me started on his Italian. We all tried to learn together, but somehow Sylus became the freaking master. Turns out, when you befriend a group of sweet littlenonnasin the village and take embroidery and crafting classes with them, you pick up the language fast.

They adore him, of course,their Sylus,as they call him. They teach him recipes, fuss over his stitches, and tsk at him when he curses, which only makes him laugh and apologize in rapid, flawless Italian.

Sometimes, when he’s bored, he tags along with me to my astronomy classes at the nearby university. It’s such a small thing, really, just a single course I signed up for on a whim. I still have no idea what I want to do with it, if anything, but the guys convinced me to see it through.

“Why not?”Koen had said one night as we lay sprawled on blankets outside the villa, the stars above so bright and sharp they felt closer than ever.“You love this stuff. Do it for you.”

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