“For Myth,” Noah, Rome, and Eloise say together.
Eloise wipes a tear off her cheek and quickly regains her composure.
“You good?” Noah asks her.
She nods.
“Then let’s not keep them waiting.” Rome grins.
He and Noah head to the stage, and the screams are piercing the moment the fans catch sight of them. Eloise slides up beside me and pauses for a moment.
“You sure about this?” she asks, and I know she’s talking about a lot of things. This city, the show, getting clean.
My answer to all of them is, “Yes.”
Eloise walks out next, and those high-pitched screams start up again. Fans eating the three of them up.
They call us lots of things.
Stars.
Idols.
Gods.
If only they knew…
I make my way to the very edge of the stage, where I barely catch a glimpse of the audience. Quinn said she got Cassie tickets for the front but didn’t tell me where exactly. Scanning the crowd, I don’t see her.
She didn’t come.
Not that I should have expected her to after everything I put her through. She’s probably working on her new business, settling back into her life, repairing things with her family. The last thing she needs is to get lost in my world.
But a certain part of me, deep down, still hoped she’d show up, if for no other reason than to give her the kind of goodbye she deserved. One with a clear head and honest intentions.
In Denver, while I was coming clean, I didn’t consider that it was also a selfish purging. I laid myself on the scale to see how she weighed my fate, not thinking about the impact it would have on her. It wasn’t fair coming clean like that, in the middle of a party. If she can never forgive me, I need to accept it, no matter how impossible that feels.
I’m not ready to let her go, and I don’t know if I ever will be.
I want to show Cassie I’m more than Sebastian Kane. More than the broken mess she met high as fuck beside her car. I want to prove I’m worth it—to her and to me. I just need her to give me the chance.
The lights get low, and Noah hits the drums as I prepare to go on stage. The energy in the stadium is so high, it could easily make a person feel like they’re invincible.
I take a deep breath and try to ignore the universe that seems to be opening up inside me. Galaxies and constellations I’m sure Cassie could name and recall their stories. Because she could read me almost as well as she could read the stars.
Here I am.
Sacramento.
Sober.
I look up and close my eyes, thinking about Myth. Remembering him standing next to me right before that last show, resting his elbow on my shoulder, and grinning.
“Show ‘em what you’re made of.”
When he said it to me then, I thought I already knew. But that wasn’t the case. I might have been worshiped by millions, but I was lost.
Rome’s fingers start moving over the guitar strings for the beginning of Electric Hearts. Those first couple chords always hit me deep in the stomach.