Epilogue

Skulduggery's laugh sounded into the kitchen from the garden and I smiled at it. My favourite people having fun would never not make me smile.

Each time I hear that, it makes everything more worth it. I smiled with Darquesse and nodded slightly, I couldn't agree more with her. We had both discovered slightly more peace after the birth of our child. Darquesse had actually gotten tearful holding the tiny hands and feet for the first time. We both shared the same dread of breaking our poor baby, and were both surprised that we actually held it together.
We had both our husbands to thank for that.
All four of us struggled for a while, but eventually we helped Skulduggery gain a form of control over Vile. Our indestructability came in as a bonus when a few test trials went wrong with him. Apparently one mass murderer changing was all we were going to get in our lifetime…

It was Beth's screams of joy that broke through my chain of thought. Skulduggery chased our daughter into the kitchen with a much younger but certainly louder Danny in hot pursuit. Tanith immediately scooped her baby boy into her arms and began to tickle him, making him scream louder. Skulduggery was still trying to catch Beth and I rolled my eyes as I heard him curse under his breath and felt the faint gust of magic being used.

This moment is sweet, but please stop the screaming child. It couldn't have taken after Ghastly could it? Nice and quiet, cup of tea and observing in the corner.
Stop lying to yourself. I smiled at Darquesse again and felt her smirk back, You love Danny as much as everyone else does. She rolled her eyes but nodded anyway. I heard a crash from upstairs and sighed.

"Bethany Tanith Louise Melissa Pleasant! What have I sad about breaking things?" My voice echoed to the troublemakers currently on the first floor of the house, and I could sense them both freeze. Skulduggery must have whispered because I heard Beth shout back "No caught by Mumma?" her vague repetition made my shoulders sagged at her reply. Not cool Skulduggery. Ghastly and Tanith barely held their snickers back from behind me. I rolled my eyes and floated towards them, just in time to see Skulduggery whisper something else into her ear.
"Mumma… Poopoo?" Beth pulled a puzzled look before turning fully to her father who was just about containing his laughter. "I… Swear I did not tell her to say that!" Skulduggery held his hands up, and by now I could be sure Tanith was rolling on the floor with laughter.

Beth took off towards her room and slammed the door, leaving the culprit on the landing- who, of course, ran. I landed myself and immediately gave chase. He turned into our bedroom and couldn't quite shut the door in time, my hair flying in behind me as the door clicked shut. I jumped him and we both landed on the bed, me on top and Skulduggery grunted with the falling motion. I leaned over and smiled "What should I do with you?" Skulduggery, ever like lightening, flipped us over just as I became aware of the hand making its way up the inside of my trouser leg "I could think of a few things…" He trailed off and leaned in for a kiss. Just as I arched up into him, he moved to my side and the hand disappeared. I frowned and made a noise of displeasure, Skulduggery just smirked a knowing look.

"SAVE DA" Beth broke into the room screaming and flinging her arms at anything and everything. Skulduggery let her do a few flaps of her arms around the place before valiantly picking her up and plonking her between us on the bed.

Tanith and Ghastly were next into the room, a sleeping Danny bundled into Ghastly's arms- almost drooling on his father's shirt. I hugged Tanith and Ghastly as they said their goodbyes for the night, making sure Beth didn't wake Danny up again.

Later on when even Beth had worn herself out and was tucked into bed, Skulduggery and I made our way outside under to the shed. It was more like a mini house now, with a glass roof and nearly fully functioning on its own- it had only been a recent addition to Gordon's back garden.
The uses varied. Normally it was me trying to escape the nightmares about Beth taking after me, turning into someone like Darquesse. And when the destroyer of the world also recognised it as a bad thing you knew you should worry. Darquesse would try to reassure me that she would die herself before anything happened to Beth (although I don't see how to kill her) but that wasn't what I worried about. It was the guilt after, being told of what you had done. The broken memories dripping through into your head, reminding you 24/7 what some evil thing with your face was doing- what YOU were doing.

Although I didn't think like that anymore, and I would hate to voice that to Darquesse now- it still haunted me. The general nightmares of loss of Beth or Skulduggery I could handle. I know nothing would ever be able to take them away from me. Now or ever.
For Beth, the shed was an attempt to stay up late with mum and dad, learning about stars and dad carrying her back to bed when she fell asleep. And I knew he used the shed, but I couldn't figure out when Skulduggery went on his own. I had a feeling, like me, he faced his own demons. He refused to tell his, but I shared every time. A part of me felt guilty over this, but perhaps Skulduggery thought he protected me by not sharing.
Either way, the shed was used more than either of us would like to admit.

Beautiful. Darquesse sighed as our eyes searched the stars. I had no choice but to agree on that one, not matter what happened in the day- the stars always took my breathe away. We settled into our usual spot, Skulduggery with a pile of cushions behind him and my head on his chest. I turned to breathe him in. This had become so normal I doubted Skulduggery would notice that I checked his heartbeat regularly. I was secretly terrified he would disappear on me, that my work of turning him human again was rushed and he would fade away because of my selfishness constantly played on my mind. Taken from me. From Beth.

A voice entered my head. You continue to amaze me Stephanie. Wise beyond your years, and yet years to come. Do not waste them on Earth like I did.
My head tilted a faction, recognising that angelic voice anywhere.

I looked to Skulduggery, who was already staring at me. Our foreheads touched "Until the end." His velvet voice washed over me, assuring me everything was going to be fine.

"Until the end"

Hope everyone is well! Just wanted to add a little bit more to this story, please let me know what you think? Is there anything you want resolved?
As always, please read and review!

Love Em x