Whispers

Epilogue

Fred opened his eyes and saw her face. Just as young and perfect as the last time he had seen her. She opened her arms and he fell into them. The electricity that crackled through him was a welcome feeling. It felt like he was stretching out muscles that he had not used in years.

"Welcome back Fred," she said. Her voice was music to his ears. The first thing that he forgot about her was the sound of her voice. He buried his head in her shoulder and inhaled her scent.

"Callie, I've missed you so much," Fred said into her shoulder.

"You don't have to miss anything anymore Fred," said Calliope soothingly, "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

Fred struggled to hold back sobs as he allowed the feeling of her arms around him and her scent to absorb him.

"I love you Calliope," said Fred.

"I love you too," Calliope whispered.

So I just finished writing this and I wanted to write down my initial thoughts.
Originally, I did not plan for the series to end this way. Fred and Calliope were going to live happily ever after with a daughter named Natalie and sons named Arthur and Isaac.
But I came to the realisation that the only end for Calliope's story was for her to die. She became a gateway between humans and death, and this is all that she was to the wizards. Her role after the war would have been negligible and I don't think she could have ever been truly happy in the living world. For her to be happy she had to die.
More than any of my other characters Calliope fully took on a life of her own and wrote her own story the way that she thought it should turn out. Her life did not have a typical happy ending, but I like to think she was happy in the end.