The Edge of the Vow

They stand together at the brink — not as heroes, not as villains — but as two people who have carried their choices as far as they can go.

The storm does not arrive because of them.
It was always coming.

He does not hold her as possession, but as burden and devotion intertwined — the way love can sharpen into duty when life has taken too much from both of them. The heart in her hand is not surrendered. It has already been given, long before this moment, long before there was a cliff or a consequence.

There is a quiet understanding between them:
that some bonds are not romantic,
not pure,
not kind —

but they are honest.

What remains here is not tragedy or triumph,
but the final truth of a promise kept.

Heather Lynn Donovan
Always by Candlelight