Up close, the letters of the Hollywood sign were large, the white paint on them fading in the sun. The sign had always felt important to Liv, like a symbol of everything she wanted to accomplish, everything she loved about her ambitious, dreaming city. Looking at it from a distance filled her with a sense of purpose, and being this close to it now seemed, fittingly, like something out of a movie.
Under normal circumstances, getting so close to the iconic letters wouldn’t be possible. It was closed off with a chain-link fence, and anyone who jumped over to get close enough for a picture might find themselves being chased down the hillside by helicopters and the police.
But now the city was still empty of helicopters, and of people in general. Instead, it was spread out before Liv and Cedric like a sprawling, shining, slightly smog-covered blanket. Liv wanted to take this opportunity while she could. She wanted to share it with someone. And not just any someone.
Liv leaned her back up against the metal scaffolding of the sign, her feet resting at a nearly ninety-degree angle on the steep hillside.
“You were right,” Cedric said beside her, gazing out over the landscape. “This was worth the climb.”
Liv smiled, her eyes also out over the city. Soon, the people would come back, with their cars and their big ideas and even bigger dreams. Meetings concerning millions of dollars would take place in the top floors of shiny buildings, while across town young hopefuls would keep their eyes glued to screens in darkened rooms, wondering when their own time would come. One of those hopefuls would be Liv.
Everything she’d always wanted was once again possible, now that they’d fixed what was broken. Of course, there were other, more immediate concerns. Even though Liv would be going to live with Joe—something that still seemed too good to even believe—she knew her social worker and friend still had some hard questions to face.
Joe would be forever changed by what happened to him, forever tainted with wrath blood. Whether he and the other Knights who’d been turned would become Guardians like Cedric or something else entirely was yet to be seen, but Cedric was keeping a close watch on Joe, and he’d vowed to keep close tabs on the others as well. If they’d gained strength from the wrath blood, they might also need training and guidance. They’d need someone who knew how to fight, and what things were worth fighting for. They’d need him.
Then, of course, there was the magic, and all of the unknowable shapes that it would take. That was the biggest question looming over Liv’s head. The outside world had its own questions, some about Liv and her role in what had happened to the city. But Liv didn’t want to think about any of that now, about the way they’d changed the world and how they’d have to answer for it. Right now, she was finally alone with Cedric, without fear of violence coming to tear them apart. Without fear that he might leave.
“See that whole big city out there?” Liv asked, gesturing at Los Angeles laid out before them like an uneven blanket stretching to the sea. “It’s all yours now, for as long as you want it. What’s the first thing you think you’ll do?”
Cedric looked out over the hills and cocked his head. “Well, someone once told me I would make an excellent stuntman.”
He grinned, pushing one shoulder up against Liv. Just feeling the warmth of his arm through her shirt sent a buzz through her skin.
“And you have no regrets?” she asked, pulling back a little. “About the things you’re leaving behind? Your family?”
“I will miss my family, but it is not as though I will never see them again. The portals will no longer hurt our worlds, remember? And even if I do not see them every day, they are still my family. They always will be. Even those who are . . . gone.”
“I think your father would be proud, you know? Of how you handled Malquin,” she said.
“No,” Cedric said, shaking his head. “I don’t think he would. But it does not matter. I am proud.”
Liv smiled. “Me too.”
They sat in silence for a moment before she turned to him again.
“And you’re absolutely, completely, totally sure you want to stay?”
Cedric shook his head and smiled. “Again, yes. I am sure. Completely, totally sure.”
Liv felt a smile split across her face. “Totally? Careful now, you’re beginning to sound like me.”
“Maybe I should take care to sound more like you, now that I will be staying for a while.”
“No,” Liv protested. “Don’t change too much—I like the way you talk.”
Cedric smiled. “I like the way you talk, too. And the way you look.”
“I like the way you look at me.”
“I like the way you are.”
Liv shook her head lightly, moving closer to Cedric. “We sound totally cheesy, just so you know.”
“Totally. And I do not care.”
He leaned closer, resting the tip of his forehead against hers. Beyond him, the city landscape became fuzzy, and Liv’s eyes focused automatically on his features—his nose, his mouth, his eyes that were looking only at her.
“Good. I don’t care either.”
Cedric leaned forward and kissed her then, first her jaw, then the edge of her lips.
“I never really thought I could have this,” he whispered, his words nearly getting swallowed up against her skin. “Something as strange and wonderful as getting to be here in this world, with you.”
Liv pulled back a fraction, smiling. “Cedric, don’t you know the first thing about LA? It’s where happy endings are made.”
He cupped the side of her face with one hand. “Endings? I do not like the sound of that.”
“Good.” Liv smiled. “Because that’s the other thing about LA—there’s always a sequel.”
She kissed him again, and this time neither of them pulled away for a very long time.
They drove back at sunset, up the PCH with the ocean on one side and the city on the other. They passed the Santa Monica Pier, and Liv remembered another day, only a few months earlier, when she had first truly opened her heart up to someone else. How terrifying and full of risk that moment had been. It seemed like so long ago.
As Liv drove Joe’s Jeep down the two-lane highway, she passed two other cars coming in the opposite direction. Already, people were starting to return to the city. She slowed a bit as a convertible passed on her left, and Cedric eyed the Jeep’s steering wheel, a glint in his eye.
“Don’t even ask,” she said, grinning.
“I have driven before,” he said. “And I was fairly competent. Good even.”
Liv snorted. “That’s not the way Kat told it.”
Cedric made a face, but he wasn’t mad, not really. There was time for Liv to teach him how to properly drive. There was time, now, to do anything they wanted.
Liv followed a twist in the road, and the bright orange sunlight lit up the car. She flipped the sun visor down. “You realize how cliché this is, that we’re literally driving off into the sunset?”
“Are you making another movie reference that I could have no possible way of understanding?”
“Man, we have so much work to do,” she said, looking over at him with a smile. “I mean, the Western genre alone will take us weeks.”
“That sounds good to me,” Cedric said, returning her smile.
Liv looked back to the road, feeling as though she were light enough to float up through the windshield. Without even looking at Cedric, she knew he was feeling the same thing. Because they were driving through her city—no, their city—side by side, both knowing, beyond a doubt, that this was exactly where they were supposed to be at this exact moment.
And if that wasn’t the feeling of being at home—finally, finally at home—then what was?
But even though they were literally driving off into the sunset, Liv didn’t feel like it was time to roll credits. Because now that they knew what home was, they wouldn’t have to waste any more time looking for it. They could just live in this moment and look forward to the moment to come. Because in that moment, anything could happen.
Anything at all.