He pours the night into crystal — a vintage of eons and ash — and leans across the table offering a glass, splintered bone hand glistening in the moonlight.

The candles falter, light thinning to breath, but the warmth in his gaze pulls me in close.

We laugh at the irony of breath, sharing the kindness of silence, the unspoken mercy of Death.

Time loosens its grip and he offers his hand to dance among the failing light. Velvet shores slide beneath our feet, as we soften and swirl, laughter spilling like pearls scattered across the night, eyes locked as everything else blurs to stardust.

We keep turning, turning, turning until even time forgets its name for a spell

Until a chime cuts through the dark.

“Just one more waltz,” he laughs, “at the edge of time.”

I laugh as I spin from his arms, leaving my scent in the air. I pull back toward the breaking of day and soar on the crest of the morning, back to the spray.

Days pass into lifetimes, and always the same. The violet nightfall calls as we fall into our moonlit dinner and dance. Where time softens before us, our forms spinning as lives fall away, swirling through eons and tides all around us.

Never once caring that his touch burns as ice on my back, nor he, that my warmth scars light into his bones.

Our pulse still holds the beat, even as time swirls into shimmers of stars around us.

“Just one more waltz,” he murmurs, “at the edge of time.”

I laugh as I spin from his arms, like a ripple of water and salt he will not betray. I linger on the crest of the morning, watching the frost on my wrist sear his whispered promise to stay.

Our dances grow longer, our laughter softens. What once burned and scarred, feels like the gentlest caress. 

Gliding through dying stars, time lost at its seams, dawn flickers but falters as we’re lost in the turning —  closer and closer fallen into the sway.

I laugh as I spin in his arms, hand held tightly this time, pulled back toward his gentle sigh

I put my hand to his face, and he to mine

“Just one more waltz,” I breathe, “my love, past the end of time.”