Epilogue - Juniper
We left the island before the sunrise.
I watched the boundary close atop it once we crossed the bridge, sealing it off from the Nether Realm’s reach. And from there…
From there, we ran.
And we haven’t stopped.
Three months of sunrises with these two, and I’m so much more in love with them than I thought I ever could be.
It’s been the most exhilarating, terrifying, and maddening time in my life.
Every week is a new city too large for creatures to ambush us in, too complicated to be scented or spotted beneath the twin’s guise.
Seeing this world without the veil is like discovering it all over again. Everywhere we go, I see things I only ever thought were fairytales, and really, living and loving them… I’m part of the story, too.
Pack is enjoying the travel immensely. Oreo…
not as much, though she’s tolerating all the travel like a pro.
We’re meeting Jasmine in a couple of days, and she’s going to take Oreo back to the island with her.
I don’t want to be separated from my cat, but it’s the best thing for her.
I don’t know how well she’ll do in another realm.
Pack, however, seems to be made for this life. Blaze has even been training her.
Without the bar to keep me occupied, I’ve begun writing again.
It’s a passion I’ve had since childhood, though I’ve never been able to truly have the time to get words on paper It gives me an outlet, something to do while Blaze and North are working on strengthening their powers, and Blaze says my writing is helping him also.
He’s been studying their Codex nonstop when he isn’t driving. I can see his powers growing behind his eyes. His aura feels stronger, more confident. He practices and works with North when we stop. It’s constant. Everything we do is in preparation.
With a month to go, all of our nerves are beginning to show.
I don’t know what’s going to happen. The brothers have been plotting at night, mapping out movements that I don’t quite understand.
There’s so much about the Nether Realm that’s still to learn, so much I feel like they haven’t fully explained.
I admit, I should be scared to walk into a place that wants to kill me.
Still, with them, I’ve never felt safer.
Whatever’s next is going to have to do a lot more to break us apart than threaten death.
They’re working on a way to beat that, too. North’s suggestion to turn me has been at the back of Blaze’s mind since he mentioned it. He says he has to get our contract just right, and that we’re only missing one thing to make it true—a thing we’re heading to find right now.
Goodbye fragile human life. Hello immortality.
Something tells me that’s going to piss their mother off even more.
I don’t care.
I can’t wait to sigh whatever Blaze comes up with.
Forever.