Epilogue
SNOW FALLS LIGHTLY, BLANKETING THE ground, gray clouds obscuring the sun.
Fiona can’t see it though, of course. But she can feel it, drifting gently from the sky, layer upon layer of cool white.
She paces, her fingers rattling against the bars of her cage, each touch of the burning, cursed iron a searing pain that she eats greedily. Just to feel like less of a ghost.
When the Guardians captured her and put her in the box that dampened her magic, all she could think about was how empty she felt.
Gone were the rumbles of power, and in their place was a void.
She might not have her magic, but she can still sense things.
Things like the snow falling outside or the blast of power that erupted two months ago when the Water was awakened.
She’d reveled in their panic when she managed to escape the last, less intense cage on the night of the centennial. Though she was too weak to join the Water in the fight, she knew this one act of resistance would be enough to buy her time.
And now she waits. She waits for the Water. She waits for her freedom. She waits for the chance to kill each and every Guardian she can.
Outside Fiona’s cage is a whole wide world, and she yearns to watch it with eyes closed. But despite her efforts, her projections don’t cast, and her mind stays stuck in this hellhole.
So instead she presses her ear to the vent and listens to her guards as they gossip.
Alastair Matsoukas is dead. Or so they say.
But that won’t stop them. That’s what this so-called Harper and her friends don’t understand. These hunters, they aren’t alone. Scattered across the globe, they have been waiting for this day. Waiting to cleanse the world.
To finally have something worth bargaining with.
Though they seem relieved to be free of the zealot Alastair. In his place is someone much more levelheaded. Someone equipped to build an army.
But first they must capture Harper and the blood traitor. They must collect the Fire and Earth.
They will use the Cardinal prophecy to crack Black Mountain wide open, to find the river of legend. To harness the power of the stars and free the world of evil once and for all.
Or at least that’s how they see it.
Fiona likes their ambition. She practically vibrates as she listens to the vitriol they spill. She hoards it all, way down deep inside her. She lets it fester.
She nurtures the rage as it builds.
One day when she’s free, she will do all the things they fear. She will tear them limb from limb, Cardinal prophecy or not. She doesn’t give a damn about the ley lines or the Great War.
When this is all over, she wants one thing, and one thing only.
Revenge.