EPILOGUE

"Raina Ember, you and your family have been accused of the following crimes-" North stood in his chair twenty feet above me, surrounding him was the other three guardians, as well as the groundhog, Father time and Cupid. They were considered our government, and the closest things to the law we had in the mythical realms.

"Crimes?" I demanded pulling on the shackles around my wrists. "I haven't done anything outside of tradition!"

North continued as if I hadn't spoken. "The manipulation and murder of innocent humans. Souls tortured and left to walk the earth without rest. Creating wreckage and carnage. Kidnapping of the innocent-"

I slammed my fist on the table, the booming of the sound caused him to pause and look up at me. "What about your crime?" I demanded. "We have walked this earth for thousands of years and you just randomly decided to massacre my entire family?!"

North looked to Father Time who sat to his left, the old white haired man leant forwards. "Raina, we are sorry for your loss, we are willing to offer you an agreement in which you may continue on in the world, we don't want you to have to suffer the same fate as your parents, or anyone else in your family." I watched as he leant back in his chair and pulled out what looked to be a freshly written scroll. "You will be stripped of your Inferno status."

"What?"

"Meaning you will no longer share the power to control humans, and you will no longer possess the alluring appearance or the manipulative aura your kind have. No human will fall to your mercy at the sight of your eyes or be under your control by the sound of your voice." I stood from my chair the shackles keeping me from going any further. "We will also be taking away the weapon forged for you by your parents. What will remain is your ability to fly and manipulate fire, but should they be used in any harmful way towards the human world you will be returned here and sentenced for all and any crimes you may commit, or have committed."

I pulled on the chains, I wanted to kill him, I wanted to burn the place to the ground but I was being rendered powerless in the courtroom. "You can't do that!"

"You will be given a new task to perform, one in which brings joy and hope to the world. You will fly through the night sky, and you will be perceived as a shooting star, this will be a condition so we can monitor you each day to avoid anyone attempting to frame you. If there is a mass fire in one city, we can check where you were when the fire occurred." They couldn't have been being serious, they were going to monitor me like a hawk. "If you agree to our terms, you will have limited freedom, but you will be free to live your life, alive. Do you agree to these terms?"

I looked around at those in the room, anger boiled up inside me, and in fury I spit on the table before me. "You cannot sentence me! I am doing nothing but what my heritage allows me. Pitch creates nightmares and I don't see any of you attempting to kill him!"

Bunny stood, his temper was getting the better of him."Your family kill innocent men and women. Although you are nothing but a corrupted innocent yourself, you still did the same horrid acts your family did. If it were my choice you would suffer the same fate, or be locked up in an ice block for the rest of your life! But we are trying to be merciful."

"Mercy? Is that what you think you're showing me? The only reason I am alive is because I wasn't there! If I had been, you would have killed me along with my family, and because you accidentally missed one, you think that bringing me here and offering me a deal no different than imprisonment, is mercy?" I demanded.

North put a hand on Bunny's shoulder coaxing him to sit down. "The Infernos have been causing corruption-"

I burst into a fit of rage."Why is that for you to decided? We are from completely different realms of the world. We are Roman myths that place judgment on people and you're holiday characters that break into children's houses."

North's eyes turned from a clear deep blue to a clouded haze "Our job is to protect children."

"What does it have to do with me?"

"When A child's family member doesn't return from sea then that causes them pain then it becomes our business."

I sat down in my chair, staring him straight in the eyes. I wanted him to know, I wanted him to know that he was a murderer, that killing my family was no different than killing humans.

"Thousands of years, and it's all of a sudden your business? Because it's a little odd to me, we're not the only beings that can die, yet in 600 years we're the only ones to be attacked. Why not the Sirens? Huh? Beautiful man eating singers? Or maybe the leprechauns? Drunken thieves. The Mermaids are idiots! They've caused more ships to get lost than any of us. Thousands of years North. Longer than you've been alive, we have been living the only lives we know how to live, and you killed us. You and everyone else in this room are just as much a murderer as any Inferno was."

The rooms was silent, but they were not thinking about the words I had said, there was no change in the thoughts in their heads. They saw me as nothing but a dangerous murderer, and if I died or live it didn't matter to them, they were trying to make a dramatic gesture over giving me a choice. The rest of the world would see them as merciful and wonderful human beings for letting the young Inferno live, they were narcissistic, and they were selfish.

Cupid was the next to speak, his ludicrous red hair and pink eyebrows were so bright it made my eyes tired, "Raina, your choices are to accept our terms and walk out of this building alive, or to be given the same punishment, but never walk out of here again."

I glanced over the panel one more time before I spoke. "My family is dead, I am the only Inferno left. You can kill the creatures, but you will never kill the legend. Despite what you may think, my parents loved me, and they would never want to see me die, for them I am going to live. Give me the damn scroll." It floated from Father Time's hands, landing on the desk before me along with some ink. I took my finger, still burning from the fire within me, I touched it to the scroll and burned my signature in.