I'm sorry this has been so long coming… I've been so busy with revision, etc. that chapters are going to be few and far between, I'm afraid.

Author's Note: even though this is entitled "Epilogue" it isn't the last chapter I'm going to write, because obviously there are many missing gaps. It follows straight on from the Prologue, and provides the conclusion to the whole story. It's also a bit short - sorry about that.

Epilogue

"That's what you called me when you first met me, and it's what you still think of me now."

"Why do you care so much?" The girl spat, her anger overpowering her upset. "I thought djinn had no feelings."

"We don't," the gargoyle retorted with a sneer. "It's what separates us from you - the real creatures. Subjects in worship of greed and selfishness and vanity. The point is, I put an ounce of trust in you, and you squandered it - stabbed me in the back at the first opportunity!"

"And why are you so surprised?" she demanded. "The way you talk about humans, you expect them all to be the same - all grasping, gluttonous creatures of voracity. Why expect anything else from me!"

"Because I thought you were -"

"What?" the girl titled her head to one side in false apprehension. "You thought I was what, Bartimaeus?"

He finally turned around, his eyes so blazing with anger she was sure there was fire in those fathomless pupils. "Nothing." He said, and there was venom in his voice. "Nothing but another servant to your society, your reputation. You followed his orders and now you'll continue to do so - you two deserve each other."

"Shut up!" she cried, and there were now tears of fury in her eyes. "You say that as though I had a choice -"

"Of course you had a choice!" he bellowed. "You always do! Humans are just too weak to make decisions for themselves! You lied to me about your status; you hid that book - you had it for years and yet you never destroyed it even thought it could have destroyed me!"

"You don't understand," she was almost pleading now. "I had no choice! I wasn't powerful enough - all I could do was hide it. Besides - you can talk! You're the one who told him where it was!"

"What?" His eyes flared. "Why would I do something like that! That spell nearly killed me and half my kind! You found it and brought it back to him, not me!"

The girl was shaking her head now, a look of utter disbelief on her face. "How can you say that..? How can you accuse me of..? I would never…"

The gargoyle turned his back on her, glaring out of the window. "You know what? Somehow I don't believe you."

There was a slight smirk on her face, and she was still shaking her head. "You could have stopped me," she said. "If you expected so little of me, then surely you would have tried to destroy it yourself once I'd told you where it was, how I'd hidden it. But you didn't."

There was silence, the djinni merely continuing to watch the horse pawing on the gravel rather than attempt an answer. "And I paid the price," he muttered.

"What?" the girl said, but in all honesty, she didn't expect a reply. What had happened had happened and there was nothing she could do to alter his view of it. He would never believe what she told him, whether it was the truth or not. Somehow, she couldn't even comprehend her feelings towards him - had she truly trusted him, feared him, appreciated his help, or wanted something more..?

Catherine looked up, he was still staring out of the window, his hunched shoulders shutting her out.

She walked to the door and laid her hand upon it. Stepping over the threshold she threw one brief glance behind her and murmured, "Goodbye, Bartimaeus" before slamming the door behind her.

Please can I have a review... just one?