So this is it: this is the end...or is it? Thank you for all the reviews and support over the last months. I was frankly surprised at how many readers I got, and I truly appreciate. It's nice to know that you guys enjoyed reading this just as much as I enjoyed writing it. I know a lot of you were disappointed by the last chapter, so there's an Easter egg at the end of the epilogue just for you. Anyway, thanks again and see you on the flip side.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE. THE END OF THE BEGINNING

It was raining outside, but somehow the rain wasn't bothersome anymore. Sarah and Jordan stood there for a moment, staring out into the boringness of an ordinary neighborhood. They were in the same place they had been when Calcifer had snatched Jordan. Nothing had changed, though the rain did seem a bit lighter now.

"We'd better get back to the car before we get soaked," Sarah pointed out, and her daughter concurred.

Once they were in the car, Sarah started up the heater and they sat there in silence for a moment. Finally, Sarah said, "Well, we should probably go home. You have school tomorrow, after all." She glanced cautiously at her daughter. "That is, if you don't skip. Do you plan on skipping?"

Jordan shrugged. "I guess I can survive two more years. But I will still skip sex-ed. Got it? That class is creepy."

Sarah laughed. "I guess I'll let that go." Sarah turned the car keys in the ignition and started up the car. Switching the shift to drive, she started home.

After a few moments of silence, devious look cross Jordan's face and she turned to her mother. "So, mom, you and the goblin king…seems legit."

Sarah case a dark look at her daughter. "Don't even start with that. I know what you're going to say: I should have stayed. But I don't regret my decision."

Jordan sniggered. "Seriously, mom, that was not what I was going to say. Actually, I was kind of surprised. A pleasant, slightly sickening sweet kind of surprised."

Sarah smiled. "So, how about we start over?"

"Who needs to start over? We've already started. Why not just continue?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"What are you talking about: what about life is ever a plan?"

For the first time, Sarah appreciated her daughter's humor…even if the truth was that she couldn't have been more right.

Three hours later, Jordan climbed on her bed and sprawled out. She missed this bed. When they'd gotten home, Sarah had realized she had about fifty voice mail messages. Turned out, they'd been gone for about five hours, as if somehow the goblin king had slowed time for them. Sarah had called for Chinese delivery, and they had sat down for dinner for the first time in months. During supper, they just talked. The mother got to know her daughter a little better, and the daughter started finding her mother rather amusing. Now, Sarah had gone to take care of phone business, and Jordan had settled in her room.

Tomorrow was school, and things would go back to being pretty normal. Normal, boring school, with annoyingly abnormal human beings. She supposed it wouldn't be that bad. No one would be trying to kill her, or kidnap her, or anything that put her life in danger or, more importantly, make her annoyed. She hadn't changed that much, but she was willing now to try to change her world. Saving a goblin kingdom tends to make a person a bit bigheaded. Not that she minded; she'd always admitted she was bigheaded.

Sitting up, she grabbed for her bag. Seriously, that bag had been through hell with her. Snaking her hand into it, she grabbed for the labyrinth book, shifting through the contents of the bag. Instead, her hand touched something foreign. A round, smooth object met her hand, and she pulled it out cautiously.

An orb met her eyes, and she held it up with an enquiring face. "What the…"

The orb clouded and a face appeared inside of it. To be specific, Calcifer's face.

"Jordan." His voice sounded distant and mystical. "If I snuck this orb into your bag, it means that you are gone, back to your world. It's difficult to find words to address you, knowing that I won't be interrupted by your pert response. However, this may be the only chance I have to address you without forgetting what I was going to say and instead having the violent urge to either strangle you or kiss you.

"When I first learned of the curse, and your identity, I came up with a plan. I would bring you to the labyrinth, have you solve it, and make you queen of the Faye. I didn't take into account, however, that you could save my father. Once my father was dead, I had planned to marry you and put you on the throne. Looking back now, I can see why you mentioned something about being a pawn in a chess game. Because that is exactly what I made you to be in my plan. It was selfish and narrow-minded, but please believe me, I did it entirely because I knew it would save my people.

"However, when I brought you here, everything didn't go as planned. And, despite what you're going to say, it doesn't have everything to do with you. Somehow, your mother turned up right after you, and, soon after, Lord Fabian and his daughter turned up too. My father's health started deteriorating. Whether it was your mother, Lord Fabian, or just bad luck, I knew it wouldn't be long before he died. With Lord Fabian here, I knew we had to hurry. When you broke the curse, I realized that I had been wrong. I hadn't taken into account that you were the descendant of Serena Blackthorn and you had powers that others didn't.

"So I guess we come to the present. I've apologized several times, but, I think, apologies don't really change the past. However, I'll take it that you don't hate me, and that, when next we meet, you won't try sticking a samurai sword through my head. But I guess, if you did, I could kind of understand why. For some reason, though, I don't think you will.

"You mentioned this before, but we're a lot alike. We make dumb decisions because, at the time, they seem like brilliant inspirations. And when we're told they are, in fact, dumb decisions, we're too stubborn to admit that we might be wrong. We both say that our parents mean nothing to us, but, at the end of the day, I think we'd both admit that, without them, we wouldn't be what we are today. And maybe, I might someday forgive my father…and you might someday forgive you mother.

"Well, I guess this is where I say goodbye and have a great life. However, I can't say that. Because, honestly, I have a terrible inclination—though still slightly pleasant—that you and I will be seeing a lot of each other. See, our two families have been close for hundreds of years, and I don't think it's going to stop any time soon. After all, you're the descendant of Serena Blackthorn, and I'll be the next goblin king. So, I figure I'll give it a couple months before some elf, or ogre, or fairy finds out about where you and your mother are and decides to kidnap you. But, don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to handle it. After all, you are Jordan, and, if that fails, you always have me.

"Oh, and don't worry, 'cause I'm going to be keeping a really close eye on you. And, yes, you should be worried by that last statement. Because I can guarantee this is just the beginning."

The orb blurred and popped in her hand, vanishing into a mist of shiny sprinkles.

Jordan starred at her empty hand for a minute and blinked twice. Her hand dropped to her side and she glanced out her open window. It had stopped raining, and the moon was just coming out. Beyond that moon, those stars, there was another world…with labyrinths, goblin kings, and the Faye. It was waiting there in the shadows, ready to pounce on an unaware bystander. She just had to make sure she wasn't unaware.

She sighed. What had she gotten herself into? Or, actually, what had Prince Calcifer, the goblin prince, gotten her into? She had a feeling she would spend the rest of her life finding out. Well, so much for public school.

"Well, crap…"