Epilogue
Lucrezia
Damien comes in with his hair a mess. Blood all over his clothes.
"My God, what happened to you?"
"Nicky's gone."
"For good?"
"For good."
I nod. Then take another look at him. "Damien, you look like shit."
"I know."
There's a pause. He meets my eyes, and something's different.
"Cree," he says.
"Yeah?"
"I love you, baby."
I tilt my head towards him. "You mean it?"
He nods. Then steps forward into my arms.
Agatha
I call Minty to come and pick me up. She does it without question. Silent. She's out of her comfort zone, and for once, I'm glad.
She drops me at the airport. We don't exchange a single word.
The next morning, I fly home with Lucy. My latest boyfriend is waiting for me outside of security. We kiss, and he holds me. I don't have to pretend to be anything I'm not.
Mum texts me a bunch. I'd told her I'd be coming out for spring break, so she was expecting me, and when I didn't show up, I guess she went mental. Texted everyone-Simon, Penny, Minty. Even Baz.
I text her her back when I'm safely in the passenger seat of my boyfriend's car. Sorry. Something came up. Not this time. She rages, but that's okay. I did what I could. I stopped when I had to.
California, here I come.
Maybe someday I'll find the courage. But I don't think that day's today.
Baz
"In justice. In courage. In defence of the the weak. In the face of the mighty. Through magic and wisdom and good."
It comes. I wasn't expecting it to-it's only shown up a few times before today, when Snow and I practice in the flat we've rented-but I guess the Sword of Mages has decided my need is great enough. Decided, maybe, to finally let go of Snow.
Now the blade comes down with a whistle, severing the goblin's head from its neck. Snow was right-the goblins did come back to Essex (the tossers), and they've been making an incredible fuss. With the Mage gone, no one really wanted to step up to help. Except me and Snow. The powerless winged bloke and the gay vampire. Go figure, right?
"Nice one," Snow says, from my left.
I make him stand back and watch, because if I didn't, he'd probably fight the goblins with his bare hands alone. After what he did to Nicodemus, I don't trust him with anything even remotely close to an enemy.
"Better than anything you could do," I say.
He glances at me, wiping his hands on his jeans. His eyes are fierce, and for a second I'm scared.
"Put that away, Basilton," he says, in a low voice. "I want to kiss you."
A year ago, I'd probably have sneered at him and kept the sword out. Kept him guessing. But now, after everything we've been through (and yeah, maybe because the throatiness of that voice is quite possibly the sexiest thing I've ever heard), I just slide the blade back into nothingness and take a step towards Simon Snow.
"Kiss me, then," I say.
And he does.
The End
