Four Elements Book 2 - Fight and Feel

Epilogue

After everything that had happened, Andie wasn't sure how she'd managed to focus on her finals or the play. But she had to, if she hoped to graduate and go to college. Jessica had teased she could always earn a living using her voice, but Andie wasn't sure that was the life she wanted. Soon, the finals were upon them so they worked to focus on that rather than on wondering whether they were going to even survive until graduation. And it was oddly comforting, Andie found, to bury herself in her books.

She was a little nervous since she'd spent most of her year distracted by her powers, her relationships with Bane and Eric, and the play... but now that those things were mostly behind her, she felt liberated. Judy, of course, tried to convince Andie to return to perform next year.

"I really appreciate it, Judy, but I want to focus on graduating. I'm sure Vicki will be more than happy to fill in for me."

Judy had grumbled a little, but eventually accepted. And soon enough, they had finished with their exams.

"Ugh, History buried me," Jessica sighed.

"How can it have, we studied for hours just last night!" Isabelle said.

"I know... oh well, there go my dreams of being a historian," Jessica sighed.

Andie laughed heartily. Personally, she didn't know if she'd passed, but she didn't think she'd done too bad.

"I thought it was easy," Isabelle shrugged.

Andie grinned.

"Yeah, but you read textbooks for breakfast!" she teased.

They laughed. It felt so nice to just relax, even if they all knew deep down that it was only temporary. As they left the school building together after their last test, they went to the Soda Fountain to celebrate.

"Hey, has anyone else wondered what happened to Zorak when we sent him through that portal?" Emily asked.

"Who cares? With any luck he got sent to some parallel dimension and won't ever be able to come back."

"I don't think so," Andie replied. "I'm guessing he went back to the Demon Realm. But it's been nearly a month since we last fought and we haven't seen him anywhere."

"Yeah, so?" Jessica asked. "No news is good news, isn't it?"

"Not when we're talking about a century-old power-crazy demon ruler," Bane pointed out. "I'm with Andie, it's strange."

"Maybe it took a lot out of him and now he has to recover?" Jessica suggested.

"I guess it's possible..." Isabelle agreed.

"Or he's working on his next plan and it's so overly evil he's taking a while to plan it all out..." Emily said.

They all looked at her.

"Yeah... I think I'm going to try and find a more optimistic approach..." Andie said with a small smile. "Whatever the reason we haven't seen him or his son, we should just enjoy the reprieve. I mean, can you imagine what it would have been like if he'd attacked during the finals?"

They all laughed.

For a few more weeks after the finals, they still saw no sign of demonic presence. Zarias didn't pay Andie any new visits in the middle of the night. Which, she had to admit, she didn't mind. Andie's shoulder was not quite as nimble as it had been before, yet, but at least it was healed, now. Balon was having her exercise it every day. A physical therapy of sorts, Andie guessed. And it had been working. That Saturday morning was the first day of summer vacation. The sun was shining brightly as Andie came down to breakfast that morning. The familiar smells of coffee and toast had never felt so comforting, she thought as she made her way to the kitchen where her parents were already deep in conversation.