East

Epilogue

Epilogue

SNOW HAS REACHED Edgecliff, too. The buildings on Main Street look snug and comfortable under their white-pelted roofs. A warm light emanates from Maylin's café, full of patrons on a weekend afternoon.

When we pause by the ruins of the church, I find myself studying it carefully for the first time in three years. Only a shell of the original structure still stands. Blackened glass remains in some of the arches, though the large wall in the back has a gaping hole where the rose window used to be.

"They never fixed it up?" Callia asks, shivering.

I shake my head. "I think they just built a new one," I say. "It was more expensive to redo this."

Not to mention, I want to add, Edgecliff has a penchant for clinging to the past.

I stopped going to church as soon as I was old enough to jump off a cliff by myself, but Thea had stubbornly dragged us to Sunday school when we were kids. Standing here, seeing the ruins of the beautiful building covered in snow, grief swells in me. Nevertheless, a huge weight feels like it's been lifted off my shoulders. It feels good to finally know, finally, that I had nothing to do with the destruction here.

"We should get going if we want to catch him before he goes to work," Ash says gently.

We get back into the car. They let me drive; familiar roads stretch out before me, roads that I've run down since I was out of diapers, the snow making them look oddly new. At a stoplight, I put my left hand out of the window, feeling the winter chill bite at my skin. Dennis' bracelet glitters in the sunlight.

The field seems undisturbed—a smooth blanket of snow. The sky is clear today. The houses sit quietly, pastel pinks and beiges muted against the bold blue horizon.

Callia looks out the window, absorbing everything, unusually subdued. Ash's hand on my leg is warm and steady; I'm grateful.

"I hate to bring it up again," Callia says suddenly, "but there's something I don't get about the prophecy."

Ash sighs. "Which part?"

I slow down as we get close to the house, and park a little ways away. We get out of the car, cross the street, make our way down the sidewalk, up the creaky steps of the front porch...

"It's just the last two lines," Callia is saying. "'Break the cliffs, scorch the sea,/Raze the winter once and for all.'"

"What about them?" Ash says wearily.

We stop in front of the door. Unlike the other houses, there's no Christmas wreath. I raise my hand to the doorbell, fingers trembling.

"Well, you didn't, did you? The cliff was intact. The sea was fine. I guess you did raze the winter, if you take it to mean ending Idris' reign of terror, but..."

"Do you want me to ring the doorbell?" Ash asks me in a low voice.

I shake my head. I'm looking at my wrist, turning it to stare at the bracelet charm again, at the wavy line across the middle.

"...then I was thinking; didn't Idris get the prophecy verbally? That's how the story goes, right?"

I always assumed it was a drawing of a wave, especially with the blue on the bottom; but now that I study it more closely, the line seems more like a slanted W in cursive...

Callia takes a deep breath. "What if she wrote it down wrong? What if it's not R-A-Z-E, raze, but R-A-I-S-E, raise?"

"'Raise the winter'..." Ash repeats.

Footsteps sound inside the house. My hand drops to my side, and I take a step back as the front door opens.

Dennis stares at us stonily. "Are you coming in, or what?"

//

Aaand we're done!

I am so sorry for the cliffhanger (mostly for myself, since I can't imagine working on a sequel any time soon. Goodness)! If you have any further questions about the plot, the characters, or anything at all, please comment and I'll address things in the next chapter, which will just be a wrap-up post of sorts.

In other news, I'm so happy to announce that East is back on the Wattpad featured list again (thanks, Explorer Bot!). I've also entered it into the Wattys, so we'll see what happens there.

I can't believe it's over!! Thank you for staying with me for so long—especially those who were here for the original (even more horrid) 2014 version. Wow :)