The Angel of Olden Academy ✓

epilogue part one

f i v e y e a r s l a t e r

April 19th.

It had been two years—two years, one month, four hours, and thirty-six minutes—since Adam had broken up with me.

I'd deleted the message (Can you talk right now? It's important) ages ago, but I had the date, the time stamp, the conversation memorized.

Adam had said, "We should break up."

I'd stopped breathing.

"It's not working for either of us, Ehren. We never see each other anymore. And you're leaving when you graduate. I know you've been avoiding talking about that."

"Adam," I'd whispered. I didn't remember sitting down, but there I was on the floor. "I love you."

It hadn't been enough.

Now I was sitting in my car, staring through the rainy window at the restaurant before me. We'd all agreed—Eesha, Kyle, Sander, Viola, Adam, and I—to meet here two years after graduation. The restaurant, a dingy little place with oddly delicious lasagna, was chosen for its proximity to Olden—well, relative proximity. The town, which was the nearest civilization to the castle, was at least thirty five miles away.

I could see Adam through the window.

That golden hair, those eyes the color of a summer sky. He hadn't changed. Not really. The biggest difference I could find was that he wasn't smiling. The Adam I'd known had always been smiling, even on his worst days.

He checked his phone every few minutes. For the time? Or for a message from his new boyfriend? I didn't know that he had one—but how could he not? He was beautiful. He was kind. He was ...

Looking at me.

I quickly jerked my head away. Idiot, idiot, idiot. I was supposed to play it cool tonight—to act like I didn't care. And I'd been caught staring like some heartbroken puppy.

I yanked the keys out of the car and stepped into the drizzling rain, not daring to look back through the window. As soon as I entered the restaurant, Viola jumped up and hugged me.

"Hey, hey, careful!" I said, pulling back to touch her stomach gently. "How's little Ehren?"

Sander snorted. "Oh, you wish, mate. You fucking wish. We're naming him after Viola's dad."

Viola nodded with a big smile. "Aven. Isn't it perfect?"

I nodded, smiling back. "Aven Ehren Norman. It's wonderful."

She just grinned and shook her head.

"How's it been?" Kyle asked. He'd stopped dying his hair, and had let it grow into a short, groomed afro of sorts.

"Loving the hair," I said instead of answering that dreaded question, and leaned over to give Eesha a quick hug before taking the seat next to her.

"You look tired," she said, regarding me. "It's that human job, isn't it? Ehren, I don't know what you're doing sitting around in an office all day. You're an excellent theorist and writer—you should be a professor."

I'd heard this before. The problem with Eesha—and one of the things I loved most about her—was that she seemed to know me better than I knew myself. She was, of course, right. Olden was where I belonged. But how could I return—how could I torture myself like that? Adam was a healer there now, a respected one, and I'd see him everywhere. It would kill me.

"Being an accountant's not so bad," I mumbled, and Eesha pinned me with a disappointed look as the others switched topics. Then she glanced pointedly at Adam, who was staring at the table, biting hard on his lip.