E
PILOGUE
/A
UTHOR’S
N
OTE
Where Are They Now?
T
here’s popcorn on the floor. The tissue in one hand is wet from the scene where a frothy beverage spewed out your nose, and the tissue in the other is moist from wiping away your tears when Caspian died and you got really mad at the author. We all got sniffly there, and maybe a bit mad, suffered a raging case of “Hey, writer lady, you’d better fix this or I’m going to light your book on fire and send you hate mail.” Trust me: Even the muse got an earful. But as the credits are rolling, there’s great music playing and hijinks did most certainly ensue.
“But what happened?” you cry. We want to know exactly how Seraphim isn’t dead and how Aurora and Raphael got together and so much more. And while Michael’s fate would be better suited to the horror genre—this
is
a romance novel, after all—one little peek wouldn’t hurt, would it?
Hades did indeed retire to Texas. He’d wanted a ranch outside Dallas with some cattle. He didn’t seem to mind that the animals didn’t care much for his presence and Seraphim wasn’t very big on all the moo poop. She still had a job to do, and she needed to look and smell her very best. She was sure he just liked being around other things with horns. He wore a false pair around the house, always saying, “Guess who’s horny today?” All Seraphim could do was shake her head and smile.
Seraphim? She’s still the Baba Yaga. The Powers That Be couldn’t let her go out like that. So, the Universe shook with their purpose and goodness reigned. The Powers don’t do that too often, but sometimes it’s necessary. Grace was so good and sweet and, hey, they just didn’t like an unhappy ending. No one else would have either, except for Nadja, but her vote didn’t count. Hades wanted his woman to retire and stay home with him, but Seraphim had a feeling this retirement stuff was just a phase—more like a vacation. He’d find some way to get back in the game, both feet first, and Seraphim wasn’t about to let him do it alone.
Michael’s mother was strapped to the Wheel for another few thousand turns, and this made her pretty dizzy. She got a mulligan, a do-over. Some thought she didn’t deserve it, but there was a price yet to be paid. Her next incarnation would find her in the previous century as a young girl with visions—a dangerous occupation for a woman in the Burning Times.
Jill was indeed bound to Michael for all eternity, but Nadja’s magick spell died with her. She was gifted with Michael’s soul in return. When he forfeited on his contract—he couldn’t exactly fulfill it while throat-chained by Raphael—Ethelred was kind enough to hand it over. The two now live together in a lovely house in Detroit. Jill is the Web mistress for a forced-sissy site, and Michael is her star performer three times a day. Her screen name is DoubleD_Dominatrix666.
Katerina taught Petru how to cook, and they started a soup kitchen that doubles as a shelter for prostitutes wanting to get out of the life. The pimps don’t argue after a serious conversation with Petru. They got married, and Petru adopted her sons as his own. Katerina and Grace have since become very close. Petru misses Sasha daily, and they have a small shrine in their home where a candle is kept burning for Sasha’s soul. But he doesn’t need it. Sasha will have another turn on the Wheel, too, and he’ll find Nadja again and again until they earn their redemption.
Ethelred is happy with his new Crown Prince status, but he’s kind of lonely, though Grace and Caspian have him over for dinner parties. They all play Taboo, and he’s really good at it. He’s also taken to growing his own tea. He wanted to say something slick about blowing the angel Gabriel’s horn, but I think we’ll give that a miss—for the time being.
Grace and Caspian spend most of their time in a castle in the Netherworld, or in Hell as it’s better known. It really is a lovely place, as Caspian suggested. He can rule from there, taking care of this and that. He handled the brewing insurrection that Hades had been sweating, parceling several companies and selling them off, absorbing others and giving great severance packages. All in all, he turned out not to be all that bad a guy to work for, even if he spends a lot of time at home in the bedroom with Grace.
Heaven and Hell being a state of mind, in a surprise development Raphael and Aurora moved in across the street and Grace has gotten to know them. While she loves both parents intensely, she still shoots fireballs when they pester her for grand-imps or cherubim. She’s not quite ready to start her new family, as she’s just been reunited with the loved ones she’d lost. But she figures it’s coming soon.
All in all, everyone got their Happily Ever After. At least, everyone who deserved one.
And don’t miss HOW TO MARRY A WARLOCK IN 10 DAYS, coming October 2012!
GOT WARLOCK?
Middy Cherrywood does. She’s got more warlock than she can hex with Dred Shadowins. He isn’t just a billionaire playboy and
Weekly Warlock
centerfold. He’s a spy for the High Chancellor, and he convinces Middy to pose as his fiancée for his latest mission. Too bad no one told his mother before she slipped Middy a potion that will make their sham engagement all too real in just ten days.
Dred Shadowins already has his hands full with cursed objects, possessed nuns, and dreams where Merlin makes him pay for taking his name in vain by relating his sexcapades with Nimue. But by the end of the mission, he’s convinced his most difficult challenge is the hero’s cape Middy’s draped over his shoulders. Because he wants nothing more than to give her the one thing he may not be capable of providing: Happily Ever After.