She's The Enemy (GxG)

Epilogue - Happy Ever After

When Emelie awoke, she was home. Not in the palace with Isla, sleeping in that strangely large bed that felt just a slight bit smaller once Isla held her. In fact, she remembered the last time she woke up in this particular bed, torn from her sleep by the cries of her brother. It felt like a lifetime ago. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe everything that had happened in the past year had been a dream. What if it wasn't even real? And now she had to wake in her bed, collect water and food for tonight's dinner and begin that same lacklustre routine she had followed for the first nineteen years of her life.

She rises from the uncomfortable bundle of straw, enveloped in cloth. Strangely, she finds it incredibly therapeutic to be lying there again. And despite the lack of sleep, it feels like a blanket had wrapped itself around her. Home. There's nothing else that feels like it. As the haze of blur fades from her view, she notices the calender, hung by the doorway of her room.

It's her birthday.

Maybe it was all a dream. It didn't feel like one. She really hoped it wasn't one. She couldn't lose Isla, not again. Then there's a shuffle, a boy rising from his sleep beside her. Her little brother. The perfect little boy with the constantly scruffy brown hair, despite what comb you put through it, the only one in our family to inherit his father's eyes; a light hazel with a thousand colours dancing around his iris.

She hadn't realised how much she missed him. And while she couldn't quite remember what had brought her to this place, she was suddenly grateful. Although, that was a feeling that wouldn't last long.

***

Avery is far from home. And yet, the cold, concrete walls surrounding her have been there longer than she can remember, the sharp teeth of the iron chains, grazing her skin as she tried to fight them for the first time in what seemed like years.

"NO!" She screams with everything she has, thrusting herself towards the taunting metal door, "No, you promised! You promised I wouldn't end up here! I don't want this!" Her neck begins to tighten, the countless scars upon her wrists threatening to reopen, "PLEASE!" It's with this final word in which she seems to give up, tears falling indelicate patterns down her cheek, her sobs echoing around the room. 

She is back. She is back in the one place which she could never forget, the one place which even the thought of scared her the death. She thought she would be saved. She thought she could be happy. But now she's dreading the sound of that dreadful metal door, creaking open and the heavy footsteps that will follow.

She can't. She can't do this again. She refuses to. Death would be better. Death would be easier. Anything, she would do absolutely anything to stop that door from opening, to break the walls of this harrowing purgatory.

Then she hears it, her thoughts evaporating into the air around her. It's the sound as a key is placed hastily into it's home; a slow crunch as the doorknob turns; the soft creak of metal against concrete. Then a grunt. Deep and low but followed with the darkest of feelings. Worse than anything Avery had ever experienced before. Like dark energy crawling through her body, snaking through her arteries, filling her heart and lungs.

She was supposed to be safe.

***

Emelie was dead. 

The thought doesn't quite register in the blonde's mind as Naidia offers the other girl her hand, forcefully pulling her over large rifts in the terrain which had been created by the swift shake of the earth. Naidia drags the two of them into the palace where many of the members of her court her huddle together, most protecting their young, whispering words of encouragement in their ears.

This could not be how it ends.

She has finally gotten where she had wanted to be. She's created peace with her enemies. She's fallen helplessly and hopelessly head-over-heels in love. They were going to make their own little home, maybe adopt some children. But Emelie was gone. 

Often, her father had described what it was like to lose his mate, like a part of your had been stolen- ripped out as if it had been an organ wanted for discovery. He said that he knew immediately the second she had died because a part of him had died too. This didn't feel like that. Isla didn't feel partly dead or incomplete. She just felt numb. 

This is her happy ever after, is it not? After everything she's been through- this is the end, this is the point in which she gets to feel safe and happy... and in love. But this wasn't a fairytale. This wasn't words written on a page by a person who was so terrified of their own life, they had to write another. Another world in which they could seek refuge when they were at their lowest. A comfort, a hope, that everyone is happy at the end, the good always triumphs and people are given what they are owed.

Real-life isn't quite like that. 

The End

A/N

I really hateeee having to end this book, especially on the note that I have. And even though I'm not quite saying goodbye to these characters just yet, I just can't help but feel it's the end of something. I'm really not the biggest fan of endings, I'd often rather a book end on a cliff-hanger or a stupidly ambiguous resolution, that isn't really a resolution at all. (There is a particular book I'm talking about here) 

Anyway, all I'm trying to say is that I always find it hard to write an ending to a book. It's hard to put into words how much, not only these characters but the people who read them mean to me. I want to thank you all so much. I am really busy at the moment and need to find time to edit a cover for the sequel so you can expect it most likely during early February.

But, Overall, I really hoped you liked this book and that maybe you related with some of the characters but mainly, I hope they inspired you, since that's kind of the one thing that I wanted to achieve when I started writing. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for every vote, every read, every time you added this book to a reading list and every single comment (I love reading them)

And finally, I hope you have a wonderful day and let me know what predictions you have for the upcoming sequel, I'd love to hear them!