Children of Night and Snow

Epilogue - The Girl Who Survived

I sat on my bed, an envelope in my hands, unmoving. Hours could have passed and I wouldn't know. Today was Summer Solstice, exactly a year since that fateful incident back in Moonvalley. The clock ticked slowly to ten thirty eight in the morning, but I didn't need to look out of my window to know that it was just as dark there as if it was midnight. A year ago at this time, I lost my temper with a girl whom I thought stole what was rightfully mine. I was foolish, naive and spoiled. Now, I was here, so far away from her, from a place I called home once. And I held a letter that would tell me what my role would be in the Midnight Army for the next forty years. That girl I attacked, she seemed insignificant to me now. I could barely remember her name. I could barely remember any of their names.

There were four units in the Midnight Army. Hellhounds, an elite unit which wasn't bound by rules. They were Ice Queen's royal guards for millenia. The books called them bringers of chaos for they could make rivers run red with blood and cities disappear overnight. It's where Azazeal and Aaron came from, who they were. And now even Nolan chose to join them. He could choose between them and the Warriors. And he chose them.

Warriors, or bringers of war, were the first line fighters. With Ice King as their first general, they were highly skilled, brutal killers. But unlike Hellhounds, Warriors had a code, rules to abide by, a line they couldn't cross. They were the heroes stories were written about, statues built for. Their names were in the history books. They were the ones children looked up to and who would be paraded around during celebrations. They were where Lucia was going.

Demi could have been a warrior too, but she decided to become a Protector instead. Protectors were called bringers of peace. They were still highly trained, but they chose different battlefields. Such as hospitals or offices. They were healthcare workers and negotiators. The ones who had Warriors' and Hellhounds' backs when everything else went to hell.

And then there was the last unit. The one whose name was in big bold letters written on my letter when I opened it. The one where Devan, Connor and I were going to go. Shadows. Bringers of death people called them. Their main job was to never be seen. To never leave a trace. Their job was to do all the stuff other units couldn't do. Spy, steal, infiltrate, assassinate. They could shape the history at their whims and nobody ever knew about it. They came and went unseen and unknown, into the shadows they were named after. I had to chuckle to myself at the thought. Of course that was where I would end up. I was a thief by profession now after all.

"Freya! The celebrations are about to begin, we gotta go or we'll miss it!" I heard Connor's voice on the other side of my door. Right, Summer Solstice. I got up and almost laughed, when I saw the snow falling outside of my window. The irony of this whole thing didn't escape me. But I grabbed my boots and cloak.

"Coming!" I replied, putting my outside clothes on.

"You know they say Midnight City does the most beautiful firework show in the World for Summer Solstice every year," Demi was reading from some book she picked up in the city a couple of days ago. She was reading us bits she found interesting ever since.

"I don't care for fireworks, I only care for the wine," Lucia replied as she snatched the book away from Demi and laid in her lap as we were now all sitting on the train to the city centre. Demi stole a kiss from her in return and subconsciously, I looked across the aisle, where the guys were playing cards, my eyes landing on Az. He returned my stare briefly, but we both quickly broke the moment, when Nolan cleared his throat. The unspoken reminder that as much as we wished them to be, things weren't that easy between us.

We exited the train one stop early due to Demi's nagging that we should make a little tour to get to know the area better. We got lost of course, something Lucia made sure to poke fun at her wife for. But it was all good the moment we found a nice bar and decided to make that our little meet up place in the future, whenever we came back from our army missions. It was a nice underground place with cheap but good quality drinks and greasy snacks on the menu. And there was a little corner booth, just big enough for the eight of us, with a painting of a sunset over the Summerlands markets on the southern ocean shores. A painting I knew from the photos in magazines I grew up reading, about the places I wanted to visit once. We didn't know where this painting came from, or why it was here, but the mystery of it only made the place more charming. And more important to me.

We had a few drinks before we hit the road again. It was still early afternoon but we didn't really care. People were partying in the streets anyway. Everyone was getting ready for the promised firework show, looking for a good place to watch from. Some people found their places on balconies of surrounding skyscrapers, but most just like us made their way into the city park, where we could get a relatively clear view of the palace, which was where the show would be.

And then it began and I understood what Demi was trying to say. The cloudy night sky was now shining with bright lights of all colors from the firework show. People around us were singing songs I had yet to learn, while they happily danced. I just stood there, watching them. Happy families, packs, or simply friends. It felt bittersweet, but I wasn't sad and heartbroken anymore. I made it. Despite everything I went through, with all odds stacked against me, I did it.

"Hey Freya?" I turned around to see Devan come up next to me and hand me a cup of wine.

"Yeah?" I asked him as I accepted the cup and took a sip, turning my attention back towards the fireworks.

"I'm proud of you," he said simply. A casual, but powerful statement.

"Thanks Devan. I'm proud of me, too," I admitted with a smile, not tearing my eyes away from the show above us.

***

This is it! First instalment of Northern Lights is done! I can't believe I just finished my first book. What are your thoughts? Any theories for the future?

If you've read this book, thank you! If you've voted and/or left a comment along the way, thank you! It means the World to me, that there is someone out there, even if only one person, who enjoyed this story.

-Manon