The Young Guardians

Epilogue: Return of the Old Guard

Cillian did not sleep the night of the ball, the celebration of the return of Queen Hippolyta and King Hedley. He had retreated back into the auditorium and at on one of the marble seats. With his hands folded behind his head and his feet propped up on the seat in front of him, he sat thinking for a very long time. He had told them his story of how he had came to Wynd though not the theories behind why he thought it had happened. He didn't think he would ever know the truth about it, it had been such a strange thing.

Cillian had not told them everything. It would seem rather stupid to do so, none of the others would have done so either. There were a lot of mistakes he wanted to forget, a lot of scars that had barely healed. Just looking at the children made him remember things he had truly though he had forgotten. Those gunmetal gray eyes, the light hazel, and then the golden brown with the strangely tinted red. The yellow eyes were something different though. Those must have been something generational. They had jet black hair, and long, wavy, and dark. There were the familiar light brown curls, the impeccably straight dark blonde hair. The smirking lips, the thin ones, the light rose.

All the same features. They had just been rearranged. His beating heart had stalled when he looked at the four, it was like falling back into the past. Cillian said their names over and over in his head, remembering the times when he had ever seen them. The Dhillon boys all looked like their fathers, though Madoc had a lot of his mother in his face, and most obviously his hair colour. And Kartar looked exactly like her mother... her eyes and the way she looked at everything around her. 

He had wished so much that they had not been separated, that his son was not lost in this world where there were kings looking for the heads of innocents and such creatures as angels and demons, fire breathing snakes and poisonous tongues.

Arielle told him that Anila and Domhnall were also back. They had brought up Tara and Bal from the presumed dead, and now were heading towards the Frontier. Cillian knew the children didn't know this but he couldn't help but wonder if there was something that Madoc knew that none of them did not. He had been very intent on his direction to the Frontier, and that was exactly where everyone seemed to be heading.

He debated quickly on whether or not to speak to Anila.

He decided not.

Agate.

Yes, Cillian. I'm here.

I want to find my son.

Agate had taken a split second to reply but it was all that was needed to show Cillian that he did not think it was the best decision. You can't place him in a higher position than the others.

I'm not placing him in a higher position. And we won't just go blindly, we'll look out for Nikeisha. O must know what's happened. He will be looking too.

Should we head to Drakon then, Cillian?

I think that would be an excellent place to start.

He would leave them a note. They'd survived this far without him, they didn't need him to pass through Anaia. Queen Hippolyta wouldn't send them without preparation to meet with whatever would face them. They would be taken care of in the Frontier.

Cillian watched the sunrise from the auditorium. When there were no more stars left to wish on, he walked back to the roof, and with Agate, took flight into the rising dawn.