Death Watchers

Epilogue

It had been two weeks since we had returned from the Underworld. Dad had grounded me for not telling him I was staying longer than a night, and then ignoring his phone calls—there were over a hundred. Clayton laughed at me for being grounded, saying it wasn't even punishment because I already condemned myself to all of it before I met Cole.

But it was punishment, if only because I couldn't see Cole. He would text me every now and then but that was it. He knew Dad didn't allow calls, and was firmly against visitations. (Pam had told him I was at Cole's the second night he called her, demanding to know where I was.) So now, I was grounded from Cole. Go figure.

I still had two more weeks of this torture. All I wanted was to see Cole, to have him say he loves me again so I could return the words. I wanted to hear his laugh and look at his purple eyes, not mine. They were fully purple, mirroring Cole's as Katherine had guessed. My auburn hair even had black highlights.

I fingered a black strand now, studying it like it was a new specimen to be evaluated. As long as the rest of my hair stayed auburn, I wouldn't mind the highlights. They gave me a kind of edge, making me appear more frightening.

Sighing, I picked up the book I had just finished and headed to my room to choose another. I had already read my entire bookcase and now was re-reading them all.

My room was colder than normal and I muttered, "Hey, Mirrikh." I set the book in its slot and reached for another.

The cold voice that replied wasn't Mirrikh's. "Hello, princess. Ready to finish what we started?"