The Land of Shadows

Epilouge

The Northern Kingdom surrendered once they saw Matthew Costello standing over the body of Alice, blood splattered across his face and chest. He merged the two, ruling over the land of Toarcia for many years. There were several attempts on his life, two of them made by a grief-stricken Zachariah. The tenth, and final attempt, was also made by Zachariah, long after both were old men. 

This launched the land into chaos. There was no ruler. Matthew had never married, and thus produced no heir. Zachariah was old and without heirs himself. The Council, the same one that had heard Zachariah's argument with Alice, took over leadership quickly. For now, Toarcia is without a monarch.

A/N: Hey guys, it's me. This is it. This is really the end of this book. And, for now, there are no plans for a sequel. Alice is dead, Matt is dead, and Zachariah dies shortly after the Council takes over from old age. I know the ending was abrupt, and I know a lot of you probably won't like it. But that's okay. I wanted to make a book where neither good nor evil triumphs because you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. The book was bloody, like I intended. 

This is not the first time I wrote this book. This is the very first book I have ever written, and the first time I wrote it as an outlet for all the torture scenes I kept imagining. I was a very violent-minded thirteen-year-old. It took me about a year to write the first time, and I wasn't satisfied. The first version had no plot, no definite anything, and Alice lived and had many children with Zachariah after killing Matthew. That is not how I wanted it to end. I hated the first version, but I am content with this version. 

Thank you to anyone who reads this far. It means a lot to me, it really does. To clear things up, I didn't do any research when writing this book. That means I don't know how Stockholm Syndrome works exactly. I did everything just using my imagination. So, if any of you know how it actually works, and this is nowhere close, oh well. And if it is close, well, I got lucky. 

Once again, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you didn't, well, not all of my books will have such an unsatisfying ending. 

~Ariella