Rage of Vendetta (The Vendetta Series #2)

Epilogue

Mom sighs down at Sebastian, then looks at me.

“Be careful, Ariel. You’re coming home next week, right?”

I nod. “Of course.”

Her gaze drifts down again, sighing. “Sebastian, come help with the eggs and say goodbye to your sister.”

“Goodbye, dear sister!” he exclaims dramatically. 

I roll my eyes.

***

As Dad pulls onto the highway, my phone beeps, the sound coming from the coat I tossed under my seat.

I feel around the left pocket, unable to remember where I shoved it. I could slip my hand in and either find my phone or impale myself on a ring dagger. Thankfully, it’s my phone that comes out.

So I know I totally could have asked this when you came over an hour ago, but I totally forgot, so do you think I could borrow your blue jacket?

I raise my eyebrows at Lily’s text, preparing to reply, when another one pops up from her. 

Also, ask Sasha for me if she finished that painting :D

My phone beeps again in rapid succession, and this time it's Sasha texting—spamming—me about when I’m getting there. 

yes, you can borrow the blue jacket, I send to Lily, adding, but get anything on it and you dead :)))))

I switch tabs.

lily wants to know if you finished that painting btw, I type in reply to the dozens of HURRY UPs from Sasha, because we’re still at least forty minutes away.

While finishing high school here, Sasha and Lily had gotten on better than I could have ever expected, keeping each other company on the weekends I was making cross-country trips alone because Sasha couldn’t be bothered coming along. It was easy enough for the two of us to visit Eric, who moved to Massachusetts, but driving from Connecticut to California for Jesse? Three hours on the road and I literally had half a mind to summon a demon so Valencia would show up and I could ask her to teleport me there.

Thankfully, that situation had only lasted two months. As colleges started taking applications, Christa pulled some major strings to make up for our unexplained absence. 

And in the end, we all ended up in the same place—with the exception of Vee being one state over—despite being flung separate. 

Sasha and I chose NYU. Jesse and Eric chose Columbia. (Okay, sure, we may have chosen these schools to be close to one another, but if Christa offers to use her superpowers to keep us near, we’re not going to refuse.) Vee finished high school in South Africa, and got into Yale. Courtney didn’t want to go to college, having found her calling becoming a therapist-in-training at the newly-established Manhattan offices to help Cambion youth. 

And we’ve all been doing fine so far. 

Well, I still haven’t chosen my major, much to Dad’s aggravation.

In fact, he’s eyeballing me right now.

“What?”

He tilts his chin at the car driving next to us. “Look.”

My eyes widen. Though it’s not an impossible sight anymore, it’s still a rare one: a Nephilum boy is driving, his wrists entwined with the dark markings like mine, and sitting beside him in the passenger seat, is a purple-streaked girl.