I'm sorry. I know I promised to have this novel finished on New Year's, but the truth is, I just really didn't want this novel to end (which seems strange, because I always took months between updates). That, and I've been having some personal struggles with stress and other things combined, and that's been making it hard to focus on anything lately. But, alas, here it is. The final chapter. The epilogue. The end to the story that so many of you have been so supportive over. If it weren't for all of you and your encouraging comments, you wouldn't be reading this author's note right now. I probably wouldn't have made it past chapter five. So, thank you. Never before have I had such a large following on something I've written, on any of the platforms I use, and that is an amazing thing itself. This is my most popular novel, and I can't thank all of you enough. I hope you enjoy this epilogue, and I hope the ending is to your satisfaction. I love you all. - Mady

Epilogue

Reaching Central Park took less time than I thought it would. The four of us approached the gate, Henley in the front. My palms were sweating; it was a good thing Danny wasn't holding my hand. I was worried about what was going to happen next. Were we going to join the Eye, or were we going to realize that we had been played the whole time, and now we were being pursued by the police for nothing. But there was no way of knowing which result it would be until we walked into the park. Which, as it turned out, was going to be harder than I thought it'd be.

"It's locked," Henley said, her calm voice edged with disappointment. She grabbed the bars and tried to open the gate regardless. The chains that were looped around the iron bars merely shook and didn't budge.

"Weren't you listening?" said someone from the other side of the fence. Jack stepped into view, a cheeky grin on his face and his hands in his pockets. "Nothing's ever locked."

I could have cried from the sudden rush of happiness I felt seeing him. I knew he really wasn't harmed in the stunt we pulled on the bridge, but still...not seeing him right afterward made me feel tense regardless. He was instructed not to contact us, so how were we supposed to know if he was okay? Or if he'd been caught by the FBI? But he was here, and he looked perfectly fine. My heart was set at ease, for now.

Jack picked the lock on the chain and pulled one of the gates open, still grinning at us. Henley slid through the opening first, clapping a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Well done, Mr. Wilder," she said. "Good work." He smiled proudly.

"You're a big boy now, Jack," Merritt added, following behind Henley.

I slipped through the opening next and ran up to Jack, jumping at him and hugging him tightly. He hugged me back, laughing so hard we almost fell over. "Miss me, Andie?"

I nodded. "I'm glad you're not dead."

He snorted and dropped his arms from around me, opting to ruffle my hair instead. I scowled. "I'm glad I'm not, either," he said with another laugh.

Someone took my hand from behind me. I didn't have to turn around to see who it was. "Well done, Jack," Danny said. His smile looked a tiny bit forced.

I squeezed his hand and drew out a real smile and a tiny sigh of relief. Jack noticed and raised an eyebrow, cocking his head at me. He smirked and winked. "Well done to you two. It's about time." Jack ruffled my hair again and chuckled. "You're growing up," he teased.

"Stop treating me like I'm your little sister," I said with a frown.

"You may as well be," he said. I couldn't stop a smile.

Danny was looking anxious. He called for Henley and Merritt to lead the way to the tree we were supposed to find and continued to hold onto my hand as we walked behind them, Jack walking just ahead of us. "So you, uh, you don't like Jack...do you?"

"Jealous, Danny?" I asked quietly, smirking.

He rolled his eyes at me. "No. Of course not." I started to laugh at him and his face turned pink in the reflection of the park lights around us. "Okay, maybe a little bit. But it's alright now." He cleared his throat. "Um, as long as you don't like Jack."

I couldn't stop myself from grinding at him. "I do like Jack." Danny's face went a little pale. "But I don't like him in the same way as I like you."

I went for a kiss on the cheek but he caught my lips before I could manage it. And there we stood in Central Park, at night, hands clasped together like they'd suddenly get ripped apart, smiles on our faces so wide I was afraid my muscles would freeze that way. I booped his nose with mine and laughed.

"Come on, you two. We actually have something to accomplish tonight." Merritt was calling out to us while Jack and Henley laughed beside him.

I let go of Danny and ran to catch up, winking at him from over my shoulder. Jack clapped a hand on my shoulder while we walked. "I'm just going to say, it's a little weird seeing the two of you together like that," he said with a short laugh. "I can't really wrap my head around it."

"How is it weird?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know. A few days ago you guys seemed like you hated each others guts. And now you're joined at the hip and kissing." He gave a real laugh this time. "I suspected it from the beginning though."

I snorted. "Oh, did you?" I teased.

Jack nodded enthusiastically. "I did. Opposites attract, y'know? You hate to love him and you love to hate him."

"That doesn't make sense."

"It does, though."

We both laughed, and it was around that time that Danny came to walk with us. Merritt, from ahead of us, said, "What if all of this was just leading up to us getting mugged in Central Park at two a.m.?"

Danny scowled. "No, I'm telling you, we're right where we need to be. We just have to find - "

"That?" Henley cut in. She shined her flashlight on the tree looming ahead of us. I came up behind her shoulder to look at where she was directing the light. There was a playing card enclosed within the trunk behind a sheet of glass.

Danny set a gentle hand on my waist. "The Lionel Shrike tree."

"And the card encased in glass," Henley finished.

Merritt and Jack stepped up right behind us. "What do we do now?" Merritt asked.

I took my tarot card out of my pocket while Henley did the same. Like it was magnetized, my card laid on top of hers without me putting it there. Danny, Merritt, and Jack grabbed their cards as well. Just as mine did, their cards flipped onto the top of our two cards. The High Priestess, The Lover, The Hermit, Death, and The Tower. The illustrations disappeared, replaced by an iridescent depiction of the Eye's insignia.

"Whoa," I breathed. Danny nodded beside me.

Henley lifted the card and waved it in front of the card encased in glass. There was a dull light, and then music started playing behind us. The carousel had started up. We all turned to look and watched it spin for a few moments before noticing the figure of a man standing in front of it, his face hidden in shadow. I was the first to run toward him.

"Holy shit," I said, skidding to a stop. "Holy shit."

"Hello, Andie," Dylan Rhodes, our benefactor, said, a smug smile on his face.

Merritt stopped beside me, his mouth agape. "Oh my God. I did not see that coming." He huffed out a laugh. "That's impossible."

"No way," Jack breathed.

Danny stopped on my other side, so close our arms were pressed together. "That was actually pretty good," he said. I laughed; that was as much of a compliment as Rhodes could expect to receive.

And he knew it, too. "Thank you," he said, smiling.

Danny felt awkward. I could see it. "When I said 'Always be the smartest guy in the room'..."

Rhodes broke into a grin. "We were in agreement."

"Okay, right." I patted Danny's arm in mock consolation. He wasn't the smartest man alive after all.

Henley had been silent up until now, her eyes wide. "Henley?" Rhodes said, trying to egg something out of her.

Danny laughed. "I've never seen her speechless."

Rhodes walked up to her and shook her hand. "I take that as a huge compliment," he said. Henley still couldn't speak, but she smiled.

"Hey, man, I am so sorry for kicking your ass," Jack said. He didn't seem the least bit fazed when I laughed at him. "Really." Rhodes laughed as well.

"Andie."

I jumped. I wasn't expecting to be addressed. "Hi," I said lamely.

Rhodes walked over to me and put his hands in his pockets. He wore a small smile. "I understand you've been having a bit of a recurring problem over the past year." I tilted my head. "Does the name Darren White ring a bell?"

Danny immediately grabbed my hand and squeezed. I could see the taut vein in the side of his neck from the corner of my eye. I squeezed his hand back reassuringly. "What about him?" I asked.

Rhodes grinned. "You wouldn't happen to have seen his arrest, would you?" he asked. "I believe it happened in Times Square."

My jaw dropped. "You had Darren arrested?" I gasped. "How did you even know about it?"

"I've been keeping tabs on the five of you for a long time now, including tapping your phone calls." He laughed. "For strict FBI reasons, of course. And we have reason to believe that Darren may possess some form of mental disorder. If the doctors find that suspicion is true, they'll be putting him away for a while for public endangerment." Rhodes put a hand on my shoulder. "And even if he's totally clean health wise, he'll still be getting a restraining order against him."

I broke into a grin. "So, that means - "

"He won't be bothering you anymore," Rhodes finished.

I turned and threw myself at Danny, who was grinning from ear to ear. Merritt hugged me from behind, and Jack and Henley cheered next to us. Rhodes looked on with a smile, until I let go of Danny and jumped on him, anyway. Then he almost yelped in surprise. The shocked noise quickly turned into a laugh as he kindly patted my back. "I figured you'd be happy to know."

"I am," I said, grinning. "Thank you so much."

Merritt came up from behind me and set a hand on my head, pulling me against him into a side hug. "Hey, listen, for the record, I have always been a hundred percent believer." I elbowed him. He pinned my arms to my sides. "And the amount of energy I have expended to keep these infidels on point - "

By that point, all of us were jumping at him, tickling and poking and giggling, trying to break through his serious façade. Rhodes calmed us with a wave of his hand. "Merritt," he said. "You're in."

Merritt stopped grappling with us and stood upright. "God bless."

The smile on the agent's face became somewhat of a smirk as he stepped back toward the carousel. "Come. The real magic is taking four strong solo acts and making them all work together."

We all followed along after him, giving each other looks, wondering what was going to happen next. Rhodes stopped by the admission gate. "And that's exactly what you did." He bowed his head to us. "So welcome. Welcome to the Eye."

Rhodes climbed onto the carousel, gripping one of the bars with one hand. The carousel went around, carrying him with it, and when it came back around again, he was gone.

I was shocked. Everyone else seemed excited. Merritt and Jack jumped over the short gate and flung themselves into the carousel, Henley following right behind. Danny reached out and took my hand. "Are you okay?" he asked.

I shrugged one shoulder. "This past year was all leading up to this. I don't know. I can't really wrap my head around it." I sighed. "The Horsemen are gone. It's over."

"It's not over, Andie." I looked at him. "It's the beginning. We're joining the Eye. Our lives are going to be changed forever."

I smiled, watching the empty carousel go around and around. "Mine already has."

"That was cute."

"I wasn't talking about you."

We stood in silence, listening the the carnival music play on repeat. I locked my eyes on a giraffe and watched it rush by until it disappeared on the other side of the carousel. A few seconds later, it was back, and the process went on. Danny was unmoving beside me, occasionally squeezing my hand, to which I would squeeze back. Neither of us were sure what to say.

But there had been a question nagging at my brain since Times Square. "Danny?" he hummed. "Why are you here with me?"

He cheeks turned a little pink. "I thought that was obvious."

"That you like me?" He hummed again in agreement. "But why?"

He didn't answer for a few minutes. The others were probably wondering what was keeping us, wherever they were. "I don't know how to answer that," he finally said.

"But you could try."

Again, he was quiet for a while. "Maybe I just like the abuse." His tone was serious, but as soon as I looked at him, he started to laugh.

I punched his shoulder. "Asshole."

"You love me though," he taunted.

We locked eyes; I smiled. "I know."

And we turned back to the carousel. I was oddly satisfied with the lack of response I had gotten from Danny. It wasn't unreasonable for him not to have an answer for why he was standing here with me, because I wasn't entirely sure I knew why I wanted him here, either. I just knew that I didn't want him to leave.

It's a strange thing, falling for someone. You can spend so much of your life building up walls around yourself, shielding yourself from the kind of pain you felt in your past life, even if it was just once, until you're standing atop some magnificent tower, hiding yourself away and waiting for the right time to come down. And then someone comes along, someone unexpected, and they start to dismantle your wall, brick by brick, until you find yourself getting closer and closer to the ground. You hate them for it; you're happy where you are, reluctant to leave. But that person is persistent, and sooner or later you realize that you want to come back down to earth. You want to try again. You want your tower to fall.

And so, with all your strength, you push that tower over. And you're free. All thanks to that one person.

Danny brought me back to the ground.

"Andie?" I shook my head, blinked one, and then looked at Danny. "Are you ready?"

I looked back at the carousel, catching sight of the giraffe again. I smiled.

"Andie?"

I looked at Danny again. He was watching me carefully. "I want the giraffe!" I shouted before dropping his hand and darting forward.

I vaulted over the gate and ran up to the carousel, Danny right on my heels. He reached it first and grabbed one of the bars, pulling himself up before offering me his hand. "Together," he said.

Nodding once, I took his hand.

UPDATE: The sequel has been posted! It's called Rise of Rain. Go read it!