Witches of East End (23 page)

Epilogue

H
er shift ended at midnight, and Freya walked out to the parking lot. Just as she reached into her handbag for her keys, a hand came out of the shadows and clutched her wrist. She wanted to scream, but when she saw who was holding her she could not speak. She could not believe it.

The boy in the shadow put a hand on his lips. He was golden-haired and beautiful as the sun. Looking at him was not unlike looking in a mirror.

“Fryr?” she whispered. “Is that really you?” Her twin brother. “You’re back! Mother will be ecstatic!” She reached to embrace him but something in his drawn face told her it was not a good idea.

“No!” he warned. “No one can know I’m here. Otherwise I won’t be able to have my revenge.”

“Revenge? What are you talking about?”

“I was set up. That day the bridge fell, when I went there, it was already broken. Someone else had taken its power.” His face darkened. “Freya, if you love me you’ll help me find the one who is to blame for everything. The one who destroyed the Bofrir and who left me to rot in limbo for eternity.”

“If you mean Loki, he is gone and the Valkyrie will find him.”

“No, Loki is nothing but a fool. I have no quarrel with him. I am looking for Balder. In this world he is known as Killian Gardiner. He was the one who took the power of the Bofrir for himself and set me up to take the fall. Help me kill him, Freya. If you love me, you will help me destroy him.”

Acknowledgments

T
hank you to my husband and collaborator, Mike Johnston, without whom my books would simply not exist. Thank you to Mattie, for being so patient when Mommy is “on deadline” and who wants to grow up to be a “bookstore writer.” Thank you to my family and friends, who put up with not seeing me for weeks and months while I am writing. Thank you for being there when the writing is done.

Thank you to the fabulous team at Hyperion: Ellen Archer, who believed in the book from the first moment; Barbara Jones, Kristin Kiser, Marie Coolman, Bryan Christian, Sarah Rucker, Maha Khalil, Katherine Tasheff, and Mindy Stockfield. Special thanks to my editors: Jill Schwartzman, Elisabeth Dyssegaard, and Brenda Copeland. Thank you to Richard Abate, agent, friend, and advocate.

About the Author

Melissa de la Cruz
is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling series Blue Bloods, which has three million copies in print. She is a former journalist who has contributed to many publications, including Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Allure, and Marie Claire. She spent many summers on Shelter Island, which served as the inspiration for the fictional town of North Hampton. She lives in Los Angeles and Palm Springs with her family and is hard at work on the second book in the Beauchamp Family series.

Copyright © 2011 Melissa de la Cruz

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eBook edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-0378-5

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Cover design by Laura Klynstra
Cover photograph by Marta Bevacqua / Arcangel Images

First eBook Edition

Original hardcover edition printed in the United States of America.

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