Epilogue

One week after the previous events, Gideon observes that the office has quickly returned to disorder. His mother has stayed close to Lyssa, trying cautiously to reconnect, while Lyssa keeps avoiding her; Gideon recognizes their mother’s pain over missing her children’s lives and understands that only time and new memories can heal that loss.

Gideon also notices that Evie and Trystan are deliberately avoiding each other, exchanging only brief glances when forced near one another. Gideon senses the tension between them will soon become impossible to ignore, but he wisely says nothing.

Keeley approaches Gideon with irritation and drops a scrap of paper onto Evie’s desk, which Gideon has been using while Evie is busy with inventory. After a sharp exchange, Keeley leaves, and Gideon realizes he is more distracted by her than he wants to admit.

Gideon turns back to the scrap he tore from Rennedawn’s Story and smuggled to Evie with their mother’s letters. He rereads the prophecy about fate’s youngling, starlight magic, and the warning to beware “the unmasked Villain” with a blackened good heart, hoping the fourth prophetic object will become clear.

As Gideon repeats the line aloud, the meaning suddenly shifts for him. He remembers Benedict’s ballroom, where Evie woke in the glass casket even though Gideon had not gotten the antidote to her in time, and where Evie revealed herself to the kingdom. Gideon realizes Trystan was not the only one unmasked that night: Evie was, too, suggesting the prophecy’s ominous warning may refer to her.