Epilogue
Approximately Eighty Years Later
Blood trickled from Maggie’s pale clenched fists as she stared at Chaam’s shivering body through the dense smoky film separating
her from the physical world. Too many years she’d watched helplessly as he suffered. His incarceration was a hell no living being
should have to endure. “Hang on, my love. This will all soon be over.”
Maggie knew from the moment she’d entered this realm that she would find a way out. And when she did, there would be hell to pay.
Because while Cimil had orchestrated her chaos, forcing Chaam to commit vile, evil acts in the name of her sick-and-twisted
amusement, Maggie had been watching, listening, and learning the gods’ tricks and secrets. And with the scalpel-sharp precision of
a vengeful, mad surgeon, Maggie tweaked and manipulated and pulled and tugged on every invisible string within her grasp until the
tides of fate had eventually shifted.
“Please don’t give up, Chaam. Please. I’m almost free and soon, you will be, too. Don’t give up.” She needed him to hang on to that
last piece of his soul just a little longer. Without it, he would be lost forever. If only he could hear her and know she was there. Just
this once. Just this once. Please hear me just this once…
She threw back her head to fight the tears and gazed up at the pristine blue sky—it was her favorite mirage. Anything that reminded
her of Bacalar and her time with Chaam gave her comfort.
“Please come soon, bobcat. I cannot hold on for much longer.”
Maggie gasped.