Eighty † End Game

† TWENTY YEARS LATER †

To open or not to open. That was the big question.

Calix stared at the cardboard box on his bed. He'd shut himself in his room in the Circle of the Councilmen, right after going to the mortal world to retrieve the box Kat had left at her father's glass case with his ashes. For twenty years he'd been going back there to continue what was supposed to be tradition, and for exactly that long he'd ignored the box.

And even though for some reason he'd taken it home, he still didn't know what to do.

He sprawled onto the cotton sheets, closing his eyes momentarily. He couldn't quite believe that he'd done that. Since Kat's death, he'd been avoiding everything that remotely related to her, and still that hadn't been enough to bury the pain.

And how could that be possible? She was the first thing he'd see when he opened his eyes in the morning, the last thing he'd think of when he'd crawl to bed at night. Th