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  For now, we were all still struggling down in the mire, trying to make the best of things, but when you looked, when you really looked, you could see it coming, see the end encroaching. Soon enough it would claim us all.

  Ivan stepped forward to the edge and peered down. He put his arms out in front of him and waited.

  A gust of wind eddied around us, then howled out from behind as it hit the rear wall then bounced back, pushing at us. Ivan opened his hands.

  Ash scattered to the wind as the sun disappeared behind a futile monument to the hopes and dreams of humanity.

  Equestrian Bliss

  "You sure you don't want a lesson?" asked George as she trotted past me on a horse darker than Death's Sunday best and a lot more menacing.

  "No thanks. I like my bones where they are," I said, glaring at the horse as it snorted at me in contempt, a blast of warm air thick in the icy morning.

  George smiled and waved as she geed the well-muscled horse up and they continued their exercise around the new training school, the thick sand we'd had laid making it unlikely, but inevitable in my case, to break bones if you fell off.

  The terrible twosome shouted and hollered with glee as they hung on for dear life and cajoled their horses to speed up as they chased after George.

  I put my arm around Vicky's shoulder and smiled down at her. She was grinning like the madwoman she was, pleased as punch to see her children so happy.

  A lot had happened in the months it eventually took to purchase the new property, solicitors and estate agents managing to drag it out for ages, wickedly and perversely determined to do so. But we moved in despite the evil men in cheap suits. Me and George settled in a new farm, a massive house with the most awesome kitchen in the known universe, and her equestrian business was set up.

  Vicky and the girls moved from their mansion to something more manageable in the city, and they were happier because of it. They came down to visit most weekends, the girls having been shown the wonders of the Gates of Bakaudif then sworn to secrecy. They loved it, loved all things magical, and I worried about their future. But there was plenty of time to stress about that. For now, they were just kids having the never-ending adventure of a lifetime.

  "Don't get any funny ideas," warned Vicky, glancing at my hand on her shoulder.

  "Wouldn't dream of it," I said with a grin, knowing we were well past that, would never return.

  I jumped back as George came around again and the horse whinnied, much to everyone else's amusement. Vicky took my arm and put hers through it and we walked away from the arena, staring at the newly refurbished farmhouse.

  "How are you doing?" she asked, staring up at me with her big brown eyes.

  "Fine," I shrugged.

  "Arthur, I mean how are you really? You don't have to lie."

  "Vicky, if I admitted to you, or myself, how I really feel, then I'd go find a very sharp knife and slit my wrists."

  "That bad, eh?"

  "Worse. I'm not good. I'm hanging in there, but I feel betrayed and useless, and so sad inside it aches. I thought I'd found a future with Candy, and look what happened. I disgust myself and people disgust me in return for what they're capable of. Me included."

  "But you've got me," she said, smiling, and beginning to... No, she wouldn't.

  "Don't you dare," I warned, panic setting in.

  "You love it." It was too late, Vicky released her hold on me and began the most awful thing in the known universe. The Vicky mom-dance.

  Her hips gyrated in a way mortifying to all of humanity, she began to do disgusting things with her arms, and then she put the nail in the coffin of all things unholy by tilting her head back and doing this weird thing with her mouth that made a terrifying noise come out between her stupid lips. She called it singing, but she must have a dictionary with a very different definition of it to me.

  I had to laugh, otherwise I'd cry. Vicky knew me so well, knew how to break my depression. Without her I don't know if I'd have made it through, as I would have gone off on a mad one, more reckless than ever, and got myself killed over and over until the game was up. As it was, after the madness with Cerberus and the vampires, things settled down for me and my family.

  The same couldn't be said for the vampires. Ivan's actions had sent a shockwave through the community that was still being felt.

  Ah, screw it, that was their problem. I had all I needed right here. So I grabbed Vicky's hands and I danced in a freezing cold field on a winter's morning and you know what? I think I actually felt happy.

  Just for a while.

  The End

  Book 6, Lost Hope, coming soon.

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  Read the Dark Magic Enforcer series for more magical mayhem.