FINAL NOTE

I've always dreamed about this moment.

This last - final note.

It's been two and a half years writing this book. Telling this tale. Having Edwina and Tristan in my head, weaving plots and spinning rebellions.

But nothing could ever prepare me for this.

This feels so final. So ultimate. This is the last time I'm speaking to you all, the last time we're all reacting together at the end of a chapter. Except it isn't a chapter this time - it's a story. It's more than a story - it's a lifetime of memories.

This book has been with me during the worst times of my life.

I've passed boards, finished school, junior college, moved to a university, passed my first year too. I've gone through anxiety and tears and misery with this. I've gotten through some very, very bad times, intense bouts of depression with this. There have been nights when I ended up in my bed with tears.

And this book has been the only thing that got me through that.

What would my readers say? What would my friends say? How could I leave this story untold?

And trust me, that is the only thing that kept me hanging on. I couldn't leave this. I couldn't do that to you guys.

You gave me an infinity of memories in those two years. You've all been the only ray of sunshine on a lonely day. Sometimes, all I needed was to read one comment - one person on the other side of the world asking to update, to continue this tale. Don't give up, I told myself. And I didn't, because of this book.

This story is my baby, and it's safe to say - I'm too emotional about letting go of this. There have been many times I've put off an update, slacked off writing towards the later chapters. All because I knew that if I went on, if I finished that chapter, and the one after that, and the one after that - this book was going to end. And I didn't want it to. So many times - so many times I've taken off, gone MIA, not updated in over 2 to 3 weeks. And you guys have been with me through it all.

Knowing that I'm going to put a tick mark next to the title and mark this as complete after this - it's too much for me. It's wrapping it up and putting a bow on it. It's final. It's concrete.

I'm too attached to this. And I don't want to let it go.

But everything has to end.

This has to, too, unfortunately.

I know I phrased and wrote the epilogue in a very vague, disconcerting way - and it was meant to be like that. Just like the prologue, the epilogue was supposed to end just the way the prologue started. You'll have no idea who's speaking, who's doing what.

And that was just the beauty of it.

When this story started, no one had any idea who it could be. And when it ended - almost every person knew who it was, even when I didn't mention the name of the character even once. That's just the sheer beauty of it. Because after all the backstabbing, the treachery, the lies, plots, tales in this story - we're all used to it. And it doesn't take us long to recognize the signs.

But it had to end this way, trust me.

Yes, it was Drusilla. The woman who started the book, and the woman, who fittingly - ended it.

There was a reason I didn't kill her. A reason I let her go after the war. The others had to die but she didn't. She always thinks, she always plans.

The other villains were different. Take Deimos, for instance. Deimos wasn't stupid. He's always served himself, and he's always put himself and his House first in everything he does. And he succeeded. He won his share of the river. He kept his family alive. He demanded his sons back in a bargain the King himself could not refuse if he wanted his help in the war. He turned on his father too, because that was the only way to keep the others alive. Deimos knows when he is in trouble, and he succeeds in finding the way with the least bloodshed and the most profit around it. He's hated Edwina and Tristan with a vengeance, yes - but he always had some twisted form of admiration for her. It's all there in the later chapters as he grows in character through the book - he's seen her stumble, fall, rise back again. So when he calls her a coward, he means it. He can't believe a woman with such strength would simply give up. Even when Tristan dies, he gives him that last bit of respect - he admits that Tristan fought well. Deimos was a hateful monster, but he had one redeeming quality - he worshipped his House and the name that came with it. He was always a perfect, well defined character in my mind (having a story of his own) but I wasn't able to realise that he had a tale to tell until it was too late. I'm sorry I couldn't focus more on giving his character what he deserved.

Emerick was always an idiot. He was a fool. Favian was one too. They both did nothing but fight and break and fight Edwina again and again throughout the book. But Emerick loved his wife, truly loved her. And when she dies, there's this whole shift in his character. Everything changes for him. He's no longer on the winning side. He knows he can't make it, not unless he helps Edwina. And so he does. I know he's a rotten man, but we have to give him that, atleast. Sarette and Celestina were different - some of the women in that family were. Here, again - I made more mistakes. Those women were poetic, trained killers - made to have wicked eyes and deceiving lips, breaking hearts and sharpening swords. And yet, being immature and naive and foolish - I broke off their narratives as well, downplaying their stories and giving them foolish motives, motives that were an insult to their intelligence. Sarette wasn't meant to be as stupid as she was, she was far above most Rotavelles. So was Celestina - but I wrote her as a dumb, empty headed, stupid girl who did all those murders just to sleep with a man she found attractive.

I am sorry for that.

Those characters deserved so much better. As a writer of a character who fights for women, I failed to live up to those standards. I created the women I wanted to see - only to fail giving them the plot they deserved. I wish I could have remedied that. That's always going to be one of regrets about this book - having such a clever, scheming characters only for them to fall short in the end.

Apollo, Pandora, Leora, Zadicus - they were all the type of villains who just went after what they wanted. Who didn't hesitate. Who were bloodthirsty and brutal. Celinette deserved better than a husband who raped her. Cosmo deserved better than brothers and sisters who betrayed him. Aidon deserved better than being used, being made to play a cruel game, being made to harm his own sister. Those villains - they knew what they wanted and they just took it.

But Drusilla - she was different. She planned it all. She planned it from the start - all that Miriel business, all the things with the first Blood Ritual. She'd waited years and years for it to come to fruition. Let's not forget that when she had her Trials to be tested for the Triarchy, she did well too - except for her last three years. She was preparing. She was going to have a child. She was a cruel, cruel woman - but well behaved women rarely make history. That is not an excuse to defend what she did, but that's what she was. Edwina went through eighty years of torture, but at the same time, she sentenced Drusilla to a million evenings of having a vulture eat out her eyes and have them grow back the next day. Drusilla is not a woman who escaped her own share of suffering. She lost both her brothers. Lost her grandfather too. But she killed her daughter (or tried to) with her own hands. And her grandmother, Ambrosine too. Family no longer means to her what it means to Deimos - he would give up the world to protect his wife and children, and she would give them up to get the world. Yes, she is twisted - twisted in the worst way possible, because she has lost everything that meant something to her once. There's nothing she can lose, nothing that can stop her from getting what she wants. Even if it meant summoning an army of death itself, to ensure that Edwina never got to live in peace.

That kind of person is very, very dangerous.

She never broke. She always had her eyes on that one prize, that one goal. She tried with the Monarch Trials. She failed. She tried with the first Blood Ritual. She failed. She tried with the Century Ball. She failed. Edwina sentenced her to her daily torture. She withstood that. But she never gave up.

And once again - I'm going to admit - I wrote her character pathetically.

You see - my head was full of dreams, full of dreams of what a perfect villain looked like. I got to creating that villain, but once again, I failed to write her up to those standards. The Drusilla in my head was intelligent, scheming, vile, a monster. But the Drusilla in this book was a mere shadow of it - no matter all the planning, she just fell flat.

Another mistake here. And one I deeply apologize for. Because in my head, she was a proper, breathing villain with a life of her own. I failed miserably in bringing that to life, and I'm going to regret it forever.

And in spite of those misgivings, Drusilla never gave up on that one dream. The crown. She was the only person in the world determined to get the crown as badly as Edwina. We don't know what kind of Queen she would have been, though. But that's what power is, isn't it? It is not concrete. It is not certain. Power is brittle.

Just like glass.

Drusilla Everly started Crown of Glass with the first Blood Ritual. And Drusilla Everly ended Crown of Glass with the last Ritual. It required a sacrifice, and Miriel was the first one - her blood resulting in a burst of power that released Leora from her chains in Seattoria. Ambrosine was the last one, one even more powerful than Miriel - a goddess of life itself. Her death resulted in the breaking and opening of the immortal prisons she guarded. And instead of releasing the Titans (who were now gone for good), her death released the souls of all the spirits of dead gods in her prisons. Those thirteen spirits seated on the table at the end of the chapter - it was them.

Another war started by Drusilla Everly.

I always knew I wanted to end the book in a full circle. There is something so beautiful, so poetic about that. It's sort of heartbreaking to see Edwina get some peace for once - only to have it all taken away.

But isn't life like that?

You could have everything - you could have everything you ever wanted - and it could just be taken away in the blink of an eye. Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is permanent. Change is the only constant.

And that's sad, but that's just the way it is.

It's funny, the way stories change us.

I never knew how it would change me. Writing this - it has been one gratifying, frustrating, miserable, satisfying experience. Because that's what writing is. It can't be all good, and it can't be all bad. I know reading those chapters were Edwina was hurt over and over again wasn't easy. I'm sorry for putting you through that, but writing those was even harder. It took a lot of emotional strength to write those words, strength which I never even knew I had. Strength which I had to wield in order to finish this book - because I love it so much that I would have dragged it out even further. That strength helped to realise when this story needed to end, and how. It couldn't end sadly, not with Edwina dead, certainly - she had been through too much pain in her life to not deserve atleast some bit of happiness, no matter how short lived. And I knew it couldn't have a completely happy ending either- because that's what happiness is. It's short lived. It doesn't last forever.

You might call me a pessimist - and I won't deny that I am one. I'm really not an optimist or a cheerfully happy person. I tend to see the world in shades of grey. I've had a lot of heartbreak, mistrust and sadness over the past few years, and it's taught me a lot about life. Yes, families can turn on each other. Yes, relationships break. Yes, people fail and die. This is life. This is life not only for us, humans - but also for these gods. They may not be human, but they feel those emotions all the same. Life is uncertain. Death is certain. Pain is inevitable.

Yes, soulmates are good. And yes, loving yourself and not needing someone is good too. There's no right answer here - you don't really need someone to complete you. You're not an incomplete piece. You're whole too. Yes, Edwina loves Tristan with all she has - but Tristan didn't get her through eighty years in prison. Tristan didn't get her through the murder of her mother. Tristan didn't get her through the killing of her father. That was her. Only her. She stood on her two feet, she buckled up, and she got through it. Please don't ever think that if you don't find your own Edwina or Tristan, it means that you are incomplete. This was a story, your life is not. You can survive on your own too, and I promise you'll definitely get through the worst of it, as I did. And if you really want to chase that love - to run after that concept of love, you're free to do that too. It doesn't make you bad. But love is deliberate. And love is full of flaws. The only reason Tristan and Edwina's marriage survived was because neither of them was perfect. It survived multiple separations, two deaths, several murders, numerous tortures and a hundred years of misery.

As quoted by The Great Kamryn, "the truth is that the more intimately you know someone, the more clearly you'll see their flaws. That's just the way it is. This is why marriages fail, why children are abandoned, why friendships don't last. You might think you love someone until you see the way they act when they're out of money or under pressure or hungry, for goodness' sake. Love is something different. Love is choosing to serve someone and be with someone in spite of their filthy heart. Love is patient and kind, love is deliberate. Love is hard. Love is pain and sacrifice, it's seeing the darkness in another person and defying the impulse to jump ship."

And now - coming to another important topic - the sequel you all have been asking for.

I'm so sorry to say this.

But there's not going to be a sequel, not as far as I can see in the near future.

The thing is, I never meant to give this story as concrete ending. These gods and their lives - they are endless. It goes on and on. I never meant to write this story with a sequel in mind. It ended where it did - with some leads getting a good ending, some a bad one - and all of that reversing in the last line of the story. That's how Crown of Glass ends as you know. The third Titanomachy (without actual Titans, you might say) is a story for another time, another day.

I know I might have disappointed you, and I'm sorry for that - so let me make it up to you with something else.

There might be a prequel in the works. And one (sort of) sequel, though it necessarily won't be in the time period you might be hoping for.

The first one is (temporarily) named Throne of Steel, a full blown account of the events that happened before COG, including the very moment Uranus and Aurea came into existence, the creation of the Derwentwater, the first Titanomachy, a younger Edwina and Tristan and the Monarch Trials! Basically, like a prequel to COG. We might even call it book 1 of a duology. The thing is that I have a full outline ready for this idea, and the only thing left is to write it. So tell me, would you like to read something like this?

Obviously, publishing this is still a long way off. I haven't written any chapter yet, so that's going to take a while, maybe next year. The other idea might interest you more, because I'm definitely going to be doing that.

This December, I'm highkey planning to do a full Christmas special featuring all the characters from COG, like a full blown novella. So drop ideas for it here, and I might publish it this Christmas. 2020. Yes! I'm really excited to do this one - it'll be spanning 12 days of Christmas in the period after Edwina returns but before Drusilla pulls off the twist at the end. This novella will be around a 100, 200 years after chapter 104, that's a couple hundred years after Edwina comes back from the dead (and much before the ending) - so that's something which includes everyone being a happy family and enjoying Christmas together, recovering after the war, which is very recent in their minds.

Christmas spans 12 days, so I'm planning to do a novella which sort of spans all the families and people in Endollon - all of them, all Houses and all races - spending Christmas in their own way, recovering and getting better, dealing with their loses and celebrating their victories.

Stay tuned for this story in the coming December!

There's also another project I've had in mind, but that will probably take years.

Rewriting COG from scratch.

With a better plot, better characters, more clarity of where the story is going. I've already thought of some changes and more plot points I can add to it, but it's still in the initial stages. I don't know if I'll be going ahead with it, but if I do - it'll probably be years.

No matter what comes in the future - I'll always be updating you guys! Do not remove this book from your library - instead, archive it! This way, if the book ever gets updated, you'll be informed of any new developments :)

To all those trolls and haters I've come across in those years, thank you for teaching me how to ignore the bad and look at the good. You've taught me to stand up for myself, to love myself when no one did - it was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was worth it. I'd never have come this far if I took your insults and hate to heart.

To my friends from school and college who joined Wattpad just to read this book, you guys are literally the best.

To my family (especially mom), I love you.

To Tophie_Star collaterals chaotichearts- ESJohnson, you've always been there for me. Right from the beginning. You've always been there. I can't imagine what life on Wattpad would have been without you guys. Love you to the moon and back.

To all my beautiful, amazing readers, I'm going to give you one last, precious virtual hug. This story couldn't have been possible without you. Without your golden comments, your motivating messages, your reactions ('please don't tell me Edwina is DEAD!!!') and your immense, immense love. Words cannot express how grateful I've been to have such amazing people to write for. You've all been gems. You've taken this story and won my heart, taking it to heights like never before. Over the years, we've changed 30 covers, read more than 100 chapters, spanned more than 300,000 words - folding in readers from across the world into this tale. I can't express my gratitude enough.

To all those people who tell me so often that I'm an inspiration to them, I say - I love you, but don't just stop at being inspired. Get up. Do the work. Get out there, publish chapters, reply to your readers. The hard work always pays off, it has no other alternative. It is always worth it in the end. Yes, I know you are busy. Yes, I know you have school, I have college too, along with 5+ hours of commute each day. But don't worry about the delays. Don't worry about the readership. It only gets better and better, I promise. It has to. You'll survive, I promise.

In the end, I'm not going to ask you to change your beliefs after reading this story - we all have our own beliefs and way of living, and that's okay. All I'm going to ask you, though, is to take something - even if it's something minute - from these characters. Be as patriotic as Edwina Tremayne. Be as loving as Tristan Valmont. Be calculating and loyal like Deimos, be kind like Cosmo, be ambitious like Celestina. You might make mistakes, you might fuck it up the way Eric and Amphitrite did - but remedy those mistakes. Try your best. Stay true to your family like Aidon Tremayne. Stay true to your goals like Drusilla Everly. You don't have to be a god to be a good person - but if reading this makes even one bit of difference, helps you even a little in becoming a better human than you were before, I'll consider it an accomplishment.

Started from the bottom, now we're here.

Signing off,

Your loving author,

-- ruby!