by Keary Taylor
“We agreed to give more time,” a woman with blue eyes said defensively. “A few months is not more time.”
“A few months is plenty of time,” a black-eyed man hissed. “It is more than he should have been granted.”
“It was very generous,” a white-bearded, blue-eyed man said, his expression downfallen.
I wanted to shout to Cole who sat with the rest of them, to somehow get his attention. But what would happen if the full council knew I was here, an undead, non-proxy?
Cole, I thought with everything I had. Cole, I’m here.
And as simple as that, Cole’s eyes shifted to the walls. In just a fraction of a moment his eyes found mine.
Please, I mouthed, shaking my head. Not yet.
Cole held my eyes for a moment longer, his expression looking as if he were debating how to resolve this.
“Enough!” he bellowed, snapping his attention back to the council. “More time was granted. A week or two longer will not hurt anything. We all know what his fate will be anyway.”
Jeremiah glared at Cole. “Soft,” he hissed quietly with a cold stare.
Coiling his arm, Cole landed a hard blow to the side of the other angels head, knocking him from his seat. An angry cry ripped from Jeremiah’s chest as he simply gave a powerful beat of his wings, hovering in the air before his seat.
“Calm yourself, my brother,” the leader of the exalted said, his eyes narrowing. “As you’ve said, another week cannot hurt anything. We will reevaluate then as to what the boy’s fate shall be.”
Cole’s eyes glanced up at me again, giving me the smallest of nods.
I felt my insides relax just slightly. I nodded back to Cole. Taking a hard swallow, I looked down into the depths below me, and silently jumped.
A gasp escaped my throat as my eyes slid open, seeing the darkened ceiling above me. Half a second later, Alex sat upright, a terrifying sounding gasp coming out of his own lips. His eyes searched around him, confused.
“What happened?” he asked his voice sounding frantic. His expression still confused he climbed to his feet, pulling me to mine.
“You were… having a hard time,” I struggled to come up with an answer.
“Why were you on the floor with me?” he asked, his eyes looking doubtful.
“I’d been holding your hand, telling you to hold on, and I fell asleep.” It wasn’t entirely a lie.
He looked at me for a long moment, evaluating what I had said. His expression finally softened and he closed the gap between us, pulling me into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into my neck. “It’s getting almost impossible to fight it off.”
“I know,” I said quietly, my mind reeling. “You’ll make it to the wedding though.”
It took a moment, but Alex finally nodded in agreement. He then took a deep breath and started toward the kitchen. “I need to cook something. What sounds good tonight? I’m assuming you aren’t tired after your nap.”
“How about Thai?” I suggested. I wasn’t hungry in the least. But Thai was the first thing Alex had ever cooked for me.
Truthfully I did want to sleep. I needed to talk to Cole again.
“My specialty,” Alex smiled as he started digging through cupboards. Less keen eyes would have missed the shaken way Alex moved, anyone else wouldn’t have smelled the fear that was clouding about him. Alex was terrified.
I gave him a smile back and took a seat at the bar to watch the man who would be my husband in a few days make me dinner at midnight.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Sal?” I called the following evening after I got off work. Closing the door behind me, I checked for what kind of order the house was in. Perfectly clean. The housekeepers had been by earlier that day. “Sal?” I called again. Hearing shuffling below me, I descended the stairs and stopped short in the doorway to her office.
There were pictures strewn everywhere, dozens if not more than a hundred of them. All of them featuring a smiling, younger, saner looking Sal. And a man I could only assume was her ex-husband.
“Sal?” I asked as I continued to stand in the doorway. “What happened?”
Sal was seated in her office chair, her feet propped up on the desk, a book in hand. “Hmm?” she mumbled, her eyes never lifting from the page.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I dropped to my hands and knees and started gathering up the pictures. I felt slightly horrified when I realized there was a large red X over Roger’s face in every single picture.
“I’m fine,” she answered casually as she continued to read. “This is a really good book.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” I answered distractedly. I looked at a handful of pictures. There was one of them together on some beach with palm trees around them. Another of them wearing heavy coats and snow all around. Several taken on the back deck of the house here on Lake Samish. In at least half of the pictures I saw Roger had a drink in his hand.
Sal didn’t say another word as I continued to pick up endless pictures, all depicting a perfectly happy couple. But I noticed the bruises she had tried to cover with clothing and make-up. He had ruined Sal’s life.
Dumping them all in a box, I shoved them to the very back of Sal’s closet. I debated with myself on whether it was better to simply throw them into the trash. For some reason I felt guilty for considering it.
“How have you been sleeping?” I asked her as I came back into the office.
“Good,” she answered without looking up at me. “Roger has only come to see me once this week.”
“You’re still seeing him?” I asked, concern growing in my stomach.
Sal nodded. “He was standing in my shower when I went to go to the bathroom earlier. I screamed and he went away.”
My brow furrowed as I leaned against the desk. I wasn’t sure if this was just another of Sal’s more out of it moments or something to be concerned about.
She suddenly snapped the book closed, causing me to jump violently. “Are you nervous?” she asked as she laid the book down on the desk and leaned toward me on her elbows.
“Nervous?” I asked, still distracted by my thoughts.
“About the wedding, silly!” she chuckled.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, putting on a smile for her. It wasn’t easy. “I guess a little.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Sal said as she smiled. “You and Alex are meant to be together.”
“I know,” I replied. I couldn’t tell her that the reason I was nervous was because I knew that once the wedding was over, we might only have a few more days. If I didn’t figure this thing out fast I might be a widow who hadn’t even been married for a whole month.
“Emily dropped my dress off earlier this morning,” Sal beamed as she jumped to her feet and ran into her room. I followed her and flipped the light on. She came out of her closet a moment later carrying a bronze colored dress similar to Emily’s rosewood red one. “Isn’t it pretty?”
“You’ll be beautiful in it,” I assured her, finally smiling for real. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too traumatic for Sal to be out as long as the wedding lasted.
“Emily seemed happier,” Sal said as she laid the dress on the bed and she sat on the edge of the mattress. “She was so sad for a while.”
“She was having a hard time.”
My phone vibrated, and I pulled it out of my pocket to find a text from Alex asking where I was.
“I’ve got to go Sal,” I said as I walked into her bathroom. The world outside the window turning black, I flipped the light on. Looking through her medicine cabinet, I found her sleeping pills. Filling a glass, I brought them out to her. Thankfully she’d been more cooperative about taking them lately and I didn’t have to slip them into her food anymore. She swallowed the pill and took the glass back to the bathroom.
“Good-night,” I said to her as she started brushing her teeth.
“Night!” she called through a foamy mouth.
I walked back to the ho
use in the fading light. The sun hung on the tops of the trees, casting golden shadows on the world. The lake was perfectly smooth, all the tourists having gone inside from the day’s wet and exciting activities. I breathed in a deep breath of fading summer air, welcoming in October.
“I know something is wrong with you,” a voice said from the trees.
My heart jumped into my throat and adrenaline surged through my veins as I searched for the source of the voice. I knew it would be Jeremiah before I found his beautiful yet terrifying face amongst the trees.
“What are you talking about?” I played dumb. “Why have you been following me?”
“You were taken to the afterlife and yet you are back. I know what you were, what you are no longer.”
I stood there in the middle of the road, fighting both the urge to run away from him as fast as I could and attack him all at the same time.
“You killed a woman, did you know that?” I said as I stared at him with cold eyes. I was getting a clear look at him for the first time. His shoulders were broad and strong, his frame sturdy. His dark eyes were shadowed beneath his thick sandy eyebrows. The scruff of facial hair matched his shoulder-length hair. Everything about his features seemed strong.
“Such a tragedy,” his voice was cold and uncaring.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“To take you back to where you belong.”
“She belongs here,” a voice behind me suddenly said. I turned to see Alex walking out to the road. His eyes were cold and burning with rage. I noticed how the veins bulged out on the side of his neck. “That was the trade.”
The black-eyed angel stared at Alex for a long moment. I could see the wheels turning in his head. His fingers clenched into fists.
“She doesn’t belong here, she’s not even fully alive anymore,” he said coldly.
“But that was the trade,” Alex repeated as he stopped at my side.
“You’ve given up so much for this woman, and yet there is so much she hasn’t told you. Consider your sacrifice carefully.”
And with a shift of the air, he was gone.
We both stood there for a long minute in silence. Everything within me felt ready to spring, waiting for something to happen.
Sliding his hand into mine, Alex led me back to the house.
As we walked inside, I kept waiting for him to say something. What Jeremiah had said was true, I was keeping things from Alex. There were things I could never tell him, at least not yet. It would be natural for him to question me as to what Jeremiah was talking about.
But he didn’t say anything. He simply pulled me into his arms in the living room, pressing a kiss to my forehead, and held me for a very long time.
Eventually he released me, kissing me just once on the lips. “You look tired.”
I could only nod.
“I’ll let you go to sleep then. I’m going to start working on the cake tonight.”
“Okay,” I said quietly as he took a step away from me and started for the kitchen. I crossed to my room, pausing in the doorway.
“Alex?” I said quietly.
“Yes,” he paused, his eyes looking slightly sad.
“I love you.”
“I know,” he said with an almost forced half-smile. “I love you too.”
Trying to smile back, I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me. I leaned against it, letting my eyes slide closed.
I hated keeping secrets from Alex. I hated that I couldn’t tell him that I was communicating with Cole, that I was begging for his help. I couldn’t tell him that as of right now, I couldn’t die, that I could never join him. I couldn’t tell Alex that I was considering doing anything to save him.
But it was better to keep him safe. Even if it meant keeping the truth from him.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed away from the door and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
As I brushed my teeth, I studied myself in the mirror. I’d gotten used to the otherworldly perfection I’d acquired. It was still unnerving for me and everyone around me but I was used to it by now. But there was something different about my countenance.
It was that I wasn’t running scared anymore. I wasn’t just kneeling down and taking the beating the afterlife had dealt me my entire life. I wasn’t shedding tears anymore, my hands didn’t shake, my emotions weren’t getting the best of me at every moment.
I was finally fighting.
I spit into the sink and rinsed my mouth out. I changed into my tank top and cotton shorts, glancing in the mirror at the raised scars of intricate wings that spanned my back. I had been only minutes away from acquiring my own real set of wings just before Alex died.
Strangely, I felt calm as I climbed under the cool sheets. I wasn’t panicked, I wasn’t scared. Only weeks before, Cole had terrorized me, was my worst nightmare. But now I sought out his presence.
I could face my worst fear if it meant saving the man I loved.
And then I closed my eyes, slowed my breathing, and let sleep take me over.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I sensed another presence in the dark as soon as I entered the world of the unreal. They shifted uneasily, their breath rapid and scared.
“Hello?” a voice cautiously called out. “Is someone there?”
I didn’t know what to answer. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here. It seemed better that I didn’t say anything.
“I know you’re there,” they said in a shaky voice. “Do you know what’s going on? Where… where am I?”
A part of me wanted to reassure whoever it was in the dark, to tell them that everything was going to be alright. But that would be unfair. I knew nothing of the deeds of this man’s life, what his scrolls contained. He had a fifty-fifty chance of being pulled into the fiery depths in just moments.
“I…” they stuttered. “I think something happened to me. I… I remember a car swerving in front of us. And then…”
As the person struggled to remember their final moments of life, I felt the air shift around me, turning icily cold. With a muffled scream, that other person was plunged into the afterlife.
I waited. If a trial was just getting over, it might take a little bit before Cole could escape unnoticed.
He arrived quicker than I had expected. The air suddenly chilled again, and I felt his presence behind me, standing very close.
“That was a very brave and very stupid thing you did,” his voice saturated my ears.
“I couldn’t let them take him,” I breathed as I hugged my sides.
Even though I couldn’t see through the dark, I sensed the smile that spread on Cole’s perfect face. “You’ve grown, Jessica. You’re not afraid anymore.”
“I’m terrified,” I said as I furrowed my brow, turning in the dark to face him. “Every moment I’m scared that I’ll find that he’s gone, that I can never join him.”
“But you’re fighting now. You have learned to stand up for yourself finally.”
“Did they mean it?” I asked. “That they will give him a while longer?”
“Yes,” Cole said as he started pacing. “But a while is not a long while. You’ve got to figure this out faster.”
“Can’t you just tell me how to save him?” my voice came out desperate.
“You think I have all the answers,” Cole said coolly. “I know you have the ability to do it yourself. Jessica,” he paused. “I don’t know how you are going to save him. I do know that if they take him, it will be too late. He’s dead. Once the council claims the dead, the dead don’t get to go back. At least not permanently.
“And even if I did know what to tell you, I couldn’t,” Cole said, his voice lowering. “I would risk losing my position. As it is, it is already in danger. They watch me. My being here now is dangerous.”
I reached out through the dark, searching for Cole. My fingers only met the cool air. “You’ve grown too, Cole.” I couldn’t help but smile.
“Don’t mention it,” he said sarcastically. “There is something else you should know,” he moved on. “Alex’s mother.”
“Caroline?” I questioned. “What about her?”
“I can sense her. Her transition into my world becomes stronger by the hour. I felt her a few hours ago. She’ll be under my leadership soon if you do not intervene.”
“Where is she?” I asked, my voice coming out desperate sounding.
“She’s in a place that’s familiar to her. I can feel Alex’s presence all around her. I don’t recognize the place.”
“The rental house,” I breathed. My heart started hammering in my chest. “Thank you, Cole,” I said, again reaching out for him. “I have to get back. We have to help her.”
“Jessica,” he called as I started willing myself to wake up. I paused, turning in his general direction. “You can’t come back to this place. It’s too dangerous. For both of us.”
I nodded, figuring Cole would know I did. “Good-bye, Cole.”
“Good-bye, Jessica,” he breathed.
The air started to warm, my insides started shaking. And I opened my eyes to the pre-dawn lit ceiling.
“Alex!” I shouted, jumping out of bed, rushing for my closet.
Alex burst through the door, his front side covered in flour, panic in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
I pulled off my sleeping shorts, not even thinking about Alex seeing me in only my underwear. Pulling on a pair of jeans, I then threw on a long sleeved t-shirt. “We need to get to the rental house. Now.”
“Why?” he asked, his brow furrowing.
“I just… have a feeling we should go over,” I lied. Again.
“What…” he shook his head. “What’s going on with you?”
“Please,” I said as I stepped out of the closet and held his eyes. “Just go get changed. Quickly.”
He looked at me a moment longer, the wheels in his head turning. “Okay,” he said as he shook his head and walked out the bedroom door.
I whirl winded around the bathroom, trying to tame my hair, brushing my teeth. By the time I walked back into the living room, Alex was dressed and waiting with the truck keys.