Angelic (Book 2)

Twenty-Nine

There was something strangely enlightening about staring at your own grave. Something that really instilled the "Do or die" reality into your mind. Or, rather, the "Do or stay dead", because I guessed, technically, I was already dead.

"I can't believe they didn't even spell your name right," Lucille said from beside me, shaking her head. "Ellie. Five words. How hard is that?"

That didn't bother me so much. It was more the fact that everybody on the planet who knew about me except for Lucille believed me to be dead. I couldn't even believe our plan worked. Lucille's plan had been to kill me. She said that, in the beginning of her imprisonment with her daughter, the only way she could be released was if I was no longer a threat.

Being dead kind of took care of that.

She had some sort of drug, a mixture of various substances. "It's not exactly legal," she had said, "but it stops your heart and your breathing long enough to do the job."

Needless to say, at the time, I had been rather skeptical of this. "Will I die?"

"I don't think so."

That wasn't the answer I was looking for. "How will you bring me back to life?"

At that she held up a different vial. "Antidote," she said. "It should work."

"It should?"

"Just trust me on this, Ellie. It's our only shot."

So I did. I trusted her. I broke one of the glasses in the basement and used a shard to cut myself, across my chest and stomach, just enough. It hurt like the dickens, but comparatively, I'd suffered far worse.

Then with the tiny handgun, Lucille fired and pretended to shoot me.

She injected the stuff into me, and I didn't remember anything until waking up here in this field, what seemed like decades later.

Apparently she had nearly failed bringing me back to life, which I didn't dwell on, because I was there and fine and that was what counted. My chest hurt, but she had fixed it up so it wasn't too bad.

"We have to get you ready," Lucille said, staring somberly down at my grave marker.

But I couldn't seem to move passed the fact that I was "dead". "And they just let you leave with me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

She sighed, considering she'd already explained this to me three times. "Because you were dead, Ellie. Your heart stopped. Your breathing stopped. There was nothing to indicate you were even in the least bit alive. Angel was too overjoyed to care. I was released. I took you with me."

"And they think I'm buried here?"

"Yes."

"But I'm not."

"No."

"Then who-"

"Don't worry about who's in the casket," she was quick to interject. "It's not important. What's important is stopping your sister."

I nodded. Because she was right. That counted. Not morals or ethics or a conscience at this point. None of that mattered.

This mattered.

"What do we have to do?" I asked.

Lucille placed a hand on my shoulder. "Forget this. Forget them. Forget everything except your training."

My stomach rolled. I turned and stared at the house in the distance, with the soft yellow lights glowing in the darkness. August was in there somewhere, making plans, grieving over me. I knew, because I saw. My heart broke over and over again, begging me to see him and ease this pain.

But I couldn't.

Not yet.

Maybe not ever.

"This is about you, Ellie. Understand? Nobody has a better chance of stopping Angel and your father but you."

I breathed out slowly, closing my eyes. All I wanted was for everything to stop. To just end, so everybody could go back to living normally.

Or however normally they could.

"Okay," I murmured. "Let's go."

My mother smiled faintly. "Good girl."

And with a hand at my back, she steered me away from my grave, away from the house containing the one person I needed over my own mother-over anything-and to my uncertain fate.

The tears fell, but I had to ignore them.

The time for crying was over.

****

So I decided to just go ahead and post this, as it's short, and let you know that yes: this is the last chaper of Angelic. I invite you to read chapter twenty-eight before this if you haven't, becuse it was posted fairly recently. Also, I will post a tiny excerpt from the next book Awake a little later to keep you interested (LOL) so look for that. My focus is finishing my NaNoWriMo book, and then writing Awake. Thanks to all of you for your support, and much love!

-EJ