Ethereal

Chapter 27

"We aren't." He frowned. "What do you think he lied about?"

At this point I was fighting back tears, "It's not just him. It's all of you. You're all liars."

"Emilia, I promise we would never lie to you." He sounded so sincere, I almost believed him.

"Is that so?" I laughed, though my body was shaking from the sobs trying to work their way out. "So, tell me Travis, where is my mother?"

His eyes widened, he opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. "Nothing to say?" I asked, shaking my head when he still didn't reply.

"Emilia, please. You don't understand." He seemed to beg.

I looked away from him. "I could have understood why you didn't tell me right away. Before I knew about Caelum. But even now? Noah and Jasmine are out there now, supposedly looking for her. They lied right to my face."

He stared at me, looking a little like a fish out of water. His mouth was opening and closing as though he was trying to find the right words but coming up short.

"Just leave me alone." I sighed. "Please."

I turned away from him, running down the stream as quickly as I could. It felt as though I couldn't escape them, like every time I turned one of them was there, ready to remind me that they had broken my trust.

Travis didn't try to follow me, for which I was grateful. I just wanted to be left alone. I wanted my peace, but there was no corner of the Earth or of Heaven that I could go to where they couldn't reach me.

I hurried once I reached the portal, not wanting to be anywhere near Travis. What was he even doing here? Wasn't he meant to be on a task?

Back in Caelum, the only place I wanted to be was with my mother. So that's where I went, I looked forward to seeing her – for many years we had missed out on having proper conversations, so it was nice to catch up.

"Hey, mum." I greeted as I walked into her hospital room. She was sat upright, flicking through the pages of a well-worn book. "What's that your reading?"

"Oh, it's just a collection of poems." She told me, "One of the nurses brought it for me." It looked very old, I thought that it must be one of the angel's own books that they had brought back from Earth as a souvenir.

"Anything good?" I asked, sitting down beside her.

She scrunched up her nose, closing the book and putting it down on the table next to her bed. "I'm not that into poems."

I laughed, "I'll bring you some magazines from home next time I visit." I told her, "Any requests?"

She seemed thoughtful, "Just a newspaper would be good, I'm not very up to date on what's going on in the world."

"Okay." I nodded, "I'll make sure to bring you one."

"Thank you." She smiled. Her smile was so contagious, I just had to smile back. She stared at me when I did for a few moments with an odd expression.

"What's wrong?" I asked, dropping the smile.

"Nothing." She said, shrugging. "You have certainly grown into your looks. You look so much like your father."

She was right, I did look an awful lot like him. "Is that a bad thing?"

She shook her head, "He was a good-looking man."

"Emilia?" A new voice said. When I turned around, a tall woman wearing scrubs walked into the room. An angel of course, with shoulder length blonde hair and a clipboard in her arms. "Could I speak to you outside?"