Ascension (Book 4, The Watcher Chronicles) (34 page)

“I’ll never let you fall, Jessi,” he whispers to her.

The other guardians come behind us and place their hands on our shoulders. I feel a surge of power enter my body, and I know Simone is transferring her powers to me. I look around at my fellow vessels and know they’re all feeling the same thing from their own guardians.

With our new found power, we say, “Come to us.”

Chapter 22

Michael cradles me in his arms as I cry. We’re sitting naked in a field of soft velvety grass like that found in the Garden of Eden. I feel like a mountain of grief is crushing my soul and heart all at once. Tears born of my anguish overcome my ravaged emotions making it hard for me to take in a breath. Michael begins to rock me, trying to bring me comfort in my time of sorrow.

I feel a gentle, comforting hand land on my exposed left shoulder.

I look up and see my mother through the veil of my tears.

“Jessi,” she says, sitting down on the grass beside us, still dressed in the same clothes as the last time I saw her, “please don’t cry.”

“I left him,” I wail, unable to control the grief I feel over the implications of those three simple words. “Mason will never forgive me.”

“Of course he will,” she soothes. “He loves you. He will forgive you anything.”

I hear something in the distance and look up.

“What was that?” I ask my mom.

“Your friends,” she tells me, a small smile on her face. “They’re calling you home, baby.”

“Calling me home?” I ask. “I don’t understand.”

My mother gently touches the side of my face with one of her hands.

I hear the call again but it’s so faint I can barely make out what it says.

“Did you really believe He would make you leave before your time?” My mother asks me. “This was always His plan. You simply had to have faith in Him to know what needed to happen. And you did. You put your trust in Him when He told you your death was the only way you would be able to save the world.”

“I can go home?” I ask, realizing what my mother is telling me, daring to dream it’s real.

“Yes,” she says. “You can go home, Jessi.”

“Come to us,” I hear my friends say.

“When your time to join me truly comes,” my mother says, smiling at me. “I will be waiting for you.”

I look at Michael and know he feels the pull on our soul too.

He smiles at me.

We’re going home.

When I open my eyes, I feel a surge of power enter my body. I see my father kneeling above me with his eyes closed like he’s concentrating on something.

“Daddy?”

My dad’s eyes snap open and he looks down at me with tears of joy.

“What’s up, Buttercup?” He says to me, laughing in relief.

“I saw Mom again,” I tell him. “But she said it wasn’t my time to be with her yet.”

My dad shakes his head. “No. It’s not nearly your time to go, Jessi.”

I sit straight up and look around at all my friends. They’re all smiling in relief.

“Thank you,” I tell them. “Thank you for not giving up on me.”

“We love you,” Chandler says to me. He looks off to the side. “But you need to hurry, Jess.” 

I look in the direction of Chandler’s gaze and see Mason a few feet away behind my father. He sits motionless in the snow, his eyes vacant of life.

I immediately stand but Mason doesn’t seem to see me. I walk through the circle of my friends and go to my husband. I kneel down in front of him and place my hands on either side of his face, forcing him to focus on me.

“Mason,” I say.

Mason’s eyes move slightly as he seems to notice me for the first time, pulling himself out of whatever nether world his mind was trapped in.

“Are you a ghost?” He asks me.

I shake my head. “No, I’m not a ghost. I’m real.”

Mason lifts a trembling hand to my face. I lean my cheek into his cold palm.

“See,” I say, looking him in the eyes, keeping his gaze on me. “Real. Alive.”

The light of life comes back into Mason’s eyes, and he grabs me around the waist pulling me against him, burying his face against my neck.

“I thought I lost you,” I hear him say.

“You’ll never lose me,” I tell him. “Bad luggage, remember?”

I feel Mason chuckle but also feel the wetness of his tears against my neck.

I see God phase in a few feet behind Mason. I look at Him but don’t say anything. I think He knows Mason is the most important person to me right now. Everything else can just wait.

Once Mason has himself composed, he pulls away from me.

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” he says, joking but not.

“I’m sorry I made you both go through that,” God tells us.

Mason and I stand, holding hands as we walk over to his father.

“It was never my intention to make you suffer,” He tells us. “But if I had told Jess her death was only temporary…”

“My grief wouldn’t have been strong enough to bring Lucifer down,” I finish for Him. “I understand.”

“Are you angry with me for the deception?”

“No,” I tell Him. “You did what you had to do to save us. But, I still don’t understand how we’re supposed to seal the Tear.”

“You can’t do it on your own,” God says as my friends gather around us to listen to what it is we have to do. “That’s why your crowns trapped Lucifer and his men. You will need to pull on their power to help you seal the Tear. And with the added power from your guardians, you have just enough to heal the wound Lucifer made with his hatred.”

“Power from our guardians?” I ask, not understanding what He’s talking about.

“They gave us their power so we would be strong enough to bring you back to us,” Chandler tells me. “But now they can’t go back to Heaven because they’re human.”

“Human?” I ask, looking over my shoulder at my dad. “You mean,” I look at God. “I get to have my dad back for good?”

“Yes,” God says. “You get to have your father back.”

Could this day get any better?

“Then let’s seal the Tear and go home,” I say, squeezing Mason’s hand. “I want to go home.”

God instructs Mason to bring the other six princes up to the top of the mountain. We place them in a small circle in front of us.

“You will have to reach into your respective pillars and grab your crown in order to siphon your prince’s energy,” God instructs. “Jess, you and Mason should stand in the center of the circle. Your sword will act as a lightning rod for the energy this will produce.”

I’m still holding Mason’s hand, so I pull him behind me into the center of the circle.

“Mason,” God says, “you will need to help Jess hold up the sword. When I open the Tear, it will want to pull in the energy that’s produced. You need to help her hold onto the sword until I tell you to let it go.”

Mason nods to his father, but he keeps his eyes on me.

I smile.

“Seriously, I’m not a ghost,” I reassure him. “You can stop staring at me like I’m about to poof into a cloud of smoke and disappear.”

“I know you’re real,” he tells me, his voice hoarse with emotion. “But sometimes I look at you, and I can’t believe you’re mine. So let me stare because you might be real, but you’re also my dream come true.”

I reach up around my neck and yank off the necklace JoJo made me. I make sure Mason sees it before I drop it in the snow at our feet.

“Three,” I tell him, “you owe me three babies. Nothing less than that will do.”

Mason’s smile widens. “I promise I won’t stop until you have at least three.”

I giggle at the promise.

“Ok, is everyone ready?” God asks.

We all nod.

“Grab your crowns,” he instructs. “I will tell all of you when to release your respective crowns and then ask Mason to release the sword. Is that understood?”

We all say yes.

I hold up the sword at the end of the hilt and Mason grabs it right above my hand closer to the blade.

I look down at Lucifer, frozen inside the blue pillar with a look of pain on his face, pain born of my own grief. I can’t help but feel sorry for him in this state.

“What will happen to them?” I ask God.

“After the Tear is closed, it will take some time for them to recover from the stasis they’re in, long enough for all of you to leave before they awaken.”

I reach inside the pillar and grab the crown on Lucifer’s head.

Our combined energies begin to make a vortex of power which the sword does seem to be absorbing. It vibrates in my hand as it hums with the added energy.

God opens the Tear, and I instantly feel Mason tighten his grip on the sword. I can feel the Tear trying to pull the sword from our grasp but Mason doesn’t let it. Our vortex of power grows stronger and stronger until I feel like I’m in the middle of a raging hurricane.

“Let go of the crowns!” God instructs us.

We do as he says and the crowns levitate in the air right above their respective prince’s head. They begin to spin with incredible speed.

“Mason,” God calls, “let go of the sword.”

Mason and I release our grip on the sword, even though I know my contribution was only as a conduit between the archangel’s combined power and the sword. Mason was the one preventing it from entering the Tear too soon.

As the sword flies up into the air, the crowns quickly follow its trajectory, shooting upwards to make a rainbow of color as they enter the Tear.

As the sword and crowns pierce the veil of the Tear, it’s almost as if the universe sighs. The Tear closes and the ribbon of white light which has haunted us for the last fifteen years slowly fades from existence.

I stare up at the clear blue sky. It’s been so long since we could look up and not be reminded that each year we could lose a loved one without warning. Now, we have a pristine sky and a bright future ahead of us where anything is possible.

I lower my eyes from the sky and look at Mason.

The scar he’s worn since I’ve known him is completely gone now. His guilt finally wiped clean.

I’m just about to launch myself into my husband’s arms when I hear a whistling noise.

My eyes are drawn up to the sky and I see it before it even lands.

My sword falls to the ground. Its tip buries itself into the ice and it stands like its waiting for me to come and get it. I stare at it, confused by its sudden reappearance.

“You’ll need it again one day,” God says as he comes to stand beside me.

“Why?” I ask.

“To protect someone.”

“So my job isn’t over yet?”

“No.”

I walk over to my sword and reclaim it.

“Maybe we should put off having kids for a little while,” Mason suggests as I walk back to him.

“Oh no,” I say, shaking my head. “We’re not waiting. I’m not going to live my life walking on eggshells waiting for something bad to happen. I want to start making good things happen instead. Now, let’s get everyone home and settled because I have plans for you, Mr. Collier.”

Mason smiles and holds out one of his hands to me.

“I will always do whatever you want me to do, Agent Riley. Always.”

Epilogue

As I watch Caylin sitting at the picnic table with Joshua and Leah, I begin to smile.

“And what are you smiling about?” Mason asks, coming up behind me on the porch of Lilly’s Colorado home and wrapping his arms around my burgeoning belly.

“I’m just happy to see the kids get along so well,” I tell him as I notice Caylin begin to absently play with a necklace around her neck as she laughs at something Leah is saying.