Judgment (The Alternate Earth Series, Book 3) (8 page)

“Don’t let him do anything stupid, Nina,” Leah says. “Sometimes he seems to think about other people’s safety before his own.”

“I’ve got his back,” Nina reassures Leah. “Don’t worry about him. I won’t let anything happen.” Nina looks at me. “Good luck tonight, Jess. Maybe tomorrow you’ll know who I am.”

I nod. “I hope so.”

Nina phases, and the rest of us decide to go downstairs.

“You should eat with us, too,” I tell Leah.

“Oh, that’s all right, Jess. I’ve got something else I need to go do anyway.”

“Uh,” JoJo says in disgust as we descend the staircase to the first floor. “Why did they put you in charge of that devil woman?”

“She’s not a devil woman, JoJo,” Leah says. “She just made a mistake, is all. She didn’t have to come back here and tell us what happened.”

JoJo begins to string together a long line of French words that are completely lost on me. From her agitated state, I can only assume her words are not complimentary to whomever it is she’s talking about.

“Who is
she
?” I ask. “And what kind of mistake did she make?”

Leah looks at JoJo, as if to confirm that I should be told the truth. JoJo nods her head, giving Leah permission to answer my question.

“It’s a Watcher from this world named Sophia,” Leah tells me. “She made a deal with Lucian that helped him get possession of the trumpets and Gabriel, who we had as our prisoner at the time.”

“She betrayed us!” JoJo says hotly. “She is getting what she deserves!”

“Why did she betray us?” I ask.

“They were torturing her daughter,” Leah says, looking at JoJo like she should understand the impossible choice Sophia had to make. “I don’t think any of us can say what we would have done in a similar situation.”

“She should have come to us first,” JoJo says emphatically. “We could have helped her get Logan back.”

“She practically had to watch Logan be skinned alive, JoJo! What would you have done in that situation? I doubt she was thinking straight. I’m sure all she could think about was getting her daughter away from those animals.”

“JoJo, what’s wrong?” Gabe says, walking out of the entryway from the library. “I could hear you swearing in French all the way in the other room.”

“Sophia,” JoJo says, apparently knowing Gabe will understand her mood with that single word.

“Ahh,” he says, fully understanding. “Well, why don’t we forget about her for now, so we can concentrate on Jess this evening?”

JoJo takes a deep breath, as if it will help clear her thoughts. “
Oui
, you are right. Tonight is all about our Jess.”

“I’ll see you guys later,” Leah says, before leaning up and giving me a kiss on a cheek. “Hopefully, tomorrow, you’ll remember that we’re sisters.”

Leah walks away before I get a chance to ask her how we’re sisters.

“Mason isn’t back just yet,” Gabe tells me, “but he said we should start supper without him, since he wasn’t sure how long he would be.”

I feel a great sense of disappointment that I have to wait to see Mason again. I begin to wonder if this is the way I always feel when he isn’t close by.

Gabe takes JoJo’s arm and heads back towards the library. I follow behind, feeling like a wobbly third wheel.

We end up walking through the library to another room that is connected to it. This room has bare wood floors and a wall of windows facing out towards a large body of water.

“Where exactly is this castle built?” I ask Gabe as he pulls out JoJo’s chair for her.

“This island is part of the Thousand Islands in the Saint Lawrence River,” Gabe tells me.

“I’m guessing geography was never my strong suit,” I tell Gabe as I take my own seat at the table. “Where is that exactly?”

“It’s the river system that runs between upper New York State and Canada,” Gabe says as he sits beside JoJo.

“Ahh, now that I understand. Thanks.”

I look at the small round table adorned with a white tablecloth and a small bouquet of red and white silk flowers.

There’s a momentary silence, as none of us seem to know what to talk about.

“So,” I say, breaking the tension, “when do you think the baby is due?”

“We’re not completely sure,” Gabe says, placing his arm across the top of JoJo’s chair as he turns into her. “I guess you should have some tests run as soon as you get home.”

“
Oui
,” JoJo says happily. “I will need to know when our little bundle of joy will come into the world, so I can have his wardrobe ready.”

“So you already know it will be a boy?” I ask.

“I had a vision of him,” Gabe tells me with a proud smile. “He’ll be as handsome as his old man, too.”

JoJo giggles. “
Mon dieu
! I will have to beat the girls off of him with my yard stick if he is as handsome as you.”

Gabe chuckles. “Now someone should really take a video of that and post it on YouTube.”

“Oh, you,” JoJo says, swatting playfully at Gabe.

“What did I miss?” I hear Mason say as he comes into the room behind me.

I turn in my seat as Mason walks up to my chair. He leans down to give me a small kiss. Involuntarily, I hear myself sigh; I’m slightly disappointed his kiss didn’t last a bit longer.

Mason takes his seat beside me and reaches underneath the table to take my hand. He squeezes it slightly, as if silently telling me that he missed me as much as I missed him.

“So why was JoJo hitting you, Gabe?”

“I always miss the good stuff,” I hear Malcolm say as he walks into the room, rolling a silver cart with a soup tureen and four bowls on it.

“Oh!” JoJo says, sniffing the air as the aroma of the soup fills the room. “Is that my favorite of your soups, Malcolm?”

“Of course it is,” he replies, standing beside the table and taking the lid off the tureen, “but you’d better enjoy it while you can. I have a feeling food will be in short supply soon. I’m sure potatoes and kale will be hard to come by, much less sausage and heavy cream.”

“Then I will savor every mouthful,” JoJo promises.

“You cook?” I ask Malcolm, not hiding my surprise. “I didn’t peg you as the domestic type.”

“Well, you know,” Malcolm says, scooping some of the soup into a bowl, “I figured if I ever decide to settle down, I might need to know how. The Brand on our world taught me everything he knows, so I would be prepared. I might as well practice, in case I ever meet my soulmate.”

“I didn’t peg you as a hopeless romantic type either.”

Malcolm hands the bowl of soup to JoJo.

“Not hopeless,” Malcolm replies, “just hopeful.”

As I look at Malcolm, I find myself hoping that he does meet his soulmate one day, and that they share a love that transcends anything he can imagine for himself.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I soon learn that I’m a complete glutton at the supper table. While everyone else sips their soup, I down mine like a pig at a feeding trough. However, no one seems disturbed or offended by my eating habits, which tells me it’s just the way I normally eat.

As Malcolm serves us the second course to our meal, a ground-beef casserole with rice and vegetables that tastes slightly Middle Eastern in origin, Gabe and JoJo tell me about their life, living between Paris and New York City. It sounds very jet-set and exciting, but not exactly conducive to a family life.

“Do you think you’ll be settling in one place after the baby is born?” I have to ask.

“
Oui
.” JoJo nods her head definitively, making her curls bounce against her shoulders. “We have decided to make New York our home during most of the year, and we’ll stay in Paris during the summer months. I see no reason to choose between two cities I love and gain so much inspiration from. Our son will have the advantages of both, and can decide where he wants to live when he gets old enough.”

JoJo and Gabe fill me in on some details about their life and their plans. The love they have for one another is obvious, and being around them simply makes me happy. I now understand why Mason decided to invite them to have supper with us. I’ll admit I was slightly disappointed that we weren’t going to have a romantic dinner for two. But, now, I think I fully understand Mason’s intentions.

His love for me is without limits, but so is the love my friends harbor for me. I need them just as much as I need him in my life. From what I was told, the bond between our Archangels is strong; at least strong enough to bring a group of strangers together from all around the world. It was powerful enough to pull my soul back into my body after Lucifer killed me, and it transported us all here to alternate Earth. Which made me wonder…

“Do you think we could gather everyone together?” I ask Mason. “All the vessels?”

“I’m sure we could,” he says, uncertain why I’m bringing this up while we’re all still having supper.

“Didn’t you tell me earlier that, when we’re all together, we can make an inner realm?” I ask.

“Yes,” Mason answers, waiting for me to say more.

“Well, what if we make one right now? Maybe it can help me connect with Michael.”

“Damn,” Gabe says across the table, “why didn’t we think of that? I’ll go get the others, Mason, but you’ll need to send someone out to get Rafe. I don’t know where Nina took him.”

JoJo and I wait in the library together while Gabe and Mason work on bringing all the other vessels to me. In my heart, I can feel Michael jumping for joy. I feel sure that he wants to connect with the other Archangels as much as I want to finally hear him speak.

About five minutes later all of the vessels are present, except for Rafe.

“Do you know where they went?” I ask Chandler.

“Not a clue,” Chandler shrugs. “I’m not even sure they were going to one particular spot.”

“Why don’t we just call Nina’s phone?” Leah asks.

“Cellphones don’t work anymore,” Zack informs us. “My guess is that the meteor shower took down too many cell towers and satellites.”

“Even if we can save this world,” Gabe says, “it’s going to take them a long time to get back on their feet.”

“Anybody else just really want to go home?” Leah looks at us all a bit guiltily.

One by one, we all raise our hands, letting her know that she’s not the only one who feels that way. I may not remember home, but I know it has to be better than where we are.

“It’ll be over soon,” Zack tries to reassure the group. “It can’t last forever. Though, if I miss the birth of my first born, Faison might just make me wish I had stayed here.”

We all laugh at his joke, making the tension in the room a little less palpable.

When Mason walks into the room with Nina and Rafe beside him, I breathe out a sigh of relief.

“Ok,” I say looking at everyone, “how do we do this?”

“We usually hold hands,” Chandler says, taking one of mine while JoJo takes the other, “and stand in a circle.”

“Once the circle is made,” Gabe says, “we all concentrate and combine our powers to make the inner realm.”

“Oh!” Leah says, turning to the fireplace in the library and flicking her finger at it. I watch as a small ball of fire flies from her fingertip and lands on the pieces of wood there. “Almost forgot a crucial element.”

“What’s the fire for?” I ask.

“The sound usually helps us focus,” Zack answers.

“Normally, we use a fire or the sound of the ocean at your beach home,” Rafe explains.

“Ok. So I just need to concentrate on the sound of the fire and making an inner realm.”

“Easy as pie,” Zack says to me with a wink. “We’ve done this so many times, it’ll probably come right back to you, Jess.”

“We can hope so,” I reply uneasily, not nearly as confident as he is.

Both Chandler and JoJo squeeze my hands to show their support and belief in me.

“You can do this,” Chandler tells me quietly.

I nod my head and close my eyes to concentrate on the pops and hisses coming from the fire. After about two minutes of trying to make this inner realm thing work, I peek through slit eyelids to see if anyone else is ready to give up.

No one else has his or her eyes open, so I close mine again.

I feel like an idiot.

I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. I’m positive I’m the reason we can’t make the inner realm. Everyone else is probably just waiting on me to make the connection. I start to feel a panic attack threaten to take control of my body.

Ok, ok, ok… they told me to concentrate on the sounds of the fire. Let’s try that again.

I shut down each thought my mind is busy with, like you would close tabs in a browser window. Finally, only the sound of the fire is inside my mind. As I listen to this static noise, I feel as though I’m falling into a trance-like state. My breathing becomes more steady and my nerves less frazzled. I know exactly when we’re inside the inner realm, because I’m suddenly at peace.

When I open my eyes, the other vessels are also just opening theirs. Standing behind each of my friends are people I don’t recognize from a memory, but I instinctively know that they are the archangels tethered to my friends’ souls.

I let go of Chandler and JoJo’s hands. With a deep breath to steady my nerves, I slowly turn around to find out if Michael is standing behind me or not. I have my head bowed, so I end up seeing his black sneakers first. I quickly look up to meet his happy eyes.

“Hey, Jess,” he says, smiling brightly.

I immediately walk up to him and throw my arms around his neck. Tears of joy stream down my face, and I feel like I’ve just come home from a long trip after Michael wraps his arms around me.

“I still don’t have any memories of you,” I whisper to him through my sobs, “but I remember you, if that makes sense.”

“I’m a part of you, Jess,” Michael tells me. “Now a piece of you is back where it belongs.”

I pull back and ask Michael, “What happened when Ravan tried to phase me to Heaven? How did that take my memories away and break our connection with one another?”

“When she tried to phase us,” Michael begins to explain, “it was like she stretched our connection with one another to its very limits. I think I actually
did
see Heaven for a moment. It was during that split second of separation that our connection was damaged, but it was never completely broken. I was afraid it might be permanent, but thank God that isn’t the case.”

In a whisper so low that only Michael can hear, I ask, “So you really think the whole ‘sex cure’ thing will work?”

“I hope it will,” he whispers back. “It certainly won’t hurt anything.”

“What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m stuck like this forever?”

“I don’t think that’s your fate, Jess.”

“But what if it is?” I ask desperately, on the verge of panic. “How can I be a good wife and mother to people I can’t even remember?”

“Listen to me,” Michael grabs me by the shoulders, to make sure I’m looking at him. “No matter what happens, you are still the same person you always have been. Memories naturally fade over time. It’s what you do in the present and the future that matters most.”

“But it helps if you know where you’ve been.”

Michael doesn’t say anything, because he knows I’m right.

“We’ll work through it together, Jess. If tonight doesn’t work, we’ll find another way to make things feel right for you.”

I nod. “Ok.”

I trust Michael to know my limits, because I don’t. I hug him one more time before returning to my circle of friends.

“One problem fixed,” Chandler says to me as I take his hand.

“One down and one to go I guess,” I tell him as JoJo takes my other hand. “Now, how do we get out of here? I have a date to finish, and some kind of surprise waiting for me back there.”

“Just think about getting back to Mason,” Chandler tells me with a crooked grin. “That always works.”

I smile at the mention of my husband’s name and close my eyes. A picture of him quickly forms in my mind.

I know the instant we leave our inner realm and return to reality. Mason’s presence behind me brings me comfort, but also makes my heart race at the same time. When I turn to face him, his expression is expectant.

“Michael can talk to me now,” I tell him, “but it didn’t help return any of my memories.”

Mason doesn’t look as disappointed as I thought he would.

“Well, then, maybe it’s time you saw my surprise for you.” Mason holds out his hand to me. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” I step up and place my hand in his. Before we leave, I turn to my friends and say, “Thank you for doing that for me. It helped more than you can imagine.”

“We would do anything for you, Jess,” Gabe tells me. “Anything at all.”

“Thanks,” I tell them once more before letting Mason lead me out of the room.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“To our bedroom,” he tells me, which makes me miss a step. Mason chuckles. “Don’t worry; I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a threat or a promise. There were certainly things I wanted Mason to do to me. I just wasn’t sure if I was ready to experience them yet.

When we get to our room, I can’t help but smile. A neat arrangement of comforters is laid out on the floor at the end of the bed, with an array of pillows propped up low against the footboard. There are unlit white candles scattered around in the room. What looks like a wooden dinner tray sits on top of the blankets, with nine cellphones neatly arranged across its surface.

Mason lets go of my hand and walks over to the fireplace mantle. I watch as he reaches for something on top of it just before I hear the striking of a match.

I begin to laugh.

Mason turns to face me with his lit match and smiles as we share in his little joke.

“I thought you might find that amusing,” he tells me, before walking around the room to light all the candles. “Would you mind turning the light off?”

I reach over and flip the switch down on the wall beside me. The room is cloaked in a darkness that is only chased away by the flames from the lit candlewicks.

Mason places his box of matches back on the mantle and says, “Take a seat so I can give you your surprise.”

I walk over to the edge of the pile of comforters and slip off my shoes. Mason sits down between the end of the bed and the wooden tray. I sit next to him and wait for him to explain why the cellphones are in our room.

“Are we calling someone?” I ask as a joke, knowing that the phones won’t work because of the damage the meteorites did to the communications systems.

“No,” Mason tells me, reaching for one of the phones. “We’re not making a call. We’re going to give you back some of your memories.”

I sit up a little straighter at this news.

“How?” I ask eagerly.

“From the pictures and videos on these phones,” Mason says, sliding his finger across the screen of the phone to turn it on.

“That’s brilliant!” I say excitedly. “I see why I love you so much.”

Mason smiles. “Well, you have always loved the way I think.”

“I’m sure that’s not all I love,” I tell him knowingly.

“No, it’s not,” he confirms, angling the phone in my direction. “I have some photos from our wedding stored on my phone. I thought we would start there.”

“You keep our wedding pictures on your phone?” I ask, wondering how many men in the world would do such a thing after seven years of marriage.

“Of course I do,” Mason tells me. “It was one of the happiest days of my life. Besides, I always get a chuckle when I see you in your wedding dress.”

“Why is that?” I ask, finding it a strange thing for him to say.

Mason places his phone in my hands and says, “Take a look.”

I look down at the screen and gape at myself in my wedding dress. I can’t help but giggle.