Vindicated (30 page)

Pushing the memories aside, I made my way downstairs into Sal’s bathroom.
 
Opening her mirror, I found her prescription sleeping pills.
 
My hands threatening to shake, I twisted the lid off, found twenty-something-odd pills still inside.
 
Slipping the bottle into my pocket, I walked back upstairs, and locked the front door behind me again.

By the time I got back into the truck, Alex looked more composed, his wings gone.
 
His face looked tired, but not quite so dead.
 
I hadn’t expected him to remain silent after I got back in and parked the truck in our garage, but he didn’t question me.

We walked into the silent house, still neither of us saying a word.
 
I sighed as I set my purse on the table, bracing my hands against its wooden surface.
 
I let my eyes slide closed, feeling so heavy and so exhausted.

I heard Alex walk out of the bedroom, assuming he had gone to get a new shirt.
 
He hesitated behind me in the living room.
 
I could feel the turmoil inside of him.
 
It reached out to me, meshed with my own.

“We’re going to go to Italy next spring,” he suddenly said, his voice louder than I expected it to be, like he was trying to convince himself of their sureness.
 
“Next April.
 
We’re going to go spend two weeks in Italy.
 
We’re going to ride a gondola, or whatever they’re called.
 
We’re going to go stay in some really expensive villa with goats or something that grazes the land.”

“Goats?” I said, my eyes still not leaving the surface of the table.

“Or something,” he said.
 
I heard him take two steps toward me.
 
“And then next November we’re going to go to Greece.
 
I’ve never been.”

“I’d love to see Greece,” I said, feeing a few of those rocks in my stomach disappear.

“Next month we are going to go to your sister’s wedding.
 
We’re going to watch her and Rod say their vows.
 
And someday, you and I will be aunt and uncle to their kids.”

And then one more rock dropped back in.

“And when we feel ready, we’re going to adopt some kids of our own,” Alex was standing just a foot behind me now.

“Three,” I said softly.
 
“I always wanted three, when the time came.”

“Three it is then,” Alex said as he touched my shoulders lightly.
 
Almost as if he didn’t quite dare wrap his arms around me.
 
“And then we’re going to remodel this house.
 
We’re going to decorate a nursery, put a swing on the branch that hangs over the backyard.

“We’re going to have our own family, Jessica Wright.
 
We will make our own
life
.”

I turned around to face Alex.
 
His eyes burned with intensity as they looked into mine.
 
I wrapped my arms behind his neck, bringing his face close to mine.
 
I touched my forehead to his and closed my eyes.
 
“We are going to move on to the rest of our lives.”

“Yes we are,” he said, letting his lips brush mine as he spoke.

“Thank you,” I said with a sigh, letting myself relax into his embrace.
 
It felt nice to be supported, to just finally let go of everything inside of me.

Alex didn’t say anything, just brushed his lips against my temple and squeezed me tighter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I collapsed to my knees as the afterlife materialized around me.
 
It felt as if my body were trying to turn itself inside out.
 
My organs tried to expand and explode their way out of my skin.
 
My entire body quaked.

Lifting my head took every ounce of strength I had.
 
Trying to place myself, I found I was on the staircase, directly across from the council’s seats.
 
The new Cormack had just walked back into the stone tunnel leaving a recently deceased person standing alone on the catwalk.
 

As I heard the rustling of wings, I threw myself back against the wall, trying to make myself as small as possible.

I couldn’t even dare a glance toward the council as the trial got underway.
 
I didn’t want to know if they could see me or now.
 
I wasn’t sure if I should feel panicked or relieved when the condemned and exalted started flooding into the cylinder.
 
They hid me from the eyes of the council, but my odd behavior was like sending out a flare.
 
Yet no one acknowledged my presence; they simply sat in rapture of the trial underway.

I looked around as I got to my feet, the names of the dead running through my head.
 

But I didn’t have to search for long.
 
A pair of blue eyes locked with mine, and as usual, I just knew that was Philip Clearwater.
 
As he started walking toward me, two others joined his side, and a moment later, three more.
 
As he approached me, he gave a nod of his head, indicating that I was to start up the staircase.
 
I understood.
 
We were in too obvious of a spot.

As we made our way up, the crowd behind me seeming to grow, I dared one glance sideways toward the ten council member’s.

A dull throb pulsed through my chest as my eyes settled on Cole.
 
Our final hours together before he was pulled back filled my thoughts.
 
The honesty he had finally allowed to come through put a lot of strange feelings into my chest.

Suddenly, as if I had spoken those thoughts directly into his ear, Cole’s eyes lifted from the man before him.
 
He scanned the staircase for just a moment, and then his eyes met mine.

I could tell he was trying hard not to react to me.
 
But I could see the fear in his eyes, the panic he must have been feeling.
 
And then his eyes flashed to the other side of the cylinder, to the stairway that wound up and down.
 
I followed his line of sight, feeling a strange sensation crawling along in my blood.

I saw myself from across the cylinder.
 
I stared down at the man on trial, my face serene and calm looking.

Jane.

The woman Cole had loved for centuries.
 
The woman who had cheated on her husband with Cole.
 
The woman he had fathered an illegitimate child with.
 
And the woman who had forsaken him.

The woman who was the reason Cole had come after me.

My own eyes slid back to Cole.
 
I didn’t even think to be more tactful to compose my shock-saturated face.
 
Cole’s eyes met mine again, his expression both saddened and shameful looking.

I was prodded from behind, and I stumbled forward, my body feeling numb.
 

“Keep moving,” a voice mumbled from behind.

I just kept glancing back and forth from Jane’s oblivious face to Cole’s deepening disturbed one.

He caught my eyes once more, and shook his head in a very clear way.

I swallowed hard and turned my eyes back in the direction I was supposed to be going.
 
Gathering my wits, I committed myself to not look at Jane and her blue eyes again.

Finally out of view of the council, I turned back to the people behind me, realizing that the group had grown to over a dozen angels.

“We know why you’re here,” a woman with black eyes said.
 
Surprisingly her voice was calm, not the normal hate-filled hissing they usually spoke with.
 
“And while not all of us agree, I will do what you ask.
 
I haven’t forgotten the branding you endured for me.”

“But the council needs him,” a blue-eyed man said, his eyes turning hard on the woman.
 
“You’ve seen the chaos.
 
Only one council member has been committed for the next term but the contention continues to get worse.
 
He will be a needed addition.”

I glanced back to the council.
 
A blue-eyed man I had never seen before sat with the rest of them, one of the women now gone.

“He didn’t deserve to be taken when he was,” the woman said, her voice hardening as she met the man’s glare.
 
“It wasn’t his time.”

“It must have been if he’s dead!” another of the black-eyed angels said.

“Please,” I said, my voice just a little too quiet to be heard.
 
I swallowed hard, squeezing my eyes closed.
 
“Please,” I said more loudly, letting my eyes slowly open again.
 
“Don’t accept him when they judge him.”

They were quiet for a while, their eyes not quite meeting mine.

“Not like it matters,” one of the ones with black eyes said.
 
“We all know where he will be placed.
 
It doesn’t matter if my kind agree.”

“He’s right,” a blue-eyed woman said.
 
“We all know where he’s going.
 
You really only have to get those of us he would join to agree with you.”

“Than do it,” I said, my voice sounding desperate.
 
“I can’t let him be taken back.
 
And I need you to help me.
 
I can’t reach everyone in time.
 
He only has a week, at the most.
 
I need you all to help find those I stood trial for and get them to agree.”

They were silent again for a moment that felt too ominously long.

“We can’t make that promise,” a young looking blond woman said quietly.

I met each of their eyes, reading the same answer in each of them.

“Fine,” I said, my voice shaking, threatening to crack.
 
“But can you just tell me one thing before I go?”
 
I took their silence as a maybe.
 
“Have any of you seen a Sally Thomas?”

They glanced between each other, something spreading through them that felt like an inside secret.
 

“That’s enough,” I said, closing my eyes again.
 
“You don’t have to tell me.
 
I just wanted to know if anyone had seen her.”

Without waiting for any more heart-sinking words, I stepped off the ledge.

The following two days passed in a slow roll of anticipation and dread.
 
I continued to go back to the afterlife as much as I could, aided by Sal’s pills.
 
But I was getting the same answers.
 
A few would do what I asked, but most wanted him on the council.
 
We were losing this battle.

Alex couldn’t even keep his wings in anymore.
 
They were patchy and frail looking.
 
Feathers were strewn throughout the house.
 

Alex finally looked like the terrifying being Cole had become, just with gray eyes instead of black.

As per Sal’s wishes according to her will, Sal was cremated and her remains were given to me in a beautiful black urn.
 
I dressed solemnly that morning, black feeling so fitting for the day.
 
At six in the morning, there was a soft knock on the door and as I stepped into the living room, Emily and Amber walked in, just the two of them.
 
Emily moved with care, obviously still tender from the surgery.
 
I hadn’t dared leave Alex to go pick her up.
 
Amber had agreed without a fight.

We didn’t say anything as I gathered what was left of Sal’s physical body.
 
Emily and Amber’s eyes both grew wider as Alex stepped out of our room, his wings exposed, the truth of what he was undeniable.