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I clamped my eyes shut and rolled away from the bright light, but movement sent a wave of agony through my muscles and I groaned. My father neglected to tell me I’d be returned with all the cuts, bruises and debilitating pain that the tornado and lightning had caused.
“Nick?” her voice blasted through the haze, filling my heart with dizzying gratitude.
“Jules,” I managed and tried squinting instead.
“I thought you were dead,” she said and her voice cracked. Her warm fingers caressed my cheek and I blinked her into focus. Sun and blue sky framed her, giving her a heavenly halo that slapped me into full consciousness.
I went to push up with my hands and pain ripped through my hand. I rolled onto my back, crunching bits of glass underneath me and raised my burning palm into my vision. Underneath the angry red hue of my skin was the ornate tattoo. I closed my fist and pulled it to my chest before finding Julia’s gaze.
“I guess this means it worked?”
“Yeah,” I said and wondered what she would say if I told her I could have turned back the clock. Righted everything in her life for a brief time. Would she be pissed?
“Where are Ben and Danny?” she asked glancing around at the destruction around us.
“I don’t know.” I answered. “My dad brought me back.”
A moan outside what used to be the window pulled our attention and I turned, looking at Noah, who looked like a mad scientist with his hair awry and his glasses cockeyed.
“What happened to him?”
“He went to check on you and got zapped.”
I sent him a nod. “You okay?”
Noah straightened his glasses. “I think so,” he said. “You?”
“I’m not sure.” I tightened the muscles in my stomach and sat up. Julia helped steady me but the wave of dizziness that accompanied the aches in my muscles made me drop my head to my knees.
Sirens wailed in the distance and the first shuffle of debris shifted behind me.
“Did you kill Leviathan,” Julia asked in a low whisper.
I turned my head and met her gaze. “No.” I didn’t have the strength to explain what happened, so I reached out and took her hand, pressing the burnt tattoo to her skin. I closed my eyes and wished for her to see what transpired from the moment I woke in Purgatory to the moment my father brought me back. And not just the visual roll, I also wanted her to experience my emotional reactions.
I felt her trying to yank her hand out of mine, but I clamped down, holding her in place until it all transferred. Her hand relaxed and I opened my eyes. The tears rolling down her cheeks sent a shiver of dread right down to the cellular level.
“You could have...” she couldn’t finish and I released her hand.
“I needed to look at all the ramifications and no matter how much I wanted things to be the way they were before I knew about reapers, I knew that was a pipe dream. So, no. I really couldn’t have,” I said. “And I’m willing to bet your parents would never, ever want me to trade your life for theirs.”
Fire sprouted in her eyes and her chin trembled with her forming anger. “You don’t know...”
“Julia,” I cut her off before she could launch into a hateful tirade. “I couldn’t take that gamble. And who’s to say it all wouldn’t have gone to hell anyway.”
She scoffed at me, her glare capturing all the frustration I felt radiating off her.
I sat up straight despite the crack of pain in my head and played the last card I had to make her understand. “Promethis.”
She recoiled and then her eyes widened with understanding.
“If he was still alive, nothing would be safe. He would have orchestrated the reaper rebellion even without the mistake I made. He hated my father, and our entire bloodline and he had run out of patience, so who knows what the fall-out of that would have been.”
The truth in my words broke through her anger and her shoulders slumped. She tilted her head, searching my eyes like she was reading my soul. I didn’t look away, instead, I pulled her to my lips, and she didn’t resist. When her hand caressed my cheek, I knew she found the ability to forgive me somewhere in her bruised heart.
“Doing the right thing sucks sometimes,” I said when I pulled away from her. I tucked a stray hair behind her ear, offering a sad smile. Julia threw her arms around me and I winced. Despite the discomfort, I held her, opting to rest my forehead on her shoulder. We sat that way for a long time and then I turned my head toward Noah.
I had forgotten about him but he still sat in stunned silence just staring at the two of us blinking as bits and pieces of conversation hit him.
“You’re bleeding,” he said after a few moments.
I glanced at my arms wrapping Julia in a tight embrace. “Yeah, I guess I am. Think you can stand up?” I asked.
I got a shrug and then he maneuvered to his feet. His legs wobbled under him but he shifted, steadying himself. He adjusted his glasses and scanned the wreckage behind me, letting out a slow whistle before returning his gaze to mine.
“What about you?”
Julia unwrapped her arms and stood, offering me her hand. I wasn’t too proud to refuse the offer of help, especially after the trials in Purgatory. Standing wasn’t easy and I slung my arm around Julia’s shoulder, letting her turn me toward the disaster zone.
I echoed Noah’s whistle and he stepped closer offering an arm to help Julia support me. Wanting human contact and reassurances we were all alive, I wrapped my arm around the offered shoulder and pulled him into a quick hug.
“We made it, buddy,” I said and gave him a pat on the back.
Emergency personnel flooded onto the scene while the three of us stood in the rubble, scanning the destruction we’d really had no right to survive.
The End
***
Continue The Death Chronicles with KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR.
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