Shadow of the Sun (42 page)

“
I don’t see anyone,” I barely whispered to Andrew.

His eyes narrowed as he scanned the view. “Me either.” He turned around. “Ehno, have you seen the outcome of this evening?”

Ehno shook his head. “No, but I think we’ll be safe.”

“
Grab the keys,” I told Andrew who handed them to me and the
Timeless
book. I held onto them like they were life vests. To me, the keys represented safety, a sanctuary in the Divine Library, and the
Timeless
book possibly held more messages from Zola. There was no way I was letting those items out of my sight.

As each second passed, the power grew, twisted, and changed inside me. It was indescribable and strong. I had to be prepared, and that was why I gathered the electricity at my core. Behind me were the angels I had grown to love and care for. But more important than any of this was the fact that Abelie needed to be buried. It was time to lay her to rest, as Andrew said, and no matter how much it would kill me to place her six feet under, I knew I had to. She had lived a long life—a happy one with Aiden at her side. Jealousy flitted through me again at the thought.

Wind whipped through the small doorway, and the silk dress-like robe I wore clung to my body. It was the only black robe Abelie had in her closet, and wearing it made me feel closer to her. My hair flew up in the air, but I was too busy gazing down at the quiet scene below me to care about the frosty October air that beat against my skin.

“
Come on, Ella,” Andrew said and took my hand in his. He led me down the stone steps. When we reached the section of stairs I had destroyed, he let go of my hand, jumped, and looked up to where I waited. It was about fifteen feet, but that seemed mighty high to me: the one who was absolutely terrified of falling. The rocks below mocked me as I stared down.

“
Jump,” Andrew called.

I stared at him with a look of disbelief. “Andrew, I—”

“
She’s scared of falling from heights,” Joseph chimed in from behind me. I nodded in absolute agreement.

Andrew flew back up to where I was and knocked me off my feet, literally, and into his arms. He smiled down at me. Shadows darkened his face, but the amusement was there. He dropped gently to the ground and set me on my feet.

“
Better?” he asked.

“
Much.”

Andrew started to take off to help Joseph, but Joseph had already landed on his feet with a thud next to me. I gaped at him in utter shock. He shrugged and said, “I learned all kinds of cool tricks while training to be an FBI agent.”

Lucia and Ehno joined our ranks. The only two left were my parents. Andrew flew back up to the last step and held out his arms for Abelie. Aiden kissed her on the cheek and held her out to him as a golden tear slid down his charcoal skin. Andrew landed gracefully on his feet with Abelie securely in his arms. Aiden followed, and they awkwardly moved Abelie between them. She looked like she was sleeping all wrapped up in the white cloth, and I wished that were true.

“
We have to move at least fifty feet from the Divine Library for my portal to work,” Lucia announced as we walked out into the silky blackness of the night.

The moon was a big orb in the sky, bathing the land in a ghostly reflection of day, hidden by a mist of clouds. Fifty feet wasn’t far from the bottom of the stairs. Lucia closed her eyes and put her arms out, palms up. The air rippled before us. There was a weird disturbance, nothing like what you would see in the movies. There was no tunnel-looking vortex or wild electrical colors—it was almost as if there was a heat wave in the middle of the cold, dark night.

“
I think we should go first.” Andrew pointed to himself and Ehno. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“
You should stay here with Gabriella,” Ehno contradicted. “You know I can go through and inform you if there’s any danger on the other side.”

“
I’ll bring up the rear,” Lucia added.

“
Keep her safe,” Ehno said to Andrew as he pointed at me.

“
I’m standing right here,” I replied and rolled my eyes. “You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not two feet away from you.”

He appeared embarrassed but turned and disappeared into the portal.

“
Where are we going?” I asked Lucia as the cold wind whipped through the air.

“
Abelie and Aiden’s home.”

I turned toward Aiden. “You had a house together?”

“
It was a secret.” He glanced down at the angel in his arms. “It was our small slice of paradise.” His eyes cast toward Lucia. “I’ll go next.”

“
All is clear on the other side,” Lucia informed. I wondered how she knew this without asking Andrew.

Aiden pivoted with Abelie close to his chest and disappeared into the quiet night air.

“
You three should go next,” Lucia pointed out. “Joseph has only been through a portal once, and Gabriella was injured before. She probably doesn’t remember what it was like.”

“
Just the horrible ache in my side,” I agreed.

Andrew nodded once and grabbed my hand to pull me in the direction of the portal. The current raced between us, and I tried to send as much love and adoration as I could through the connection. He looked down at me with a small smile and squeezed my hand in acknowledgement. As the three of us entered into the portal, wind rushed at us like a tornado had landed right next to our heads. I looked around me and was surprised to see two suns bright in the sky, and before I had the opportunity to take in my surroundings any more than that, I was suddenly sucked away as if a vacuum had pulled me through a tiny tube. I took a step and almost fell flat on my face, but Andrew caught me before I hit the ground. Joseph walked through, unfazed by this new method of travel. I turned to him, gawking in surprise.

He gave me a mocking smile and said, very nonchalantly, “What? I travel like this all the time. In fact, I have enough frequent flyer miles racked up to circle the world three times.”

I shook my head at him.

The grounds were dark. It was so dark, in fact, I could barely see two feet in front of me. I started to panic. Since Karen had tricked me, I had become extremely suspicious of everything, including the jet-blackness surrounding me. Andrew’s fingers brushed against my hand, and I jerked, surprised.

He lowered his head to my ear and whispered, “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.” My eyes shot around the line of trees I could barely make out in the night, as if there were spies in the woods.

Suddenly, lights flooded the area and blinded us. I blinked, trying to remove the imprint from my irises. When I finally accessed my vision again, I saw a beautiful house with richly brown stone walls and large, arched windows. It was more than amazing—it was spectacular. The front door opened, and through the door light flooded the yard, silhouetting Aiden in the opening.

“
Come on in.” He waved us forward.

Inside, I circled around trying to take in the scene. A staircase dominated the center of the house and railed around the second floor. The colors on the walls were rich, earthy tones, and the floor was a striking white and tan marble. The walls were covered with beautiful paintings, some of them ancient.

“
This is your house?” I asked Aiden in awe.

“
No,” he sighed. “This was our house, mine and Abelie’s. Your home too, if you want.”

I stopped my spinning and looked at him. He leaned against the doorframe of a darkened room. In my awe, I forgot how hard this must be for my dad. I inched toward him and held my hand out. He took it without looking up.

“
D-Dad, where did you put Abelie?”

He silently led me down a hallway behind the staircase. He opened the first door to our right. She was laid upon a bed, another silken cloth over her body.

“
Do you want me to leave?” he wondered.

I squeezed his hand tighter in mine. “No,” I whispered and pulled him to the floor next to her. “Do you know where we’re going to bury her?”

His hand rubbed against her cheek through the sheet covering her. “Yes, in the cemetery down the road.”

“
When?”

He looked up at a large clock on the wall. “It’s still relatively early. I’ll call the funeral home tonight and see if we can set up burial arrangements.”

“
So quick,” I mouthed. “Isn’t that kind of weird, burying her in a regular cemetery?”

“
It’s rare for an immortal to die in the first place, and I know that Abelie would have wanted to be buried here, close to home.”

As I sat on my knees between my parents, I realized this would be the last time we would be together as a family—just the three of us, sitting in the room in silence. After several heavily weighted seconds, I said, “I wish I could have known you both long before now.”

“
You don’t know hard it was to let you go,” Aiden barely whispered. “We had to, to keep you safe. Gabriella, you probably don’t know this yet, but angels can’t bear children. How Abelie became pregnant with you is still a complete mystery. Please know that we were elated when we found out about the pregnancy. We had been given a gift that no angel or Shadow had ever been given. We had huge plans for our family and refused to take one second of our lives as a family for granted.

“
To lose a child—no, worse—to give up a child that we loved more than our own lives was nearly unendurable. Abelie cried for months and sometimes, in the middle of the night, I would find her sitting in your bedroom, looking at pictures of you. It was difficult for both of us.” He paused to take a deep breath. “You have to understand we both loved you; I still love you, Gabriella. You’re my daughter, even though I wasn’t there to do all the father/daughter things that I had planned on doing.”

“
I know,” I said, placing my hand over his. “You were protecting me; I know that. You kept me safe. Please don’t feel guilty about it anymore.”

He sighed. “It’s difficult not to. If we would’ve found another way to hide you or protect you, Abelie would still be alive, and we would have been a family for all these years.”

“
This isn’t your fault,” I told him firmly.

We were silent then.

<>

Dinner was a quiet event. My stomach was full of food, but there was an odd, sick, empty feeling that wasn’t sated by any amount of substance. Upstairs—sitting on a bed, my old bed, in Abelie’s pajamas—I wondered if my childhood memories would ever return. Now, more than ever, I wanted to remember those five years I had constantly tried to find a link to. Now here it was—here I was. There was some magical thing blocking my memories, and I was determined to find a way to fix that, to break through that wall preventing me from remembering my mother. Those memories would be more precious to me than before her death.

There was a soft knock on the door. I looked up from the pink bedspread I sat on. “Come in.”

The door opened and Andrew poked his head in. His eyes were a mixture of gold and the saddest blue. “There’s a room down the hall for you, whenever you’re ready. Aiden brought up some of Abelie’s clothes, too.” He opened the door all the way, and for the first time I noticed he was barefoot, wearing pajama bottoms and a cotton T-shirt. It was almost funny, the thought of a celestial being in pajamas.

“
Okay.” I stood, and he gestured for me to go down the hall.

“
It’s the door at the end of the hallway.”

Our footsteps echoed until all I heard were mine. I stopped and turned to face Andrew who looked at me with a mixture of expressions on his face. He seemed upset and tortured, possibly struggling with some internal thought he was having. His eyes seized mine, and I walked toward him.

“
What’s wrong?” I wondered.

He opened his mouth to say something then shut it. I raised my eyebrows. He sighed and said, “Two times I’ve stayed with you in a bed. I’ve tried to be a complete gentleman, but of course I—”

I put my finger on his lips to silence him. “Andrew.” This time I sighed. “I have only ever allowed one other man to stay the night with me, and it was awkward. I ended up spending most of the night in my living room surfing the internet.” His expression twisted into something unreadable. “But being with you,” I continued quickly, “it was different. It felt right.”

His eyes bored into mine, more fiercely than before.