“Soon. It’s a delicate matter. We want to make sure it’s the right time,” Chance says.
“Well, good luck,” Miku replies.
“We’re sure you’ll want to celebrate,” Charity says to us.
“I’m so ready to party. Let do this!” Jay announces.
“You’re taken now. You have to ask Isabelle’s permission to party,” Ameana jokes.
“Wait, seriously?” he says, fear inhabiting his face.
All of us laugh mercilessly at Jay.
I pull Emmy against me and wrap my arms around her from behind, and together we look out onto the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen: A world no longer in danger.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: REPLAY
By the time we get back to New York City, every single Angel on earth has left us a Facebook message, text or voicemail. That is if they weren’t coming by our hotel in the plaza every five minutes. We’ve even had gift baskets filled with Snaps sent by the Original Paras.
In addition, Angels visit us from every corner of the globe: London, Haiti, Japan, and Tibet. The Splash features all of us including Emmy, Wolf, Tony, and Isabelle. It was front page news:
“THEYACTUALLY DID IT!!!
The Sage dropped by to congratulate us on a job very well done. He said how happy he was that things worked out differently than he saw it. He asked when we were planning on going back to the Light.
“We can stay until midnight of the New Year, so in a few days,” I tell him.
“Enjoy yourselves,” he says kindly.
There’s a party thrown in our honor just about every other day. I told the team that they could go to as many as they wanted. After all, work is over. We had found the map and eliminated every Akon. And Rage, if he survived the stabbing, would have his hands full with Lucy for failing to stop us.
Emmy wanted to join in the parties, but I made her go to Daraquin and get a full checkup. It took only a few hours to return her to perfect health. Even so, she was made to stay in bed by the healers for a full two days.
So what does my girl want to do now that she is healed and rested? Go to a romantic city? Go on a shopping spree? See the pyramids?
No, Emmy wants to eat a gallon of rocky road ice cream on top of the Green Mountains. She dives into the container with gusto. I can’t help but laugh at her.
“Hey, I have earned this! Don’t you dare make fun of me,” she warns.
“You teeth are chattering.”
“I do that so I can snuggle with you.”
“You never need a reason to get next to me, you know that,” I reply.
She moves closer and rests her head on my chest.
“Seriously, we should fly down from here.”
She pays no attention to me. After she downs half the gallon, she pushes for us to do the other thing she came up here to do.
“This is crazy, Emmy. Christmas already passed,” I protest.
“Well we were busy killing Demons then so we have to pretend like it hasn’t passed. Please, Marcus!”
“I didn’t bring your gift with me.”
“But you said--”
“Okay, I may
have remembered it,” I smile.
“Yes!” she says, snuggling up to me.
“Sitting here on the edge of these mountains with you…this is the happiest I’ve been.”
“Marcus Cane don’t you use sweet words to distract me. Where’s my gift?” she says, bursting with excitement.
“Okay, okay. Here.”
I hand her a small black box tied with a gold ribbon. I told her we Angels don’t celebrate human holidays but she insisted that I share it with her. The last time I cerebrated Christmas was back when I was human. I spent it with my family. I didn’t know at the time it would be our last Christmas together.
“Now if you don’t like it—” I start.
“I don’t care if it’s sand. I just like that you thought about me.”
“I’m always thinking about you. You’re hard to forget.”
She kisses me and it feels like falling off the tallest mountain in the universe. It’s exhilarating. It’s intense. It’s like being alive again.
Omnis, I will surrender all my lifetimes to have an extra day on earth with her…
She pulls away from me gently and begins to unravel the ribbon. Watching her open the box, I suddenly start to miss the Christmases I won’t get to share with her. Then I think about the birthdays and New Years I’ll miss, too.
When you die those things stop mattering, but then I fall for a human, and now, they’re all that matter…
“It’s a Splash,” she says, before she lifts the globe out from the box.
“It’s not a Splash because it’s not empty,” I correct her.