Witch and Wizard_ The Fire - James Patterson [81]
“Then why were you a Half-light? You weren’t like all of the other spirits at the river, just waiting to cross over. Why would you cross now?” Whit refuses to back down.
“I think I’ve been stuck in the Shadowland so that I could help you, protect you like you always tried to protect me when I was alive. Having that chance to help destroy The One was my purpose. I know it sounds impossible, but … I’m ready. I’m ready to cross over, to be all light.”
Whit shakes his head defiantly, and Celia takes his face in both of her hands.
“Yes, baby. It’s my time.”
Chapter 85
Whit
“YOU’LL SEE ME again someday, Whit. One day you’ll have to cross the river yourself.”
I cannot do this. I cannot let Celia go. Not again.
“You don’t know that. You don’t even know what’s on the other side, or if we’ll ever see each other again. Do you really want to take that chance, Celia? Just leave all this — everything we have — and go into some unknown?”
We walk away from the group, where Sasha is arranging a buddy system for the journey back to the Overworld. Wisty is giving me a look of utter pity, and in the moment I totally resent her for it.
“Whit, don’t be like this,” Celia says while we’re walking. “You know I was never meant to stay here. I think everybody can agree that pale was never a good look for me.” She laughs, but it feels forced.
I don’t even crack a smile in response, and I’m staring into her eyes solemnly. Celia looks sad but frustrated, too. She knows that, for the first time ever, I don’t want her to have what she wants. I need to be completely selfish for once in my life.
“Come on, baby, do you really want to see me stuck here in this limbo, never able to experience The After, and instead getting weaker and more consumed by death every day?” I won’t meet her eyes. “Is that what you really want for me?” she presses.
Yes! I want to shout. I want you within arm’s reach, always. A portal away, stuck in this hell, if it means I don’t have to lose you.
Instead I sigh and shake my head no, feeling guilt and unbearable desire at the same time.
“At least we get to say good-bye this time. Come here.”
Celia pulls me close, and for a brief, exhilarating moment, we merge. I feel her light surge through me, more warm, more healing than I could’ve imagined. My head swirls with love and beauty, and when we part, I think I finally understand.
What we had was so perfect in the world before the New Order, but that isn’t the world anymore, and we’re not the same people. I can’t keep her trapped in this prison just so she can be the idealized version of what I hoped to have.
I’m ready to let her go.
I inhale her sweet scent and bury my face in her curls, and then watch as she walks away from me. No good-byes. That merge was everything we needed to say.
Janine comes up and stands by my side, her hand on the small of my back, comforting me, supporting me as Celia disappears over the bridge, light forming a bright halo around her.
After she crosses, I look down at Janine’s face, drained and unbelievably pale. It looks like it’s all she can do to keep standing, let alone sustain me.
“Janine!” I shout, alarmed.
It’s okay, she mouths, and then collapses into my arms.
Chapter 86
Whit
WE PULL UP to the old house, Dad and Mom in the front, me and Wisty bickering over who gets to sit closest to the one functioning window in the back, just like old times. You’d think that after conquering the world’s most evil being and restoring peace and order for all, we’d be a little more mature, but sometimes the most comforting thing in the world is being able to hold your kid sister in a headlock and beg your mom to change the radio station already.
We sit in the van for a few minutes — it’s the old van from the Resistance days — taking in the neighborhood. The tree I crashed into on my bike, the bush next door where Wisty hid when she ran away, the porch swing where I used to kiss