Rapture

Chapter Fifty-four

After her “chauffeur” parked her mother’s car in the garage, Mels just sat in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead at the garden tools that had dust on them. “You can go now,” she heard herself say.

She didn’t look at the man, and prayed he left fast.

When he didn’t move, she stated calmly, “If you don’t get out of this car right now, I’m going to scream until I shatter the windshield. And I don’t think either of us needs to go through that sort of thing. Do you?”

“He was a good guy.”

Mels closed her eyes and slowly curled her arms around herself. She had thought that losing her father would be the greatest pain she would ever have to endure.

Maybe this just seemed worse because it was fresh?

“Matthias is going to be okay,” the guy said.

“He’s dead.”

“And he’s all right.”

God, Mels really wanted to cry, just weep like crazy. But she felt frozen inside.

“Look at me,” the man said. When she didn’t, he put a gentle finger under her chin and shifted her head around—even as she refused to meet his eyes. “I’m not supposed to share certain kinds of intel, but I think you need something to keep you going tonight. Believe me, I know how that is.”

“There’s nothing you can say—”

“Your father’s in the place where Matthias’s going. They’re both okay—”

“How can you be so cruel—”

“—where they are—”

“Pine Grove Cemetery is not okay!”

He just shook his head. “They’re at eternal rest, and it’s got nothing to do with where their bodies are buried. And you’ll see them again, but not for a long while.”

Finally meeting his stare, she—

With a gasp, Mels focused on his eyes…especially the one that looked as Matthias’s had. Precisely as Matthias’s had. And there were scars on his face he hadn’t had before—right where Matthias had had them.

It was as if the man had lifted all of the injuries directly out of Matthias’s flesh.

With a trembling hand, Mels reached up to touch his face, but he inched back, keeping away from the contact.

“It was true,” she mumbled. “Matthias didn’t fake the healing or the damage.”

“Be at peace,” the man said in a warping voice that seemed to be in her mind instead of coming through her ears. “You don’t need to worry about either of them. They’re safe.”

At that moment, she knew in her heart what he was.

What Jim Heron was, too.

She had seen the truth in the mirror at the Marriott, and she was seeing it again now.

“You’re an angel,” she whispered in awe.

Her words seemed to snap him out of the connection, and he pulled away sharply. “Nah, just someone passing through your life.”

Bullshit, she thought.

Abruptly, the man got out, shut the driver’s-side door, and initiated the garage door to close…and then between one blink and the next, he was gone.

Mels wrenched her head over her shoulder, searching behind the car as the panels were trundling shut. Jumping out, she went to call his name. Except…

“You’re still here—I can sense it.”

No answer. No reveal—

“Mels?”

She whipped around. There, in the doorway that led into the kitchen, her mother was a dark silhouette in a pool of light.

Mels ran to her, tripping over her own feet, nearly losing her balance. When she got to her mother, she threw herself at the other woman.

“Mels? What’s wrong? You’re shaking—oh, my God, Mels…”

“I’m sorry—I’m sorry—”

Her mother held her up off the floor. “Mels? What are you sorry for? What’s wrong—”

The tears came and didn’t stop, everything breaking open, those years of keeping it together shattering like a mirror, a thousand cracks webbing out until she splintered completely.

Her mother was there to hold her as she fell apart.

And to think…she’d always believed she was the strong one?