Chapter 93 Her Gift

Chapter 93 Her Gift
\[Tabitha’s POV\]

I feel like I’m floating. In the blissful darkness that surrounds me, I’m weightless. My body drifts in and out of what I can only assume is oblivion. Did this mean that I died? If I did, I could only hope by this point that Vance and Atticus would be able to defeat Titus, and if not... Well, there was nothing I could do at this point.

Letting out a sigh, I try to drift away again so that the worry I’m beginning to feel doesn’t continue to haunt me. However, with each passing minute, I can feel my consciousness becoming clearer and clearer until I can’t remain oblivious, and it’s frustrating.

Slowly, I begin to open my eyes, but I have to close them again as dazzling light attacks them, and when I open them again, I have to squint.

Frowning, I begin to take in the area around me, trying to determine exactly what was happening and where I was. Was this the afterlife? But how could it be? As a sinner and a member of the undead, wouldn’t hell be the place to which I belonged?

“Tabitha.” The voice is soft, but it holds so much power that I feel my body wanting to react to it. “Wake up, Tabitha.”

Wake up? But I was awake, wasn’t I?

As confusion grows, I open my eyes more and realize that I’m sitting on the top of a hill that overlooks Boston. But the Boston I am seeing is bleak and shrouded in darkness, while where I sit is one of the most beautifully bright places I’ve ever seen.

“What is this?” I whisper, trying to make sense of it all. “Where am…”

“Limbo.”

Gasping, I turn, and my eyes grow wide as I take in Evangaline as she stands beside me, studying me curiously. She’s much more beautiful in person compared to the visions I had, but I can definitely see traces of me in her features.

“Did I startle you?” She asks, a small smile twitching on her lips. “My apologies.”

“No,” I say slowly, trying to get my wits about me. “I was just... confused.” Confused was an understatement compared to how I was truly feeling, and right now I feel like I am dreaming. “Why am I here?” I continue, deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to get answers. “Did I…”

“Yes,” she says gently. “I’m afraid your physical form did disappear from the earthly plain.”

“Right.”

So I did die back there at the hands of Titus. No. Not at his hands. I died because I was too fucking impulsive and rushed right into danger. I couldn’t blame anyone but myself for what happened, and now here I was reaping what I sowed.

“Then what about Titus?” I ask; worry beginning to bubble. “Did Vance and Atticus manage to defeat him?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that for you." Evangaline sighs. “Like you, I am stuck here waiting for the day my sin is atoned for. I am unable to see what happens on earth, and I am unable to go to my final resting place; that’s why I need your help.”

My help? Was this effervescent woman actually asking me for help? What in the world was I supposed to do while I was here with her?

“You have to go back,” she continues, taking my silence as acceptance. “You have to go back and make right what I wronged.”

Make right what she wronged. It sounded like the woman was talking in riddles, but as this thought hits me, so do images of the very last vision I had before my demise. The day that Evangaline took the life of the priestess of light.

“How?” I whisper, understanding what she is asking of me. “I’m stuck here just like you.”

“You aren’t,” she counters. “Although you did perish back on earth, that was only your undead side.”

"Uh..." I begin. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful or anything, but wasn’t my undead side also my physical side?”

I could only assume that I was ashes down there in that fucking cage.

“I will grant you a second chance,” Evangaline explains. “Do you wish to take it?”

Did I? Of course, but I was still confused about something. If she was capable of doing such a thing, why was she still here? Didn’t it make more sense for her to be the one to correct what she did?

“I am unable to kill Titus,” she explains. “Since I am the one who created him, I am the only one that can’t destroy him. We have a connection that keeps me from being able to do anything that would hurt him.”

“Connection,” I repeat, raising a brow. “It sounds to me like you’re trying to cover up the fact that you love him too much to do anything.”

I knew I was being rude, but all of this was so damn confusing, and I couldn’t quite understand it. But if she was willing to help me get back to earth and those I cared for, who was I to reject?

“Maybe,” she responds, giving a rueful smile. “Even if he hurt more than anyone else did, I suppose I will always love him. We share many beautiful memories, and when I look at him, I see that Titus, not the monster Titus that he became.”

Poor thing. I murmur inwardly, not wanting to offend her. But when she spoke like that, I kind of understood it. I was beginning to fall for Vance, and he too was one of the monsters that I always hated. Who was I to judge her when I was just like her? I guess we were both destined to love the ones that hurt us the most.

“Have you made your decision?” Evangaline asks when I don’t immediately respond.

“I have. Please send me back.”

Nodding, she reaches out and cups my cheeks.

“Please, make things right.”

As she speaks, she leans forward, pressing her forehead against mine, so a comforting warmth begins to seep through me.

At first, nothing seems to happen, but when I feel myself being tugged backwards and thrown into darkness, I know that when my eyes open, I’ll be back where I left off.

Sighing, I let myself drift into the oblivion I was in before, and when the warmth returns again and light begins to shine through my eyelids, I know that I’m back. However, this time I already knew that things were different because when I open my eyes and look around, I see that I am still sitting in the middle of bright sunlight, but this time instead of burning, I’m able to enjoy it.