After Death (Editing)

Chapter 25

"Are you okay Lilianna?" Gabriel asked in a concerned tone.

"No." I croaked.

I scrunched up my face in extreme discomfort. It felt like a million tiny needles penetrated my back all at once. I rubbed it to ease the pain. Tears threatened to pour out of my eyes as I stared at the blue sky in pure agony.

Gabriel gently scooped me up in his arms. I pressed my head against his chest. His rhythmic heartbeats soothed me. His skin was cold but comforting in some odd way.

"I can't find Atticus nor Daiyu, not that I would want to find her," Gabriel said.

I smiled slightly at that statement because it was partially true. I liked Atticus, but Daiyu was unbearable for the time we spent with her. I began to worry about Atticus. What if Celeste or someone else got to him? What if he was hurt or in danger? My fretting about him caused my pain to increase by a tenth fold.

"All jokes aside, we have to locate Atticus. Hopefully, he isn't far from here." Gabriel said as he walked off the rocky patch we landed on.

Not focusing on the suffering I went through or the safety of Atticus I realized how breathtaking our surroundings were. We were by the coast somewhere on earth. The deep blue sea waves were devastating, crashing along the shoreline in a violent manner. There was light breeze carrying a salty yet fresh scent. Two cliffs encased the beach. Green grass covered them like a velvety carpet. The sun shone in my eyes, giving off a pleasant warmth. Wherever we ended up had a certain charm about it. It was absolutely wondrous, better than heaven itself I believed.

"Atticus! Atticus! Where are you?" Gabriel cried out.

Only the ocean answered his calls. When my pain subsided Gabriel let me walk and we scoured the whole beach together. We looked high and low, far and wide to come up with nothing. After searching for hours on end, both my heart and expectations dropped. Atticus was nowhere in sight.

Feeling defeated I sat down on a rock facing the ocean. "Where do you think he could be?" I asked Gabriel.

He frowned, "I have no idea. When you use a power pit to create an escape portal you never know where you will end up. He could be in hell for all we know. He isn't at this beach, that's for sure."

I sighed as tears prickled in my eyes for the second time that day. "You know what we have to do right?"

"We have to continue our quest without him." He said quietly.

"Yeah," I replied as a single tear floated into the breeze.

Gabriel sat next to me. He slung his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. "Don't be too sad. If we hurry to finish the quest we can try to see if Atticus is safe. That is if you aren't too busy ruling Nova."

"I know I shouldn't feel too bad, but I do. I thought that we had an unstoppable team thing going on. I will really miss him." I replied.

He kissed the top of my head. "As much as I hate to admit it, I'll miss his upbeat attitude. It was annoying at first, but it grew on me. Don't worry we will find him eventually, I promise you."

"I really hope so," I answered, staring vacantly at the sea.

Gabriel put his hand in mine. He looked deep into my eyes causing my heart to palpitate. "I want you to know that no matter what happens, I will always be here for you."

I smiled, "That's good to know. Whatever happens, I am here for you. We are partners in this together right?"

He flashed me a warm smile, "Forever and always."

I closed in the little space between us with a hug. My head nuzzled in his neck and my arms held him tight. Initially, he seemed surprised that I hugged him, but quickly adjusted by caressing my back.

"So you are ready to go? We need to retrieve that other half of the cup." I said, pulling away from him.

"Indeed. Celeste probably still has it in her possession. I doubt she would give it to any of her masters." He answered me.

I nodded my head, "You are probably right. We have to find out where Celeste is and take it from her somehow."

"That is what we have to do but what if she sends us back to Limbo again. If she does that, we won't be able to break out. It is dangerous to approach her." He said.

"It would be unless we get her to cooperate with us," I said with a tiny smirk.

His eyes bugged open, "How on earth would we do that?"

My smirk grew bigger, "One word, blackmail."

"B-but we don't have anything on her." He stuttered with a shocked expression on his face.

"Yes, we do. You forgot that Missy has two masters, Bestellarius and Fernalio. They don't know about each other having the same worker. I don't think that they would take kindly to that." I said raising one eyebrow.

"Oh my god. You're a freaking genius. That's a brilliant plan." He gushed with a silly grin on his face.

I smiled so much my cheeks began to ache. "Thanks a lot."

He held out his hand out. "You know the drill. Come on, let's go."

I swatted away his hand, "Nah, I want to try."

A/N: I am really sorry for the extremely slow updates. Life has been busy for me and I will try to do better. Hope you all enjoy the chapter. Also sorry for un-publishing and publishing. I wanted this story to be one of the first stories you would see on my profile.