Relentless

Chapter 62

Celeste felt like she had been waiting for an eternity when she finally spotted the outline from one of Peter's portals nearby. "I see them!" She chimed before sprinting away from Enzo, who sat against a tree with a torn up sleeve as a bandage over his eyes. Her adrenaline kicked in and she finally found one last bit of strength to carry her to the portal.

She threw her arms around Katrina who came out of the portal first and she threw herself at Peter. She hardly had the strength to stand anymore, neither did Peter but he did his best to keep her on her feet.

Once she regained her balance she looked around for one more face. She was confused when the portal closed and there were only two of them. Confused isn't the right word but Celeste it was all she could do to keep fear from entering her mind.

She gulped before asking the question that she feared the answer of. "Where's Skylar?" She looked between Peter and Katrina, both of them refusing to answer. "Will someone just say something?!" She snapped when the silence became unbearable. Tears welled in her eyes before Peter even spoke.

"She... she didn't make it." When tears began to stream down her eyes Peter added. "I'm sorry." He opened his arms to comfort her and she fell right into them.

Katrina gave Peter a look, and pulled Skylar's band partially from her pocket. In response Peter almost imperceptibly shook his head, telling Katrina that they would discuss it later. She complied and placed the silver band back into her pocket.

"This is all my fault." Celeste sobbed into Peter's chest.

His head snapped to look at the top of Celestes head, her brown waves draped around her tear-stained face like armor. "What? No, why would you even say that?" He asked, shocked.

She removed her head far enough from him to say, "Because it's true!" before burying her head back into the comfort of his embrace.

"That's not fair." Said Katrina, not sounding nearly as convincing as she meant to be with her arms wrapped around herself. She tried to comfort herself as Skylar's death replayed over and over again.

"Stop lying to me!" She screamed into Peter's shirt before taking a step back for him, realizing that she doesn't deserve to be comforted. "It's all my fault." Her voice wavered as she spoke. "This was my plan. It was my plan and I put you all into danger and I'm s-sorry. You are my friends and you deserve so much better."

"Oh, Celeste." Katrina hugged her from behind, not letting her push her away. Celeste quickly gave up in distancing herself and accepted the hug. "Like we said before. This was our choice." Celeste turned to face her and Katrina pushed stray strands of hair from her face.

"But-but ! should've-"

"Kat is right, Celeste." Peter said. "It was our choice to come along, you knew that. We all choose to be there on our own accord. You can't blame yourself and... Skylar would have died either way."

"What do you mean?"

Peter paused, deciding how much to tell her. "Skylar was targeted because she was Lydia's sister."

"What?"

"She ran away from her life being controlled by her sister only to be hunted by her because she knows enemy information."

"That's awful and I brought her right to them!"

"No, no Celeste. Please, just listen. They would have hunted her down either way. At least this way her death meant something. We at least rescued your sister."

"Yeah, actually about that..."

Celeste launched into a long explanation about her encounter with her sister. She finished with saying how she injured Enzo. "Enzo..." She had been so wrapped up in Skylar's death that she had completely forgotten that she left Enzo alone. She led them back to him.