Page 53 of Rescuing Air

“You have chosen against judgment, therefore, you shall be cleansed in atonement for your sins,” I informed Lilith as tears of blood poured down her face. “May the blood of Heaven free your soul.”

With one final scream, Lilith shattered into a million pieces of sparkling light that was carried away on the breeze. Turning on my heel, I faced the Dark Lord and approached him, sword in hand.

“One day, there will be hell on earth and you won’t be able to stop it,” the Dark Lord said, spitting at me.

“That will never happen. We will always make sure the children of God are protected by any means necessary,” I intoned moments before I sliced his head off, watching as he dissolved just like his mother.

With the threat gone, my guys watched me with a wary eye. “Can we have Lailah back now?” Brayden asked hesitantly.

“First, you have a choice. Remain the Elemental Warriors blessed with elemental powers or give it all up and be removed from that world entirely. If you choose to give up being our warriors they will not be reborn, leaving the world vulnerable to attack as it just was. On the other hand, if you continue, then you will have our blessing and support to ensure this world is safe.”

The guys all looked at each other, then at me and I could see the choice wasn’t as hard as one would think. Even though I couldn’t share my thoughts, the guys knew me well enough. I trusted them to make the right call.

“We want to give it all up and move on from this life, to have a chance to create our own future,” Hudson answered with complete confidence.

“We honor your choice and the service you have done for this world. Go with Heaven’s blessing and live long happy lives together.”

The angel left my body and took my powers along with it, leaving me once more a normal human. I couldn’t hold back the grin at the giddy feeling bubbling up inside me, knowing that we were free. After everything we’d been through, we could finally start our lives and live it the way we wanted to.

Now that was an adventure I was more than happy to experience!

thirty-three

Epilogue

Three years later...

“Trouble, we’re gonna miss it if you don’t hurry!” Parker said, tossing me over his shoulder and giving my ass a slap.

“Parker Jones, you put me down right now! What will people think if they see someone carrying me around like a caveman?” I laughed, pushing myself up so I didn’t get a face full of his ass, even if it was a nice ass.

A snicker had me glaring at Micah who was watching all this and doing nothing about it. “Sorry, Cookie Monster, I’m not going to be any help. You know how he gets about things like this.”

“He knows we aren’t going to miss it, right?” Hudson asked, frowning. “The whole event is ten days long, and we arrived only two days into Carnival.”

“Just be thankful he isn’t making us wear the costumes until later,” Jay muttered. “We need to put limits on what you can choose to do for your birthday.”

“Bro, you made us all go skydiving for yours last year.” Brayden laughed. “Since we know how short life can be, the agreement was all of us live life to the fullest, and this was part of celebrating life and all.”

Upon hearing Brayden’s words, Parker set me down so I could go to him, wrapping my arm around his waist in a half hug. He kissed the top of my head, returning my hug and letting out a contented sigh. Even though it’d been three years since we faced down the Dark Lord, all of us carried scars from it that would take a lifetime to heal. The first thing we did after that fight was to fly back to Wisconsin, where we spent the whole summer playing and enjoying our new lease on life. No longer tied to the Elementi in the same way, we needed time to decide what we wanted to do with our lives.

Jay inherited his father’s military company, and he decided that instead of keeping it what it was, he was going to join forces with Parker and create an international security company. They downsized the operation, and no longer worked alongside the Elementi, setting out on their own path. The surprise was Hina was their biggest customer, helping her beef up the security for her shipping company. With Makoto gone, Jay finally had the relationship with his mother he always wanted and she was a delight to have as a mother-in-law.

Hudson was now working on his medical projects, trying to find new inventive ways to save people’s lives through research. Things with his father were still rocky, but he kept trying. Somehow, we managed to convince his father and ex stepmother to let us spend time with the twins. This past Christmas they came to spend a week with us in our Wisconsin home. We also had Brayden’s family there too with all his siblings, enjoying time together. It was a blast having everyone from our families at our lake house, playing in the snow and warming up with hot chocolate.

Brayden was our ecowarrior, working tirelessly to find ways to protect our earth and make it accessible to everyone. It’d been fun to see him blossom into his own person, free from the expectations of being an Elemental Warrior. His parents were even collaborating on some things with him.

Micah’s transformation was the most surprising, now that his aunt was no longer connected to his life in any way. His mind for business was astonishing, and he took a real hands-on approach to helping this small country he basically owned. While Hudson, Parker, and Jay finished up school at Ryevick, Micah and I spent some time exploring his kingdom, as I affectionately like to call it. Micah didn’t really want to go back to school, and I decided that I didn’t either, feeling that what I wanted in life couldn’t be found in a degree from a fancy school like I once thought.

Parker did in fact buy the bakery from Ann, but after he explained his reasoning behind it, I couldn’t have been more thrilled with the idea. So now I was learning everything I could from her since I would be taking over the company when she retired. Getting lost in the kitchen covered in flour, trying out new recipes, was exactly what made me the happiest woman in the world. Of course, Parker loved that he could be the taste tester on all my new ideas. Unfortunately, he loved everything that I made so he was no help.

“Guys, I realize you want to enjoy the sights and all but we really will miss something important if we don’t hurry,” Parker begged, giving me puppy dog eyes.

Accepting defeat, I tossed my hands up in the air. “Fine, lead the way. We’ll keep up.”

Parker led us to where the stadium-sized bleachers were erected so we could watch the parade. Around us people were shouting, dancing, drinking, and living life like they might die tomorrow. Parker had gotten us a reserved space with prime viewing of the parade. When I wasn’t moving fast enough, Parker dragged me to the front of our little seating area, settling his hands on my hips as he kissed my neck. I could feel the excitement oozing out of him and I just couldn’t figure out what it was stemming from.

We’d promised each other that even if life got busy, no matter what, we would all be together for whatever the birthday boy or girl wanted to do. Sometimes, it was trips like these or doing an activity like skydiving with Jay. None of us could back out of it. We all had to experience it together, building forever memories before something came up in life that would prevent us from going on adventures.