Page 24 of The Redeemable 4

Luc stood, moving towards us. “I owe you one, Michael.”

Michael appraised him much in the same way Luc appraised others. “Yes. I may collect one day. But then, maybe not. It is not good to make deals with the Devil, no?”

They shook hands as I bounced on my toes. I needed to see if Michael was telling the truth. Not that I thought he was lying, but I needed to see it for myself.

Michael laughed. “I know, I know. Off you go now. Tell Arcadia I shall be by to see her sometime. Maybe I’ll bring her flowers. That’s the human gesture, isn’t it?”

I laughed and waved as I sifted to the hospital.

Some of my good humor seeped away when I got to the hospital and saw her lying there in the hospital bed. She still looked grey and small against the white sheets, as close to death as you could get while still making the heart monitor beep. All her hair had fallen out and she had tubes and cables hooked up to nearly every part of her body.

Eli was at her bedside, his hand wrapped in hers.

“Eli.” He turned at the sound of my voice. “I did it.”

He stood, the hard plastic chair scraping against the linoleum floor. “She’s back in there?”

I strode forward, putting my hands on her head. She was in a hazy dream land, her consciousness not as alert as it had been inside me. She was comatose, but her soul was in her body.

“Yes. She’s in there. We did it.”

Eli’s smile slipped. “You did it. I’ve failed.”

That was when I noticed his red rimmed eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s dying.”

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