Page 73 of Angel's Fall

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Christine could notsee because her eyes were too heavy to open. Why did she need to open them? She was warm and still so tired, and strong arms were holding her tight. All she could do was listen to the distant sounds of creaking and low rumbles, as if she were near a road. She could feel it too. She could feel the world moving, rocking her aching body. She could feel the angle of her neck. It hurt. Her corset was too tight with her body positioned this way. Why was she sleeping in it? When had she fallen asleep? Why had Erik left her dressed?

Erik.

Christine jumped, her eyes opening to searing light and her stomach lurching as she did. “Erik! Where is—” She gasped when the man beside her caught his in her arms. The man who was not Erik.

“He’s gone!” Raoul smiled. Christine’s heart shattered at the sight of him.

“What’s going on?” she gritted out, trying to understand her surroundings. A carriage? With Shaya Motlagh across from them. “Where are we?”

“You’re safe now. You’ve slept a good long while, poor thing,” Raoul cooed.

Christine gripped her head, forcing herself to remember. The cemetery.The Resurrection of Lazarus. Raoul rushing in and firing at Erik as she screamed. Erik seized. All of it her fault.

“Where is he?” Christine demanded, looking frantically between Raoul and Shaya. “If he’s hurt—”

“He’s contained.” It was Shaya who answered, soothing her like a wild creature. Christine recalled the sight of chains and heaved a sob. “He can’t hurt anyone anymore. We’re going to send the police, and then you can breathe easy.”

“Let him go, please,” Christine begged as tears welled in her eyes at the thought of Erik captive again. “You can’t put him in jail. It will kill him!”

“We’re going to bring him to justice, not kill him.” Raoul tried once again to take Christine by the shoulders and she batted him away.

“What justice is that?” Christine spat. “For what?”

“Murder, Christine,” Raoul said slowly, as if talking to a child. “The murder of my father, and Antoine’s. And all the others he killed in that fire.”

“No! He didn’t mean to! He was trying to get away,” Christine stammered.

“I know he’s told you all sorts of lies and made his excuses.” Raoul reached for her again. In the confines of the carriage there was nowhere she could retreat as he petted her hair and face. “There will be a trial. The truth will come out there.”

Christine shook her head at the terrible thought of Erik in a public courtroom with onlookers jeering and gawking. “No. Youcan’t.”

“We have witnesses. Antoine was there! He saw him and knows everything that happened.” How could he sound so optimistic and joyful about such a thing? “He’ll testify.”

“So Erik’s life will rest on the word of a man who raped my friend? While you cowered in a corner!” Christine looked to Shaya, whose face had gone slack. “Did they neglect to mention that?”

“There was also Buquet,” Shaya replied quietly.

“Erik did not kill Buquet!” Christine barked. The two men looked at her as if she99 had gone entirely mad. “I did.”

The relief of saying it aloud at last was washed away by the pitying look Raoul gave her. “Did he make you think that? That his crime was your fault? Oh, my dear Christine...”

“Buquet came at Erik with a gun. I tried to stop him, just like last night,” Christine went on, the visceral terror still resonating in her bones. “But we were on the catwalks, and he had a rope around his neck, and—”

“A rope Erik put there?” Shaya asked calmly.

“Erik is the one responsible for all of it,” Raoul pushed on, as Christine shook her head. She was going to be sick, but she had to get out first.

“Let me out, wherever we are – let me out!” Christine yelled, throwing herself towards the door only to see the streets of Paris out the window. It was past dawn. “Dear God, how long was I—”

“You were exhausted, obviously,” Raoul protested, taking her once again by the arms and holding her back, firm enough that she knew she would not be making a dramatic escape. “Don’t be hysterical. I know it’s hard to believe it’s over, but it is!”

“I told you I would come with you if you let him go,” Christine wept. “Just let him go.”

“He will kill us all if we do that,” Raoul argued as he again pulled her to his chest. “This is the only way for us to start our life.”

“We have no life.” Christine tried to push him away only to see her right hand was bare of the ring Erik had given her. Yesterday, she had held Erik in the sun and thought there was a chance for them. Now, it was all gone.

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