The Survivors: Point of Origin (book 2)

Epilogue: Lizzie's Prayer

May 10
Survivors' City, Montana

Lizzie waited until Andrew and John fell into a deep sleep. They were the last of the elders to do so each night. Neither could bear to let go of their power for long.

She walked directly from her cottage on the square back into the woods, her footsteps careful, silent. When she reached the city wall, she followed it until she hit the break she'd left in the protective barrier she and Rebecca had designed. Though all of the elders could pass over the barrier, the magic also allowed them to trace who came and went. The fourteen eldest Survivors hadn't trusted each other in centuries.

Once safely outside the city wall, she darted higher up the mountain, bounding lightly but swiftly across the melting snow. At the top, she dug in the melting snow until she uncovered the stone cross she'd built there when they first arrived. She lifted the solid stone structure effortlessly and set it atop a nearby boulder.

She knelt silently before it, inhaled deeply, and steadied herself, making a vain attempt to stop the tears from flowing freely from her eyes. She began quiet, mournful prayers.

"Forgive me, Lord, for the crimes I commit. I did it all to save her from all of this," she said softly, her voice cracking, burdened by grief. Lizzie felt dizzy, unable to focus her emotion clearly on her own guilt or her newfound grief over her dear Sadie. "If I've taken life, it's been justified, though I know You don't condone an-eye-for-an-eye. And when I lied, it was to save her! To save her from a father unlike You. . . one who'd have ended her life mercilessly and without remorse," she choked, trying to justify—to herself and her God—her actions, and Sadie's.

She cleared her throat. "Help me, Savior. She needs You to stay with her. Once she tracks down her answers, I fear she will be all too willing to give her life away. I know that I will be unable to stop her, and this grieves my heart. There is no gift from You more precious than life itself. Why she has never been able to see this, I do not know, but I pray that maybe she will learn this truth before it is too late.

"Lord, I hope she can find a way to love him. She faces forever with him, an eternal bond to him, one that no one, that nothing can stop. And once I'm gone . . . she'll be his for the taking.

"And I hope she loves You, Lord. I hope she's good. I promise you I did the best I could possibly do with her spirit, with her lineage.

"Oh, Father, I tried to guide her in the right direction. I tried to tell her in time. I tried to save her, but I see now that I am not capable of such a feat. So, please, God, I hoped that you might save her since I cannot," she cried. She dropped her forehead to the ground and could barely contain herself, the sobs ricocheting through her small body. "Dear Father, she's just misunderstood."

Lizzie stayed this way for quite some time, searching for the power in her body to stand, to speak, to anything. She sat back on her heels and wiped the tears from her face, and closed her prayer, "So, forgive me, Lord, for the crimes I commit. I did it all to save her from this."

Weakly, she rose to her feet. Her heart was heavy as she touched her cool fingertips to the cross one more time, her voice a ghost. "Check her name off your list."