“Exactly what Uncle Cornelius called them, angels of death,” she replies. “They’re reapers.”
“Reapers?” I repeat.
“They have one purpose,” Evangeline explains. “They’re here to collect souls.”
“That sounds a little dark.” I swallow tightly, my stomach swooping slightly at the thought.
Evangeline shakes her head. “You misunderstand. Everything has an order to it, a series of checks and balances. Souls that die at their designated time are ready to move on, and are usually greeted by friends and family who guide them into the light. Those who go before their time—murder victims mostly, like Dusty and, I suspect, Delores here— are still tied to their former existence and require a guide, such as yourself, to help them resolve their unfinished business so they can cross into the light. The reapers come for those who have to be pulled from their bodies quickly, accident victims more often than not. They possess the power to separate a soul from its body and lead it into the light.”
“So why can I see these reapers all of a sudden?” I frown. “I’ve been able to see ghosts for over six months, but this is the first time I’ve seen these guys, so why now?”
“I can’t answer that for you, Tristan. I don’t know what their plan is for you.”
“Their?” I swallow my mouth suddenly dry.
She points to the ceiling.
“Evangeline,” Dusty interrupts with a wave of her hand. “I was just up there and I’m telling you now, the Executive Level has no clue. Trust me, I didn’t spend most of my life up on a stage in sequins and five-inch heels without learning how to read a room, and those guys up there were shocked to learn Tris can see the dementors.”
“Reapers.”
“Whatever.” Dusty flicks her hand dismissively. “If someone has a plan, it sure as hell isn’t theirs.”
Evangeline stares at Dusty, brows furrowed, then turns her attention back toward me. “And you said you’ve seen them twice?” I nod. “In all my time I’ve only ever known of one other person who could see them.”
I glance down at the book in my hands. “Cornelius?”
“So he wasn’t just hallucinating while on a drug-fuelled bender.” Dusty raises her brow.
“You’ve got completely the wrong idea about Uncle Cornelius, just like everyone else. He spent so much of his life being ridiculed but he truly was an exceptional man, and a very kind one. You have to understand he didn’t see the reapers because of the drugs.” She sighs. “He saw them despite the drugs.”
“He was using the drugs to cope with the things he saw, wasn’t he?” I say.
“He was a man ahead of his time. He didn’t understand many of the things he saw, and some of them were equally frightening and fascinating to him. He had no one to talk to, no one to guide him. He used the laudanum, the opium, and the cocaine to soften all the hard edges of his world and to shield himself from the hard words of his peers,” Evangeline explained. “It was a very different time back then.”
“Poor man,” I mutter, seeing Cornelius Crawshanks in a new light for the first time. “It must have been so isolating for him.”
“I think that’s what writing the book was about for him.” Evangeline even shrugs with elegance. “It was his way of trying to make sense of it all.”
“Wow, who died?” A new voice intrudes, and I look up to see Bruce emerge from a bookcase.
Dusty gives a little squeak of pleasure and practically skips across the room to throw herself into Bruce’s thickly muscled arms, wrapping her arms around his neck as she plants a rather thorough kiss on his lips, kicking her back foot up like a 1930s movie starlet.
Bruce pinches Dusty’s bum and winks at her cheekily as he pulls back to study us all. “So what’s with all the morose faces?”
“Tristan saw a couple of dementors,” Dusty says, remaining plastered to Bruce’s side, his arm wrapped around her waist.
“A what now?” He blinks.
“Reapers,” I reply as I absently stare at his thickly muscled thighs framed by the tiniest pair of rugby shorts I’ve ever seen.
“Reapers?” Bruce frowns. “But I didn’t think the living could see them?”
“Well, aren't I just the lucky one?” I mutter sourly.
“Tristan,” Evangeline muses, “where did you say you were when you saw them?”
“The first time was at the care home where Delores died. It led me to her room, then disappeared inside. When I got there, it was gone… Come to think of it, her room is in the opposite direction to my dad’s. If I hadn’t seen the reaper and followed it, Danny and I would’ve just gone out the main entrance. If I’d gone straight home, I never would have seen the Mees’ lines on Delores’ nails and her death would’ve just been ruled natural causes.”
