The men.Freeze.
I have never seen them hesitate before, and I can’t say I like it. Like, not one bit. This is the exact moment where I realize—horribly, tragically—that my murdery little entourage is, at the end of the day, only human.
So, if we don’t want to get annihilated by a howling glitch in the universe, I have to protect them.
I straighten my spine.
I clench my jaw.
I look Laura Collins’ wrongness directly in its empty, empty eye.
“You,” it says.
Except it doesn’t say. It doesn’t use words. It infects my mind with meaning, a soundless scream crawling beneath my skin, coiling like a parasite around my bones.
“You were watching me die.”
And she’s right.
I was.
I was watching her die, and—oh, yeah—I enjoyed it.
Not that I plan on sharing that particular tidbit with her, but judging by the pure, undiluted malice radiating off of her, I don’t think she’s in a forgiving mood anyway. So, I do the responsible thing. The mature thing.
I double down.
“You deserved it,” I say.
It—she—tilts her head, that eerie, not-quite-human motion that screamsI am about to do something you will regret. And then—ah, fuck me—she smiles.
I do not like that.
I say it again, because I am an idiot: “You deserved it. You deserved worse.”
She laughs.
No, wait—laughs is the wrong word. That sound is not meant for human ears. It’s not even meant for dead ears. It’s the sound of a piano wire snapping. The screech of metal grinding against bone. The concept of agony, distilled into pure auditory suffering.
Behind her, Talon crumples, hands over his ears, looking like his soul is trying to eject itself from his body. My raven flaps wildly, like it wants to inflate and burst.
But the Grim Reaper beside me?
She does not move.
She does not flinch.
She does not tremble.
And that’s when I realize—she does not hear it.
The chill that clung to her, the unnatural presence that made my instincts scream danger—it’s slipping away.
She’s fading.
For real, this time.
“No. No, no, no—hold on!” I grab her wrist, my fingers digging into her skin. Colder than mine has ever been. And that’s saying something. “Stay with me. We can fix this.”
