Chapter 1
Sephtis
The manin front of me was dying. Which was… kind of the point. He wasn’t even putting up a fight.
That was hard to do when you were in a coma.
It would have been the easiest thing to walk forward and brush my fingers across his shoulder, to call him from his body and let his soul rest inside me. I could ferry him to Death’s door and deliver his Vitality.
I could see it—the essence that made up a mortal’s life, their strength and experience—shining around him. A pure aura, uninterrupted by the red lines that sometimes appeared when one was shot with an arrow of Fate.
As I approached him, I couldn’t help but take pause.
How strange that no one had loved him enough tofindhim. He was beautiful, with soft blond hair sweeping his forehead, and thick dark lashes that spilled in half crescents across pale cheeks.
Beauty didn’t save you from Death, though, and I had a job to do.
Which was why I was confused when I brushed my fingers along the cloth of his hospital gown and pressed them to his bare shoulder…
And just…
Stood.
His skin was cool, but the warmth of life still pulsed through him and straight into me. It was almost scalding—bright and bold, so willing tofighteven though it was a battle he couldn’t win.
His was a life that couldn’t be saved, even though he seemed so willing to hold on forsomething.
And I…
“I wonder, what do you dream of?” I whispered, tracing my fingertips lightly from his collarbone along the side of his neck. It wasn’t permitted, this touching.
It wasn’tencouraged.
And what I was about to do was reserved only for those who needed to be ushered gently into giving up the soul. Vitality was sweeter when freely offered, and Death craved that sweetness. I could have just taken it—as much as hewantedto live, he couldn’t fight.
But…
My fingers trailed across his closed lids and I bent down, pressing my mouth gently to the curve of his lips… and suddenly, I was in another place.
A warm place, with the heat of light on my skin and a man sitting quietly in a field of red flowers.
Dark lashes lifted, and eyes the color of a clear spring sky looked up at me.
“You’re the first person I’ve seen in a while.” He leaned back, burying his arms in the crimson flowers and smiling up at me. The light in his eyes made the blue almost translucent, like I was looking into the great still Lake where souls went to rest before it was their time to return to the mortal world.
“You’re the first human I’ve spoken with in…” How long had it been? At some point, I’d fallen into my job and found it easier to ferry souls without speaking to the vessels.
I didn’t understand the need to feign emotional connection. They were dead either way.
But for some reason, I wanted to talk to this man.
“Why don’t you come and sit down? I think I’ve been waiting for you. You look… tired.” He was still smiling at me, soft tawny hair falling into his gaze, the expression so sweet as he leaned back in a cloud of red petals and the whisper of grass.
I can’t get tired, I should have said. Even though, at that moment, with him looking so soft and peaceful among a sea of crimson, Ifelttired.
Everyone waits for death, because death waits for no one,would have been another answer.
Instead, I carefully picked my way through the flowers and settled beside him. Glancing down at my pale skin against the vibrant blossoms, I wondered whether he noticed the pulse of black in my veins, the call of Death telling me it was time to bring someone home.
