I wasn’t sure what I wanted anymore, other than for all of this to stop.
I tried to keep my attention on the road when I got on my motorcycle, taking the same route I did every day to the garage where I worked. Once upon a time, I’d dreamed of being something more, but that was so far removed from who I was now. That Cole was a man I didn’t know.
Someone I couldn’t remember.
My eyes drifted to the river running beside me, the water spitting out little bursts of white in a telltale sign that the current was going strong from the rain we’d had the night before. I could remember when Caiden and I were little, we’d come down to play by the water. There’d been fields of red and blue flowers before they’d torn everything down to make room for more roads.
That was before we knew he was sick.
Before things were hard.
Before they’d all fallen apart.
I glanced down at the shoreline, and I was pretty sure I could see a little patch of red. My favorite was still there, but there were no blue flowers now. Nothing left of Caiden.
Instead, there was a shadow.
A shadow shaped like a man with a flicker of gold for eyes.
“What the fuck?” I muttered, and his body tensed like he could hear me across the distance, over the roaring water.
Impossible.
He wasn’t supposed to be real, but…
I was too lost in thought, too caught up in the pain that seemed intent on strangling me today to realize what was happening until it was too late. The car veering toward me was unavoidable, and turning my motorcycle to a sharp left only sent me careening over the edge of the bridge. My body was moving, flying, and then the hard impact of water knocked the air frommy lungs, and the cold sensation of it sucking me under was almost…
Bliss.
Maybe this was okay.
Maybe this was what was supposed to happen.
I could see Caiden now, at least.
Except, when I opened my eyes… I didn’t see Caiden. I saw a golden glow, like the sun. My body was engulfed in red petals and black shadows that spoke in a soft rumbling voice and whispered for me toplease stay.
Chapter 6
Sephtis
Forbidden.
Every rule that could be broken lay shattered at my feet, but it didn’t stop me from pulling Cole from the water that tried to suck him down—from the tendrils of death that were slowly snaking across his frame and trying to call me to take him.
To pull his soul from his body.
To let himgo.
I couldn’t let him go.
I hadn’t been able to since the first time I’d seen him in that room, and I hadn’t been able to stop watching him since.
It was interfering with my work. I kept almost falling behind on my quota, and I didn’t know how long I could keep going like this before Death realized I was…
Distracted.
Reapers weren’t made to be distracted. We weren’t made to save mortals.
