And maybe he would have, but it was too late. His gaze flicked to me, finally able to see me… and all I could do was offer him a soft, kind smile.
“Wait…” But his skin was already going pale, and the life was fading from his eyes. His pupils dilated as I gently lowered his body to the ground, and my fingers twisted as I leaned down, brushing my lips against his cheek before moving to hover against his mouth. His Vitality flooded from between his lips, pooling into my chest.
Ready to be delivered, eager to be formed into something new. This was why I’d picked this man—he had so much it wasnearly overflowing. It filled the gaps left behind from the little bits I’d fed Cole earlier.
It would hopefully make my deception go unnoticed.
When I stood, his soul reluctantly came with me. I had to pull, twist slightly to unseat it before it was ready… but he came all the same. All his pain, his struggles, his fear was gone—there was no need for it.
“I hope your next life is better.” I spoke in a gentle tone as I offered him my hand.
Sometimes they fought at this part, still reluctant to leave their past self. I was worried he would too, that he’d struggle against what was happening and the edges of his soul would fray and give away my ruse.
Instead, his eyes glanced down at the body on the ground… worn, tired, broken from the world… to the smooth lines of his hand, to the pale extension of mine.
With a soft nod, he took my fingers and let me lead him to the Lake.
“That one seemed raw, Sephtis.”The voice behind me was lyrical, soft and full of the same chill that was supposed to reside in my body. I forced myself to slowly exhale as I pulled my hand away from the great Lake where souls went to rest until they were ready to be born again. The man’s face faded into all the others, peace on his expression as his form slipped away and he drifted. When I turned, Death was leaning against one of the pillars of the archway, watching me with his odd eyes—a ring ofwhite like moonlight surrounded by the fathomless depths of a starless sky.
“He didn’t understand what was happening when I first came.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. He’d been confused, just not for the reason some souls were. “Once he accepted it, he came willingly.” Again, it wasn’t a lie.
His head tilted, the silky white hair that he wore in a bun letting loose strands brush against his shoulders. The black veins that occasionally shone beneath my skin when a human saw me for what I truly was were a constant presence across his pale complexion.
As I stepped forward, his black tipped fingers—sharp like claws—lifted and gently cupped my cheek, and he drew me closer. My lids fluttered shut as his lips brushed against mine, and the soft inhalation of his breath left me feeling split wide open as the Vitality I’d drunk down spilled up my throat and into him like some strange offering.
I’d spent a year making sure I never had a reaction when this happened, a year making sure I didn’t make a sound as I felt that essence—the years of pain, hope, fears, oflife—pouring from my body and into his. There were times when I’d have weeks worth of Vitality stored in my chest before he came to collect—sometimes months in between one visit and the next. I longed for those days, because some part of me always lived in fear that Death would find me out.
Fear—another thing I shouldn’t have been able to feel… but with him this close, it took all I had in me to reel that sensation in so he wouldn’t notice it.
When it was finished, that ring of white in his eyes sparked brighter, nearly glowing, and he stepped back, looking down at me with a smile. “Perfect, as always. You never sour their dreams, never calm their rage. It’s always so… pure.” He lickedhis lips, and I saw the faintest flash of sharp teeth behind his black tongue.
“I do my best.”
There were times when I wondered if he could see right through me, if heknewthat I’d been lying to him for a year now.
Death could be wicked, cruel and without mercy. Or he could be kind, as gentle as the breeze on your skin.
I just had to hope, as he swept his hand in front of himself, ushering me to get back to work, that I could keep on the side of the latter. Reapers couldn’t die, but I didn’t want to know what it would feel like for those sharp, vicious teeth to set into my skin for the rest of eternity.
Chapter 7
Cole
What the fuckdid he mean?I knew who he was.
Up until that moment, I’d been trying to convince myself I’d imagined him, that he wasn’t real, as much as I’d wanted him to be. But I couldn’t write it off, even though no one I asked said they saw the man who pulled me from the water.
No one saw him. No one but me…
And hours later, when I was finally released from the hospital with nothing more than a few stitches above my brow and one very surprised doctor who told me I was lucky to be alive when he heard the details of what had happened… I still couldn’t get the image of that soft expression out of my mind.
He’d looked like that before, when he’d been hovering over Caiden.
He’d looked like that when I’d dropped the vase.
And the single red petal I still had clutched in my hand existed like strange proof that I hadn’t imaginedanything.
Whoever he was, he’d pulled me from the water. He’d saved me when I didn’t want to be saved.
