It was too much. Cupids and Fate, Death and Reapers. From the way he spoke, there was an entire supernatural world that no one knew about, and humans ran around tied together with red strings of Fate that determined who they belonged to.
And he saidwewere connected.
I couldn’t do this.
“I need to go.” The silence that stretched between us after he finished his explanation was almost palpable, and it seemed to physically wound him when I spoke. I couldn’t help it, though. I knew my voice was full of disbelief and anger. It was full of all the emotions that had been swirling around in my chest since Caiden had died. Emotions that seemed determined to bury me now that I was really facing everything that had happened since.
“Cole, wait.” Sephtis reached out for me and I recoiled. I couldn’t let him touch me right now. Not when I felt so fragile.
Not when I might actually lean into the cool sensation of his palm against my skin if I let him get too close. I wasn’t going to let the man—no, the monster—who had literally killed my brother comfort me.
I couldn’t.
“No. Don’t follow me. I need to go live my life. You know…” I narrowed my eyes as I backed toward the door. “The one you forced me into.”
There was that little bit of knowledge too. He’d kept me alive not once… but twice. I wasn’t sure I wanted to die, not really. But he didn’t have the right to choose for me. He didn’t have the right to be so selfish that he couldn’t let me go because he thought we belonged together.
He didn’t get to take Caiden’s hand and lead him away while making mestay.
I slammed the door on whatever he was trying to argue and stomped down the stairs and onto the street. The fact that my motorcycle was out of commission wasn’t so bad when the frantic energy beneath my skin demanded I do something to quell it—something inside me felt like it wanted to fly apart.
To burst me at the seams.
Some part of me was screaming to gobackto Sephtis.
The further I got away from my apartment building, the more that feeling seemed to build in my chest. I wasn’t sure if it was anxiety, or the knowledge that there was every chance Sephtis was going to ignore what I’d asked and follow me anyway. It definitely wasn’t because of the look on his face when I’d stormed out the door, or that strange tension that seemed to pull taut between us whenever I got close to him.
I blamed it on the fact that he’d apparently had acupidshoot me without my permission. Nevermind that he said it couldn’t happen unless the connection was supposed to happen.
Never mind any explanation he tried to give me.
I was pissed at him. I was furious, and I wasn’t going to let him talk me out of my anger just because he was cool and calm, just because the cadence of his voice made something inside me that had felt broken since the day I’d lost Caiden settle.
In fact, I was going to be even more angry, because he had no right to make me feel that way.
I made it all the way to work riding on the wings of that anger, completely ignoring the soft fluttering of panic in mychest. Preston was on shift with me, and I saw concern on his face as soon as I came through the door.
“Are you sure you should be here today?”
I opened my mouth to ask him how heknewabout what had happened… and then I realized he wasn’t talking about the weird supernatural stuff that had suddenly cropped up in my life. He was talking about the fact that I’d wrecked my bike, that I’d fallen into the river.
He didn’t know I’d had the most fucked-up near death experience anyone could have, and it had nothing to do with the water and everything to do with monsters…
I waved him off. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Honestly, I’m lucky I didn’t hit the guardrail when I flew off. Water is a lot softer than metal.”
Preston gave me a dubious look, because we both knew physics said flying at water from the height of the bridge was probablyjustas bad as the metal… but I was standing in front of him, and as far as he could tell I was fine.
It was hard to argue with.
“If you’re sure. Though…” He stepped forward, putting a hand on my shoulder with a warm smile. “What if you let me do the heavy lifting today?” I started to open my mouth to protest, and he shook his head. “If you can’t swallow your pride and do it for you, then do it for my peace of mind. I don’t need you dropping a car on top of me because your body suddenly realizes you aren’t Superman.”
“Oh, come on now.” I stepped back from him with a slight flex, lifting my arm and showing him the lean muscle I had from working with my hands all day. “You know I’m your favorite superhero.”
Preston shoved me, but his dark eyes were full of relief—maybe because he’d really worried that something was wrong with me, that I wasn’t going to come back to work whole. I didn’thave it in me to tell him I wasn’t sure how I was standing here at all, other than the fact that I apparently had one of Death’s minions obsessed with me.
“Okay then, superhero. Let’s get this car on the lift so we can figure out what’s wrong with it.”
I could workseven days a week and the most I would be was tired. I’d thrown myself into my job after Caiden’s death, and I’d never really regretted it, but I could say without a doubt that I was more exhausted today than I’d ever been in my entire life. By the time the end of my shift was rolling around, I could barely lift my arms.
