Gethin made a face. “I don’t know? I’m not really familiar with the business of Reapers. If that’s how it works, yeah. I usually don’t bring people home with me, but if you need them here, I could make an exception.”
Was he putting in this much effort because he wanted to garner another favor, or had Wren truly been right to trust him?
Was there a part of him somewhere underneath the facade of an uncaring killer that actually gave a damn about love?
Soulmates.
Even without his wings, Gethin was still a cupid.
“If someone died, Sephtis wouldn’t have to kill them. We wouldn’t have to hurt anyone again…” Cole’s voice trailed off.
“Again.” Gethin echoed, and the knowing look on his face told me he could read Cole soul deep—his guilt, his pain. The regret that hedidn’tregret killing that man at all, because he’d done it for me. “Yeah, trust me, kiddo… I’m not going to feel bad about it.”
Gethin’s offer was tempting. I knew it would probably be easier on Cole too. After all, I knew he’d read the diaries. We’d read them together. He knew what kind of man Gethin was, and he’d accepted help from him.
But I knew him now. I knew him well enough to know that it wouldn’t make it any better. Gethin didn’t kill people because they were bad, or because they needed to die. He killed people because he was in pain, because he was jealous… because there was a part of him missing that he couldn’t connect to.
Gethin killed people because it was the only way he knew how to keep himself from completely going insane.
And…
There was something on the edge of my senses.
Another way.
A different option.
And maybe it would finally give me a chance to show Cole what I’d been trying to tell him all along, what I’d wanted him to know… because I knew at least some small part of him still believed that I’d taken his brother, that it wasn’t the right thing to do.
“There might be another way.” My voice was soft when I spoke, and both men turned their eyes to me. Cole looked confused, and Gethin looked…
He almost looked disappointed, as if I’d dangled a treat in front of him and snatched it away at the last minute.
“What other way? I’m not letting you kill anyone for me, Sephtis.” The finality in his tone told me what he really meant. If something had to happen, he was going to do it himself. Cole really was so caught up in grief and guilt, in shouldering the responsibility for everything, that he’d kill another person just to take the sin on as his own.
He didn’t understand…
Death didn’t always have to be a sin.
“Trust me?” My voice was soft when I spoke, and I held my hand out to him. There was every chance he’d say no. Every chance he’d tell me to go to hell, like it was really a place and not a state of mind.
“I…” He looked torn. Cole’s eyes lingered on my fingers, and it was actually Gethin snorting behind us and shoving him until he stumbled into me that made him take my hand.
“Don’t make a mess in my graveyard.” And before I had a chance to snap at him for touching Cole, he’d already turned back to the stove… and any thoughts of anger dissolved at the feel of my soulmate’s fingers digging into my shirt, at the lost look on his face when he glanced up at me.
Asking him to trust me was nearly impossible, even though we’d been through so much in such a short amount of time. I knew it. I understood it. But when he took a shuddery breath and linked his fingers through mine…
I realized he was going to try.
I just had to hope that what I meant to do would finally be enough to give at least some of the broken parts of him a sense of peace.
Chapter 27
Cole
I hadno idea what Sephtis meant to do when he took my hand and led me from Gethin’s house. This wasn’t really a place to take an idyllic walk. I didn’t want to explore it. I didn’t want to see Caiden’s headstone.
I didn’t want to see any of it.
