The intent behind his grip was clear—nothing andno onewould be taking her away from him.
He paid the Reaper four coins. Two for each of them, as was customary. Then he proceeded toward the dock, never looking back.
Alaric and Garrick followed next. Both glanced back at us when they paid their tithes.
Wolfe nodded, telling them silently to continue.
They did.
Wolfe looked back at the Reaper, who still bore that deranged expression on his horrific face. It was like he was privy to a secret none of us knew.
He stretched out his hand and wiggled his skeletal fingers. “Just payment for her.Youwill not need it.”
I wanted to ask why but knew the answer.
He’d said it before. Those touched by death were welcome in the Land of the Dead whenever they pleased.
The thought that Wolfe was touched by death unsettled me.
Not because I was scared of him. I just didn’t want him to have any part of it. Ofthis.
I didn’t want him to belong here.
He handed the Reaper two coins and pulled me closer.
“Until next time, then, ol friend,” the Reaper said, his eyes flicking from Wolfe to me.
Wolfe didn’t answer. He just guided me forward, his head held high and grip tighter around my hand.
We followed the others. My legs grew heavy with every step as though I were walking through a tar pit.
The Reaper’s presence clung to my back like a cold palm pressed between my shoulder blades.
I was tempted to look back, but I dared not. I knew now what nightmare would be staring back at me. I didn’t want to remember that.
The Reaper chuckled behind us, the sound scraping over my bones. My pulse hammered so hard I tasted iron.
“Just keep walking, Ziyka,” Wolfe muttered under his breath, lacing his fingers through mine.
The deepened contact was warm and comforting in a way his monstrous shape shouldn’t have allowed. Shadows still wreathed around him, smoke-wings rippling at his back, and yet the only thing that anchored me was his hand.
I glanced at him out the corner of my eye. He looked at me for a heartbeat then fixed his gaze ahead at the ship.
The tension in his form suggested he was prepared to fight if he needed to. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Moments later—that felt like several lifetimes—we reached the end of the dock, where the ship waited. Up close, it was more beautiful than it had been in the distance.
More importantly, it was our means to escape.
We went up the gangplank and boarded the ship. As soon as we were all onboard, the dock disappeared and fog drifted over the land.
I chanced looking back at the Reaper. But he was gone.
Then the fog swallowed everything else, erasing it from my view. The land was gone. The trees were gone. No one would have known there’d been an island there seconds ago.
Footsteps pulled my attention back to the ship. The captain approached us.
He was an older male Fae with long graying hair and a tough but lanky build.
