“We’ll do a sweep for demons and then we’ll get the couple,” Maxon tells them and turns, going in the opposite direction. We move effortlessly through the tall grass in the median of the highway. It’s strange how I’m able to see everything in the human world but know they can’t see me.
I’ve been on the other end of this equation for so long, if I think about it too hard, it hurts my head.
“Wait,” I say, and come to a stop.
“What?” Maxon holds up his scythe. “Do you see a demon?”
“No, but do you smell that?”
“I smell a lot of bad things. This world has been trashed by its inhabitants.”
“It has, but that’s not the point right now. I smell gas.”
“Okay?” He slowly shakes his head.
“The cars are going to catch on fire soon!”
He still looks unfazed. “It can’t hurt you, Addy. The only things that will harm you are demons. We’re notonthe physical plane. We’re able to see and sense it, but nothing can actually interact with us.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about.” I suck in a breath and feel tears well in my eyes. “There are children in that van, and the driver is unconscious! I have to do something.”
“Addy,” Maxon says firmly, and grabs my arm. “We can’t. We’re here for the souls.”
“But they have souls, don’t they?”
“Addison,” he says, sternly but not angrily. “Stop thinking like a human. Everyone who was born had a predetermined death day. Nothing you can do to change that.”
“Unless I’m supposed to.” I try and pull out of his grasp. “I’m supposed to save them. Maybe that was predetermined too.”
“It wasn’t.”
I squeeze my eyes closed and tears fall down my cheek. We’re Angels of Death. Reapers of Souls. We don’t save the living. We guide the dead.
Their fate has already been decided.
“I’m sorry,” Maxon breathes, and slides his hand down my wrist, across my hand, and links our fingers together. “If these humans were fated to die today and you save them, they’ll only die tomorrow. It’s how the world works. It’s how it’s always worked.”
He gives my hand a squeeze and lets go, wiping away the renegade tear from my cheek. “Let’s go, okay?”
“Okay.”
He runs to the other side of the accident, and Maxon pulls a rune from his pocket. “Industria invenire tenebris,” he chants, and the rune glows green in his hand. It’s a charm that will glow red if dark, demonic energy is lingering on this realm.
We keep moving around the accident scene, and the light never changes.
“Come on.” Maxon puts the rune back in his pocket. “Let’s get our souls and get out of here.”
June, holding her scythe up, rushes over. “Did you get the demon?”
“There were no demons,” Maxon tells her.
“There has to be.” Her dark eyes widen and she turns around, looking at Hadwin.
“No…we didn’t get any indication of any demonic activity. Why would you think there were demons?”
June and Hadwin exchange concerned looks. “The bodies…something already took their souls.”
19
