But they do not look pressured. They look glad.
Talon’s grin stretches from ear to ear. Cassian smiles too, just a little less, perfectly in Cassian’s style. Nathaniel only nods, like this explains everything and he is perfectly satisfied with the answer.
“And that’s what I like to hear,” Talon murmurs. “So you’re basically just like us.”
“Just like you?” I cock a brow.
“I mean, I thought about it a bit, you know?” he continues. “If people with a karmic imbalance might turn into monsters, then we three are perfect candidates. Not only did we kill a bunch of people, but we also cannot live without one certain Little Grim.”
“I already made my peace with it,” Nathaniel says. “I’d become a wraith ten times over rather than move on without you.”
Cassian nods.
“Same here,” he says.
My heart swells so hard it almost hurts. I want to kiss them right here, right now. I want to be with these guys forever. No, it is not even a want. It is a need.
Before, I only didn’t want our moments together to end. I wanted to be alive, to go through life with them the way normal people do, clinging to the soft little future Cassian admitted he could imagine in that car. Now, though, I want to be exactly what I am. Half-dead, half-alive, with only the three of them holding the living parts of me in place.
I am already shifting, already thinking about getting off the sofa and crossing to them. I picture their arms, the way they always hold me so well, like they know the precise shape of what I need. I am a breath away from moving when another flock of crows erupts outside, loud enough to scrape down my spine.
Adrenaline snaps through me and shreds the warm, honeyed mood.
“We still need to do something about the Grim Reapers,” I say. “If I kill their murderers, I’ll expedite their process of moving on, because they won’t do it naturally. Either they’ll move on with unfinished business rotting inside them, which will destabilize the afterlife even more than the Candy Maker already did, or they’ll turn into wraiths too. And Rhea has a hold on me, so we cannot let them trap us in here again.”
“And either way we’re fucked…” Cassian quips.
“Pretty much,” I say.
Talon drags a hand down his face and lets out an incredulous laugh. “Every fucking day,” he mutters. “Every damn day something happens that changes the entire game. I can’t even keep track anymore.”
I bat my eyelashes at him. “At least it’s exciting,” I say sweetly.
“Yeah,” he says, exhaling. “You’re right about that.”
“So what now?” Cassian asks. “What do we do?”
I let the question hang while I think. There’s a lot we need to do, and most of it starts with the Grim Reaper girls. The problem is, I don’t trust them enough to stroll out there, invite them to a chat, and believe they won’t go straight for our throats.
Right now, they think killing the two in the basement is their entire purpose. They’re wrong, catastrophically wrong, but the odds of my words alone changing their minds feel slim.
“We expand our protection,” I say finally. “We cover the entire hospital and the surrounding grounds, not just this room.”
“More wards?” Nathaniel asks.
“Wards, salt, and…” I pause as the idea clicks into place mid-sentence. “And something that’s going to be even harder for them to penetrate. Something that amplifies my presence.”
The thought settles in my mind, unpleasant and weirdly obvious all at once. It’s a little gross, honestly, but at this point that barely registers.
“Do you still have my bones?” I ask Nathaniel.
He blinks. “Your bones?”
“You know,” I say, deadpan. “The ones you dug up from my grave.”
A short, loaded silence follows. Talon’s jaw drops. Cassian’s eyes narrow slightly. Nathaniel just stares.
Then he nods once. “Yeah. I do.”
