by Allison West
A droplet of blood fell to the ground, and with it, her fingers burned and her arms twitched. A spasm coursed through her body, causing her knees to buckle, and she collapsed onto the wooden floor. Her chest hurt. She found it difficult to breathe. Wheezing, she asked, "What's happening to me?"
With flushed cheeks and sweaty hair, her head bent forward and her eyes shut. A muffled voice answered her question. Whatever was said, she didn't hear. She may as well have been dying, because nothing else seemed to exist for her except pain. What was that about reapers not letting humans die in agony?
The erratic pounding in her chest slowed. Her ears rang, and she blinked twice, waiting for her vision to come into focus.
Hesitantly, she stood and her head jerked toward Wynter. Something felt different. She felt different. Her hand shot up to her cheek; the skin was smooth but her nose—smaller. She frowned, trying to understand what was happening to her. Staring down at her hands, her fingers were longer and thinner, her arms smaller in size, and she could have sworn she had shrunk four inches.
"You're one of us now. You've changed," Wynter said.
She felt alive again. Her heart beat wildly in her chest, her stomach in knots. "Changed, how?" A small part of her was afraid of the answer.
"You no longer look like Princess Ophelia." Wynter handed her the now blank scroll. "All contracts are binding. This one's yours. Violetta will follow you around for your first reap and give you your first lesson. Quite often, reaps will be assigned at any hour of the day, including the middle of the night. Be punctual; death isn't late. Welcome to the academy." Wynter wrapped an arm around Leila's shoulder as they all rushed for the door. Apparently, no one wanted to spend another minute in the asylum.
Chapter 6
The ride back was much more comfortable for Wynter now that Leila was in a physical body again. He suspected the opposite for her, with the bumping and jolting about.
She clung tighter to his body than she had the previous night.
"Do you know how to ride?" Wynter asked her.
Leila shook her head. "I've never found a reason to take anything but a carriage."
"You'll have to learn." Carriages were hard to come by and expensive. All reapers learned to ride horseback for their responsibilities.
In truth, Wynter hadn't minded riding with her to the cottage. He found himself drawn toward Leila, even more so since he had reaped her soul. Had she felt it too? It had been far more than just the physical attraction that had drawn him to her. The physical act of taking her soul had brought him an immense amount of pleasure. Like an addict, reapers are drawn to the soul, craving the release as they help another move on.
That satisfying crave never lasted more than a few minutes. With her, it was different. She was different. Had she felt the connection too? His body still hadn't calmed down.
After three hours on horseback, Wynter slowed to a stop in front of a small gray cottage with a green door. "This is the dormitory." He climbed down first and then offered her assistance to get down from the horse.
"I'm sorry if I was unkind to you earlier. I realize now how unfair I was to you. Thank you for the ride." Leila climbed off the horse and watched Emblyn and Violetta walk the horses around back.
"It's not a problem." Wynter had grown used to the reapers often giving him slack over one thing or another. In the beginning, as a professor, it had been because he was no longer one of them, he was the boss. Over time, that had changed when they realized he, too, made mistakes. Truth was he hadn't been the best reaper, causing a host of trouble. Maybe now he wouldn't be the center of all that negative attention. It wasn't that he wished it on Leila, but he knew how difficult it was to be a new student. It didn't matter how many decades ago that he had perished, it still felt like yesterday.
She was quiet for several long moments.
"Is there something else?" Wynter asked, sensing her unease.
"Do we get paid for our services?"
Smiling, he realized no one had discussed payment for services rendered. "Students are provided room and board, along with a small stipend. We recognize that you won't have time for a job, whether it be full-time or part-time. We expect you to devote yourself entirely to your studies and requirements as a reaper. It will take some getting used to, not living like royalty, but I imagine you'll do fine." He hadn't meant it as a jab, but she did live like a princess and played dress up as a commoner. This new life would take some getting used to for her.
"What about when we graduate from Reaper Academy?" Leila asked.
Wynter smirked. "This isn't a two or a four-year program, Leila. You're here until the royal council decrees you into another position."
Laughing under her breath, she folded her arms across her chest. "Then I guess I can't flunk out?"
"Let's not even consider that as an option, Leila. It's not something to joke about." His voice grew grave, his thoughts briefly reminding him of another young, impressionable reaper whom he had failed.
Leila chewed her bottom lip raw and glanced past him, looking albeit slightly annoyed. Had he offended her? "Do you live around here?"
"We're neighbors. The boys' dormitory is that direction." He pointed toward a small hill in the distance. Wynter couldn't make out the building but he knew it wasn't far. He'd walked it before, the distance a few short minutes of hiking. "I'll check back in tomorrow. If you need anything in the meantime, Violetta and Emblyn will look after you." He mounted the horse and rode back with Jasper to their cottage.
"Tell me it isn't true. I see the way you look at her. You know it can't happen."
Wynter cleared his throat. "You're crazy." Any feelings he had for Leila were because of the reap, right? "She trusts me. I reaped her soul. That's all you saw." He pushed any further feelings aside. She was beautiful, but two reapers together would make life complicated, not to mention it was definitely against the rules. She was his protégé, a student; it couldn't happen, even if he wanted it to. Not that he ever played by the book.
Chapter 7
Leila watched as he rode off toward his home. She pulled out the scroll, relieved that it was still blank. She didn't have an assignment yet, but that didn't mean she wouldn't have one soon.
"What have you got there?" Violetta asked. She and Emblyn walked around to the front of the cottage.
"Just the scroll." She showed it to them.
"Still blank. Consider it a good day." Violetta unlocked the front door and led Leila inside. "Your room is the last door on the right."
Leila quietly approached the bedroom. Opening the door, she poked her head inside. Although quaint, at least it was furnished. There was a bed nestled against the wall and a dresser on the opposite side of the room. She didn't have any clothes with her, other than the ones she wore. Leila closed the door and walked into the hallway, stopping in front of a mirror. She didn't recognize her reflection.
"It takes some getting used to," Violetta said. "No more curly hair. I'm surprised it's still red. I guess you got lucky. Or maybe not so lucky?" Violetta called for Emblyn. "Come here, grab the clippers!"
"What?" Leila's eyes widened in horror.
"Trust me. You've changed, and now you need to see yourself as a different person." Violetta waited for Emblyn to return with the scissors. She led Leila into the kitchen and pushed her down onto the chair. "Sit still. We're going to make you beautiful."
Leila was terrified. Violetta was pretty, but she hid behind a mountain of darkness. Was she trying to reveal to the world that she was a reaper? Perhaps this was her way of sticking her middle finger up at the heavens and saying 'screw you for ending my life early.' Either way, Leila was nervous about Violetta cutting her hair. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the clippers beside her ear. It didn't take long. Violetta trimmed the ends and a little extra on the sides, then she had Emblyn bring in a clip. Violetta twirled the hair at the back, pinning it up and out of Leila's face.
"I like it." Violetta grinned. "Now we just have to do yo
ur makeup."
"You've both already done so much for me," Leila said, her breathing hitched. She could feel the rapid pounding in her chest. Wynter was right; she was alive again. Leila tried to stand up, but Violetta gently pushed her shoulders back down.
"You can thank us later. In the meantime, you need to learn to look more like a commoner than a princess."
"I know how to go in disguise." It was what she'd done twice a week for over a year, sneaking off with Larkin. At least she thought she'd been good at it, until she'd been murdered. Had someone known she was the princess of Casmerelda?
"Well, your disguise sucks. Don't get me wrong. It's a better one now, with that new face." Violetta pointed at Leila. "No one will believe you were ever going to be queen, but I assure you, you won't blend in unless we teach you how to act, dress, and behave like a commoner. Consider it your first lesson in etiquette. Etiquette 101. Which means a little less of the gold flakes on your skin and more cheap perfume."
Leila glanced down at her bloody attire. She still had the same outfit she'd been reaped and murdered in. Violetta was right. She needed at the very least to change clothes. "All right. I'll accept your help." What other choice did she even have?
"Don't seem so ungrateful." Violetta gestured for Emblyn to grab a fresh outfit from the wardrobe. After Leila changed into a cornflower blue cotton dress, Violetta added a touch of rouge and eyeshadow before looking her work over. "Perfect."
Leila examined her new self in the mirror. Stunning. She wasn't a princess anymore and hardly looked like royalty, but she still found herself feeling beautiful. Perhaps that was what Violetta had been attempting to accomplish all along.
"Any questions?" Emblyn asked.
Leila stared at her new reflection in the mirror. It was peculiar to see a different set of eyes staring back at her. "A thousand."
"Well, I'm not sure we have time for all of them," Emblyn said, "but come and have a seat."
Leila glanced at her new reflection one last time before coming to sit on the sofa with Emblyn. Violetta took a seat across from the couch. "What do I do exactly? I mean as a reaper. How does it work?"
"Well, your scroll works specifically for you and no one else. It will give you the location first and, about half the time, the name with it. As you get closer, the scroll will reveal the name of the person if it hasn't already, and their time of death, along with the exact city. The information helps us narrow down the reap. The last thing you want to do is reap the wrong person."
Violetta chimed in, "Once you have a name, you have to physically kiss the person to reap them, like Wynter kissed you."
Leila remembered him pressing his lips to her hand. "What if I can't kiss them?"
Emblyn answered, "Well, you better find a creative way to plant your mouth on their skin. A reaper's kiss is like a kiss of death. You should know that our reaps aren't always in our vicinity. Although we're always given adequate time to get there."
"How far do we have to travel?" Leila asked.
"No more than a day by horse," Emblyn said. "Wynter and Jasper had to go by boat once for a reap across the Jade Sea. It's pretty rare to travel that far. We get enough deaths in our own vicinity. We don't need to travel very far to reap a person's soul."
Leila sighed. It was still a lot to take in. She needed to check on Mara and make sure her sister was all right. She wouldn't be able to do that with Emblyn and Violetta watching her every move.
"Time to pop that cherry." Violetta flashed her scroll toward Leila. "I've got a reap and you get to watch how it's done." Violetta stood up. "Lucky for us, it's not too far from here. We're heading to Morro."
Leila was familiar with Morro. She'd visited once or twice with her father. Morro was a kingdom east of Casmerelda where Astin Stafford resided. He was the prince she was supposed to marry. Along the Jade Sea, its land was nothing like Casmerelda. Beaches lined the eastern coast with mountains to the north. "How do we know where to travel to in Morro?"
"Usually when we reach the border into the country, more information becomes present." Violetta saddled up and waited for Leila to ride with her. "We're teaching you to ride a horse first thing tomorrow."
"Why can't we get a carriage?" she fussed.
"Only the royal and wealthy have carriages, which neither of us are. You'll learn to ride, just like the rest of us." Violetta took off with Leila gripping her from behind.
Violetta had been right. She'd had to remove the scroll as they reached the border into Morro. "Twenty-three-year-old Adam Losenko will drown in the Jade Sea just off the coast."
"The sea is huge," Leila grumbled under her breath. How were they expected to find a young man along the entire coast of a country?
"This way!" Violetta tucked the scroll away against her thigh as she rode.
"How do you know?" Leila asked, ever so curious for more details.
"It's a feeling us reapers get. You can sense death approaching." Nearing the ocean, they slowed. Violetta climbed off the horse. "Can you swim?"
"No."
"One more thing to teach you. Stay here and watch the horse. She's our ride home." Violetta left Leila and the horse on the beach while she swam out into the sea. Against the horizon, there was a small white fishing boat. Violetta climbed aboard and animatedly talked with the sailor.
If only he knew it was his last few minutes. Would he have done anything different? Leila's skin tingled, and she lifted the hem of her dress. She reached up for the scroll at the top of her stockings. As she unraveled it, the scroll revealed her first reap. "Absolutely not." She was not ready for this; she would never feel ready. She rolled the scroll up and shoved it back into her stocking. "It's your lucky day; I'm not taking your soul."
Violetta swam back to shore, gasping for air as she finally reached land. "That was quite a work out!" she panted, trying to catch her breath. Violetta turned around, watching the boat sink out on the sea. "Just in time."
"That was a brand-new boat." Adam stood beside Violetta, completely dry. "What happens now?"
"You're supposed to move on," Violetta said.
Lights dazzled and danced along the sand. Adam walked toward the vision. His vision, which Leila could not quite interpret in the strange translucent glow of light and shimmer, that flooded the sand and sea until he had vanished through the portal into the unknown.
"Where did he go?" Leila asked.
"That's a grade above our reaper education. Wherever souls that are done here go. It's time to go home."
"You don't know." Leila realized she wouldn't get an answer and sighed. "And the body?" Leila glanced out at the ship that had sunk into the sea. There was no sign of it.
"That's not for us to deal with. Whether someone finds Mr. Losenko today, tomorrow, or a hundred years from now, we did our part."
Leila scrunched her nose, disgusted. "Well, that certainly sucks. His family may never know what happened to him."
"If we got involved in every death, we'd never be able to live."
"Isn't that kind of what we're doing?" Leila asked. Violetta didn't answer her. Leila understood the message. They weren't the cleanup crew. They were only there to help the souls move on.
"Have you been given an assignment yet?" Violetta asked.
"No." Leila wasn't taking anyone's soul. If she could let them live, why shouldn't they? Just because she'd been cheated out of her life didn't mean she had to do the same to others. What was the worst that could happen?
Chapter 8
Leila awoke early the next morning. She changed into a cream and dark beige dress Emblyn had loaned her and put her hair up just like Violetta had the day before. Quietly, she tiptoed out of her room and down the hall. Her eyes widened in shock when she ran into a young blonde woman slipping out of Emblyn's room. Leila stood in the hall, frozen.
"Good morning," the stranger said and smiled politely.
"Are you a reaper?" Leila asked, trying to avert her gaze as the woman stood in front of her naked, her perk
y breasts swelled to the tips with rosy nipples.
"A what?" the woman quirked an eyebrow and laughed at Leila's demeanor.
The young woman's skin was creamy and pale, covered in a blush of freckles. Leila found it difficult not to stare, having never seen another grown woman's body without any clothes. The most she'd seen was Aurora with her gown up around her hips and her sister's mouth buried between her legs.
Leila's gaze traveled curiously to her golden curls, neatly trimmed as she could see her swollen slick folds. "You're naked!" Leila burst, relieved not to answer the question as she shifted on her feet and stared up at the ceiling awkwardly. There was nowhere to put her eyes that felt appropriate.
"Yes, I needed to use the latrine." She certainly didn't come across as bashful.
Leila laughed under her breath. "And you thought you needed to strip down before walking outside?" She backed up against the wall, letting the stranger walk past.
"Who said anything about stripping down? Don't you sleep in the nude after you have the most amazing sex with your lover?"
Leila's cheeks burned with embarrassment. She waited until she heard the front door click and took a deep breath. "Roommates," she muttered. Is this what life would be like from now on?
She headed out the front door, hoping the stranger was nowhere in sight. Hearing the squeak of the latrine door shut, she walked around back and found two horses tied up. "Sorry, Vi, borrowing the beast for the day." She saddled up and gripped the reins, intentionally forgetting her reap, as she ignored the burning sensation the scroll forced upon her thigh. "Here goes nothing." She held on as best she could, stumbling off a few times. She'd never ridden a horse, but she'd seen enough people to know how it was done. Besides, just yesterday she'd held on to Violetta and Wynter when riding.
She rode north for hours, and her stomach grumbled in protest for skipping breakfast. Being a grim reaper didn't mean she could skip meals. In many ways, she was still human.