by Carmen Fox
Okay. There was a teeny chance I was being paranoid. There was an even greater chance he wanted me that way. One moment he ribbed me with misogynistic references, and the next he was gentle and warm and considerate. No wonder my head spun when he was near.
“Where’s the boy?” Max didn’t lower his voice. The Darkness was his domain, and he had no reason to fear the ominous sounds in the distance. He probably knew all the local creepy-crawlies by name.
A gray outline peeled off the cavern wall. “I’m here.”
“Can you still feel the Grim Reaper’s presence?” I asked.
Adisa nodded and pointed ahead of us. “Over there.”
“Okay then. Let’s go.”
“I don’t want to.” His whispered words cut into my heart.
He didn’t belong here. The Twilight should have been the most unsettling place this child would ever have to witness. Yet here he was, in the Darkness, a place that gave even me goosebumps.
“I hate that you have to be here.” I softened my tone. “But without the Grim Reaper, you won’t get home. We must find him.”
His gaze zipped toward the faint wailing. “But I can feel ghosts. Many ghosts.”
I glanced up at Max, who hadn’t yet relinquished his hold on me. “Is that true?”
“Of course.”
“I thought ghosts only moved between the Twilight and Earth.”
“No, many ghosts go into the Darkness, but they are not as sane as your young friend here.” He gestured at the kid. “They travel between the Darkness and the Eternal Night, looking for new souls to torture.”
“Great. Anything we should look out for? Are they dangerous?”
“Yes.”
“Whoa, don’t sugarcoat it.”
“I am not.”
I closed my eyes for a second. My focus should be the boy. Adisa needed courage, and Max wasn’t a natural-born cheerleader, so I lightened my facial expression.
“You’re not alone.” I gestured for Adisa to lead the way. “We’re right behind you. Don’t worry.”
His shoulders fell. “Oh, man.”
Now this one was giving me attitude. “Come on. Hurry up.”
He took the lead, and Max and I filed in behind him. After a few steps, we’d left the last light rays behind and faced the cold and utter Darkness. Only the tiny glow inside Adisa’s ghostly chest gave off enough light to prevent me from tripping.
The distant moans grew in volume, and the kid slowed. Who could blame him? A loud scream pierced our eardrums. Next came silence, which was even creepier.
The boy stopped and turned. “I want to leave.”
I crouched down to his level. “It’s scary here, isn’t it?”
He nodded.
“I’m scared, too. But Max has been here many times, haven’t you?” I glanced behind me.
“I have.”
The kid didn’t look convinced.
“We’ll be fine.” I patted his shoulder, or at least pretended to. “Come on.”
We headed further into the nothingness. Adisa’s connection to my father was the only signpost we had. Maybe I should have been jealous, but I understood. Adisa was using the same mechanism to track him that Dad used to find the souls who needed him.
Something touched my arm, and I leaped three feet to my left.
“Are you okay?” Max reached for my hand.
My skin had gone even colder. “I think so.”
A maniacal giggle bounced off the cavern walls. Both Adisa and Max crowded me, one to seek protection, the other to give it. Not long ago, I’d thought myself nearly invincible; now I was mentally clinging to the ceiling.
I was the Reaper’s daughter, damn it. Wasn’t I tougher than this?
“I’m good.” I waved the boys off. “Let’s keep moving. Something tells me lingering isn’t a good idea.”
Adisa’s faint glow peeled off from us and once again lit the way. I gave Max’s hand a grateful squeeze and followed the boy.
The giggle returned, blasting me from all sides, in different pitches. Gritting my teeth, I walked on, hyperaware of the painful tension in my arms and neck.
A misty chill brushed across my head, like a puff of cloud, and swooped down on Adisa.
The child screamed, and his pale outline whirled into the air, feet first. “No. Don’t!”
I lunged forward to seize him, but he soared to my right then back to my left, tossed about like a dog’s chew toy.
“He’s hurting me.” His young, pleading voice shredded through me. “Please.”
“Stop it.” I swished my arms from one side to the other and closed my fist around air—there was nothing to hold on to. “Max, help him!”
“It’s a ghoul. A ghost that passes between the Darkness and the Eternal Night. Ghouls cannot be touched or hurt in the Darkness.” He gathered me toward him by my hips. “I’m sorry, Dabria. The boy is lost.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Adisa’s jerky sobs didn’t stop; neither did the ugly laughter of the creature torturing him. The boy’s wispy form dangled upside down, his hands swinging with every jerk or yank to the left and right.
I tore out of Max’s grip and staggered toward the boy. He was my responsibility, and I would not fail him again. After a second useless grab for his form, I repositioned myself. Aimed. Leaped.
He disappeared, taking his weak glow with him.
“Come back here.” My demand was answered only by a gleeful chuckle.
No way. Adisa wasn’t just any ghost. The ghoul had picked the wrong victim. Wherever it was hiding, I’d find it.
I closed my eyes and dissipated.
What appeared wasn’t the Twilight I knew. I was caught in a cloud of black fog, rocking and swaying, without up or down. Silence closed in on me, a dense blanket of emptiness. Not even my heartbeat sounded in my head.
The solid body of a man shook Adisa by his legs. The boy, looking like he had in life, opened his mouth in a silent scream.
“Adisa?” I called out, yet no sound emerged from my throat.
Worse, no air rushed into my airways. My chest didn’t even rise. I struck my palm against my ribs, gasped. Where was the oxygen? With my lungs cut off, I was drowning in a vacuum. My head spun one way, my stomach the other.
This was the worst time to panic. Focus, for crying out loud. The seconds stretched as the silence rippled through me. Somehow, I was still conscious.
Maybe I didn’t need the oxygen?
Okay. For now, things didn’t have to make sense. My one and only focus was Adisa, who’d become the man’s plaything.
Navigating the fog proved difficult at first, but I inched toward them. The guy’s blond hair stuck to his head, and his lips had withdrawn to show his teeth. Wide, darting eyes and jerky movements intensified his crazy appearance.
If he was solid, he was vulnerable. I punched through the murky atmosphere and struck the his stomach. He dropped Adisa, who fell into the billowing cloud.
Not a thud or a thump. I dove after him, but the man cut me off. He somersaulted through the fog and swooped past my ear with only inches to spare. I waved my arms at him, as if he were an oversized fly, and eventually he disappeared into the rolling clouds. Gone, but still here. He wouldn’t give up that easily.
A force yanked me back, and I tumbled into oblivion.
Then, I opened my eyes.
Air flooded into my body, filling my blood. My legs came to life again, and my arms followed suit.
“...right now.” Max had wrapped one arm around me. “Speak to me.”
His eyes were no longer lifeless. They glistened and sparked faster than fireworks, while his jaw seemed hard as stone.
His face grounded me, and my muscles released some of their stiffness.
“I’m good.” I smiled, upright yet still wobbly, stopping just short of stroking his cheek.
He lowered his head and held his lips inches from mine. My heart floundered, skipped a few beats, and then took up again at twice the p
ace. With his gaze locked onto mine, he lifted my right hand to his mouth and blew a warm kiss on my fingers. The gentleness in his action made my stomach bounce, the way it would during a hundred mile an hour rollercoaster drop into the abyss.
“What happened?” he asked, keeping his face tantalizingly close.
“I don’t know. You just took my—” He probably wasn’t asking about our moment. “I dissipated into the Twilight, except it wasn’t the Twilight I knew. It was dark and scary and silent, but the ghosts were solid.”
He pushed me a few inches away and lowered his knees to meet my gaze head-on. “People, even ghouls and ghosts, are solid again in the Glory and in the Eternal Night, not here in the Darkness.”
“I wasn’t in the Glory, I can tell you that.” I rubbed my arms against the chill. “That means, I was...in...”
“Yes, you were in the Eternal Night.” He gathered me close. “Never go there again, little Reaper. Promise?”
“I had to. Adisa—” I lowered my gaze to hide the tremble running through my jaw. “I lost him again.”
“I’m here.” The boy’s voice skipped into my heart, easing its ache.
I whirled around. “You’re okay?”
His solid shape had given way to his ghostly outline, but at least he was here, not lost in the Eternal Night. Even better, he was no longer hurting.
“You saved me from the bad man,” he said.
“Yeah.” A heroic deed too late to count. I should have saved him when he was still alive. “You scared me, Adisa.”
“I scared me, too.” He tilted his head. “Max was scared even worse. He made a funny sound.”
“What happened?” I glanced back at Max.
He waved me off clumsily with his left hand. “Do not worry.”
When he’d cut away the branches of the bushes, he’d used his right. Now, it hung limp by his side.
I carefully lifted it to my face. Blisters covered his skin, which stretched tight over red flesh.
“Oh, Max. What happened?” I cradled his hand gently in mine.
“I’m well. This is nothing.”
“It was you who pulled me back, wasn’t it? Is that how you got hurt?”
“Yes. I must not enter the Eternal Night, or it will trap me.”
“But it didn’t trap you. It burned you.”
“Pulling my arm back out burned it.” Leaning forward, he rested his nose against my neck. “It was worth it.”
Wow. Okay. Once again, my body was abuzz with this strange anticipation, a giddiness so at odds with our situation.
“Don’t do it again.” I brushed my lips over his cheek. “But thank you.”
Why hadn’t the Eternal Night burned me? And how had I been able to enter it in the first place?
Max lifted his head. “We must go. I do not know how long it is until the Council sends its army, but when it does, my friends and your father will be doomed.”
“Adisa, do you know where the Reaper is?” I asked. “Can you still feel him?”
“He’s in the other place, where the bad man took me.”
Oh crap. “He’s in the Eternal Night?”
“Then they cannot be saved.” Max rubbed his neck, his voice deflated. “They are lost. We have failed.”
I sagged a little and had to rally to keep myself upright. “There’s no oxygen in the Eternal Night.”
“Of course not. The living do not belong there.”
“Then how can my father survive? And how about your friends?”
“Shadow Walkers like oxygen, but we do not need it. Your father...” Max stared down. “Maybe being the Reaper protects him.”
Like it had me. Somehow.
I waved to catch Adisa’s attention. “You can feel the Reaper. Is he still alive, or is he...like you?”
Adisa held his fingers to his lips then shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“We can’t leave them there, Max.”
Maybe I could go back. Since my first visit hadn’t killed me, it was at least an option worth considering.
“We have no choices.” He cupped my face and sought my gaze. “They’re trapped.”
I twisted away. “That’s quitter talk. I’m not a quitter.”
“Dabria.”
The way he said my name didn’t leave me cold, but it also didn’t distract me. “How did they get into the Eternal Night in the first place? You saw where my dad’s path led. Into the empty wilderness, without a town in sight. Someone lured him there.”
“And?”
“And what if we find that person? They could have a way to get him out.” I straightened. “The Council. Maybe it was them.”
“My comrades’ powers are too strong for the Council.”
“The Council commands a whole army. You said it yourself.” And hadn’t they been quick to condemn my father for abandoning his duties? They’d even called him a traitor. As if.
Max shrugged yet didn’t counter my argument.
A clap sounded behind us. “Brava. Well deduced, young lady, but very, very wrong.”
I spun toward the familiar voice. “Mr. Gardiner?”
CHAPTER NINE
The sickly figure of Mr. Gardiner approached at a mockingly slow pace. “Almost. I’m your uncle.”
“Uncle?” I crossed my arms and scoffed. “You’re lying.”
A stupid and unnecessary lie, too. I’d seen photos of my mother, and he didn’t look anything like her.
“I’m your father’s brother.” My former client, at least, seemed convinced by his words.
Still, the difference in skin color couldn’t have escaped his notice. What was his end game? What possible reason could he have for this lie? And what the hell was he doing here?
Max tugged me toward him, once again offering his body as a shield. If Gardiner had looked stronger, if he hadn’t reeked of death, maybe I’d have let Max play bodyguard.
“Well, Mr. Gardiner. Nice try, but my father is a black man. Big, broad-shouldered, nothing like you.” I gestured a finger down his length. “I think you’re stalking the wrong girl.”
Besides, would the Reaper’s brother need glasses?
“Oh this?” He tutted. “This isn’t my original body.”
He was talking in riddles. Swell. How did one go about stealing other people’s bodies, and if so, was Beyoncé’s available?
I scratched the crease on my forehead and forced myself into a calmer posture. “Fine. You’re my uncle. How did you get here? You’re not really in the life insurance business, are you?”
“No. I’ll get to that. First, you should know that discovering your existence was a dark day for me, niece. Who knows what poor woman my brother seduced, but here you are.”
“My name is Dabria. I told you.” I clawed my fingers into my thigh, self-punishment for the least effective smackdown ever.
“My apologies, Dabria. You know, it was your choice of profession that solved a problem I was having. Only you could ferret out who among the people on my list was the last Shadow Walker. I knew he or she was hiding somewhere in Hollywood, living a human life.” He pointed at Max. “You suggested he wasn’t marked for death, yet death is all he is. You nearly fooled me. If he hadn’t sought you out that evening...”
I balled a fist. “How do you know about that?”
“I watched from the shadows.” He tapped the gold ring on his finger, as if it explained everything. “Imagine my luck when you teamed up to look for your missing families. Both of you here, in one place. I couldn’t have planned it better.”
“You’re not one of mine.” Max tightly grabbed the hem of my shirt without taking his gaze off the thin man. “How do you hide in the shadows?”
“I knew that would catch your attention.” Gardiner shot us a triumphant grin. “Many years ago, the Council told my brother and me that we were too dangerous. They were going to lock us up. Your father, Dabria, bought his freedom by relinquishing his powers—the coward. I left and traveled hundreds of miles from realm
to realm to uncover the secrets of death, and in the process happened upon the sacred parchments of the Shadow Walkers.”
“You stole them.” Max widened his stance and leaned forward.
“I did, and many other treasures, and with their help I spent the last century perfecting my craft. The Council was afraid of me before?” He kissed his ring. “Wait till they see what I’ve become.”
“Assuming I believe you, where’s my father?” I pressed my fists into my hips to prevent me from planting them in his face. “What have you done with him?”
“Without him, the Council will need a new Grim Reaper. Once they understand what a world without one looks like, they will have no choice. They will beg me to come back.”
“You stole my Shadow Walkers also?” Max’s voice boomed with restrained thunder.
“I will be the Council’s Reaper and Shadow Walker rolled into one. The Glory, the Eternal Night, the Darkness, and the Twilight. I rule them.” He placed a hand on his chest and shot us a sad look. “You two are the last. Once you are gone, I will return to the Council a hero.”
“Gone?” My voice trembled.
As hesitant as I was to believe his claims, the aura of death surrounding him could hint at Shadow powers. And if he spoke the truth, what other cards did he have up that expensive suit sleeve?
“You think you can defeat me?” Max sputtered a wry laugh. “You will die, old man.”
He leaped at Gardiner, but Gardiner blinked out of existence and reappeared behind him a second later.
Max whirled around, his body tense, ready for violence.
“Give it up.” Gardiner made a shooing motion. “You can’t lay a finger on me, Shadow Walker.”
“How did you do it?” I pushed myself in front of Max. The longer I kept my uncle talking, the more likely it was he’d say too much. “How did you become powerful enough to conquer the realms?”
He wagged a finger. “Good question. My quest to adopt the Shadow Walkers’ powers ended in a painful, but necessary, transformation, in which I unfortunately lost my old body. Samuel Gardiner is the physical shell I need to walk the Earth and exist in the Darkness and the Twilight. My other body is anchored to the Glory and the Eternal Night. You cannot harm me in one plane, because I still exist in the other.”