Grim Reaper.
He was here for me, wasn’t he?
“Mine.”
The lingering chill of his voice summoned images of chaos and destruction. So profound and haunting that it could scare even my future nightmares away and fill it with a single voice. His. Somehow I recognized the Reaper’s deep, rich voice within it. The sound was riveting and nightmarish at the same time.
“Mine?” I parroted.
A bony hand lifted, and the fragments clacked together as he pointed a single finger at me.
More clacking filled the silence as the skeleton lowered himself to one knee. Dumbfounded, I watched as he grasped my ankle.
How was that possible?
I yanked, but he held me firm.
A deep, spine-prickling chuckle erupted from him and snagged my attention. I watched as he ran a digit over the tattoo. Suddenly, he dropped his hand and red sockets stared up at me.
“What?” I pushed back my translucent shoulders and lifted my chin.
Mr. Skull and Bones didn’t speak. Instead, he shoved a bony fist into his chest.
I shrieked. The noise echoed around us, and I clamped my mouth shut.
When he removed his hand, blood dripped from it. In his bony grip was his beating heart. How was that possible? I stared at the gaping hole in his shirt. All I could see was a dark, voided space. Where did the heart and blood come from? Not wanting to see any more, my gaze swept over him. What else did his clothes hide?
And why was he holding the heart out to me?
“Stop it!” I didn’t dare utter the words aloud. The entire situation was creepy enough.
He held it higher like it was some sort of offering.
Oh, no, no, no, no! Mr. Bones needed to stand and stop with the nonsense! He couldn’t be doing what I thought he was. After all, he was a skeleton. I couldn’t get rid of the disturbing nagging in my brain telling me otherwise, though. His posture looked an awful lot like a proposal. My skin might not prickle anymore, but my mind was going haywire trying to decipher what was happening.
Pretty sure I would hyperventilate or have a heart attack if I could.
With unexpected speed, he rose up and shoved the heart at my chest. I sucked in a breath. A flood of overwhelming hatred started where his hand entered. The sensation only lasted a second. I couldn’t pinpoint the anger I felt, but it was so potent. I tried gritting my teeth together, failed, and became more upset. Abruptly, the feeling ended. A blazing warmth filled my chest and expanded throughout my form, completely engulfing me. When he yanked his hand out, the heat dissipated and left me so cold I wondered if I’d experienced it at all. I’d lost the sense of touch, but for some reason, I could feel every second his bones were inside my chest.
He gripped my chin with his bloodied hand and jerked my head upward. When I refused to raise my gaze, he slid a bony digit down my face until I had no choice but to glance at his eyeless sockets.
“My heart.”
My eyes widened, panic overwhelming me. All I wanted to do was pull away but I was frozen. I was suddenly glad I couldn’t sense anything. I didn’t want to know what his breath felt like against my skin.
Oh, God. He wasn’t looking at where he shoved his heart inside me. He was staring directly at me.
I was pretty sure a monster just proposed to me. I was too stunned to do anything more than watch as he dropped his hand and turned around. Odd shaped twigs snapped under his boots. Each time it happened, it looked like spiders reaching up for his legs, but it was just their shape that made it appear that way. Even the trees of the forest looked like scary giants with hundreds of hands. Without life, that place was so eerie. He stopped at my corpse. Then carefully, he scooped my lifeless body into his arms and returned to where he was standing earlier.
My forehead crinkled as I studied him. Why go back to that same spot? He turned away from me.
Gradually, his cloak broadened as some of the red smoke dissolved around him. He was regaining flesh and muscle. There was no way a skeleton was beneath that material with the width of his shoulders.
Suddenly, the man jerked like he’d been shocked, and then he glanced left and right. He almost dropped my body—I’d never get used to staring at my lifeless form—like he forgot he held it. He examined it a second before placing it gently on the ground. Why did he pick my corpse up only to lay it down again? He began frantically searching for something. His hood-covered head whipped back and forth, and then he turned toward me.
I gasped. It really was the Reaper. His eyes widened like saucers as he panted.
He took a step and paused. “You’re not gone.”
Maybe I should have been more afraid that my being there surprised him. Instead, I was relieved. My Reaper. Everything was better already.
He lifted his hands and glanced at them. “I didn’t rage again.” His eyes slanted, lips flattened when he asked, “Did I do anything just now?”
He couldn’t remember? I wasn’t sure how to tell him that he became a skeleton and shoved his heart into my chest.
When I said nothing, he stalked over the spider-like twigs causing them to snap angrily. He gripped my transparent shoulders and shook me. A flicker of irritation and impatience shone in his dark eyes. “Explain it to me. What did I do? Did I try hurting you? Tell me!” Something flashed in his gaze as he looked into the distance. “If my sin is changing…”
“Reaper,” I called out hesitantly. “What happened to me?”
He flinched. His gaze widened as if he was just seeing me for the first time. He pulled away from me quickly and rubbed the back of his neck.
I gasped from the sudden separation. “Why did they kill me?”
It shouldn’t matter since I was already dying—dead—but it did. Those men kidnapped and killed me in cold blood. Engraved upon my memory was the agony of the blade crushing through my chest. The troubling part was that they said it was all planned.
The Reaper’s Adam’s apple bobbed as his expression grew fierce and hateful. When he glanced down, his intense gaze was glued on my ankle and the red lion. His fists clenched. “You didn’t deserve this death. I promise you that I‘ll kill every last one.” There was a pause in his words before he looked away. “Even if you won’t be there to see it.”
I won’t be there? But wait! He said he’d keep me even if he wasn’t supposed to! Just as my lips parted, a giant curved weapon formed in his hand, and he braced the massive thing across his shoulder. The oversized weapon was like a menacing shadow. With the blade’s arrival, a brilliant light formed beside the Reaper.
So warm…
All my troubles seemed to fade away the longer I stared at the large glowing oval. Pain… Sadness… What were those things? I was free of the hurt and confusion. It was so bright I didn’t see how I could look directly at it. I sensed that someone called for me to step through the passage.
Oh.
Oh!
“No,” I panicked, stepping backward.
“Don’t make this hard.” The Reaper’s voice was miserable as if someone had crushed his dreams. “It wasn’t how you were meant to die, but the date is right. That didn’t change.”
“You changed it!” I hissed. “You said you’d keep me.” When he grabbed my arms, I shrieked. Wait, a minute! I felt pain. How? “Wait, please. I’m scared. I want to stay with you.”
I didn’t care that I was begging. I didn’t want him to send me to Heaven.
“You shouldn’t. The human world could end soon. Do you want to stay and die with it?”
“Yes!”
He gritted his teeth. “I’ll never let that happen.”
“What gives you the right to choose for me? You were okay with me staying when it was convenient for you. I’m not going into that light!”
“Yes, you are.” He tugged me toward it.
Anger wasn’t working, so desperation clamped over my heart.
“Wait, Reaper. Please. Let me stay here with you. You still haven’t told me what
happened. Those demons acted like I was someone important.” I clawed at his hand.
He flinched and glared at the angry red mark I left on his skin. His forehead crinkled. “You shouldn’t be able to do that. At least, not as a ghost. I have to get you through now. You could have already turned into a poltergeist.”
“Don’t dodge my questions.”
He jerked me around so that I faced him. “If the end wasn’t upon us… If I could give you peaceful days, dimples, I would hold you for eons to come. Your fate was unfortunate. To be human and to be—” Suddenly, he averted his gaze. “I won’t let anything happen to you. That’s why you’re going into that passage where you’ll be far from anything or anyone who would try to harm you.”
All of those ifs flooded my chest with emotion. His words gave me hope that he wouldn’t push me away.
“Why?”
“Just go spin circles around the angels, Gwendolyn,” he mumbled.
“If this is for the best, then why does your voice sound off?” I blurted.
He hissed. “My voice isn’t off.”
“It’s wavering.”
“The fuck it is,” he muttered. “This is what I do every damn day. Why would I be unhappy to finally get rid of the thorn in my side?”
His words sliced into me. “You don’t mean that,” I croaked.
Since I was floating, all I could do was scream and try to hold on to the Reaper.
He scooped me up, and without further argument, tossed me into the opening.
Chapter 11
Barron
It was only after she was gone that I realized the true gravity of what I’d done.
I sent her away from me. Forever.
To a place I could never reach.
Gwendolyn bore the mark of my sin. She was mine long before I wanted to take her with me to my world. But I didn’t understand. Sebastian and Isabella’s mark didn’t appear until they loved each other. Same with Maureen and Jackal, right? Was it even possible for me to love someone without hurting them? I wasn’t Sebastian. I could never look at someone and think—she was the one—after just meeting her.
Right?
There was no way Gwendolyn could love someone like me.
My curse hadn’t mattered to me when it had only been the two of us underneath the tall trees of Grim’s woods. I’d never experience that kind of peace again because I sent her away.
I grimaced and rubbed my painful chest.
My fault. Her horrible death was my fault.
Thanks to Harvest and the pending apocalypse, the only one I dared want was gone from me forever. I couldn’t risk her future for my selfishness. Gwendolyn had no idea what her life would become if I had let her stay beside me.
I couldn’t get the red lion on her tiny ankle out of my head. The memory rolled over me, warmed my chest, and made me feel complete.
I wished we knew more about the marks. Did they really reveal our soulmates? Why was it happening right when the world was going all to hell, and we were trying to stop shit from occurring?
I stared at the spot where the passage had been. It gobbled Gwendolyn up just like that. My chest rose and fell with my anger.
Oh, fuck. What did I do?
Already, I regretted it. I ran my fingers through my hair and shook my head. No. It was for the best. I would have done it again despite my turmoil.
Fucking Hades. Dimples had become an important part of my life in such a short amount of time.
Dark matter twisted inside me. Twice I hadn’t raged out when I felt like I would. Why? Without Gwendolyn there affecting my curse, would I eventually rage out?
Affecting my curse…
That was it.
That was why. Isabella woke Sebastian, Jackal saw through Maureen’s pride, and Gwendolyn changed my curse.
At least I did right by her. Despite the ever-increasing pain in my stomach, I knew sending her to Heaven was right. She was safe from the shit that was coming.
I did right. I chose her life over my selfishness.
Damn it! I punched my chest. Even anger couldn’t extinguish the sadness inside me.
Like everyone else, I wanted to stop Harvest and save the world, but I wasn’t as optimistic as my family. I knew there’d be sacrifices. Maybe we’d all have to die to stop it.
One thing mattered to me, and I protected her.
I pictured so vividly what it would have been like to have her that the thoughts seized my lungs.
She would have been the center of my world like all soulmates were to each other. I would have been more selfish and doting like Sebastian was toward Isabella. Still wouldn’t have had a fucking clue what Gwendolyn was doing to my curse, but it wouldn’t have mattered. We would have been together. I would have watched the dimples form in her cheeks each time I took her to the pond to skate. She would have slept beside me, awakened beside me, been a part of me. The best part.
If I could have kept her, I would have given her all the peace in the world. But that was the one thing I couldn’t give.
She was safe. That mattered more than having her with me.
There was no resting or trusting the rules of the world when everything was changing. Immortality no longer meant anything. I didn’t know what would happen, but I knew myself. Letting the end destroy my family or humanity wasn’t an option for me. Being a Reaper meant saving everyone—even if it meant self-sacrifice.
The fact that my could-be soulmate was unreachable was well-played by the angels or fate—what-the-fuck-ever. It was time I reminded myself I had no time for attachments. Especially not a lover who was practically a child.
What was I thinking? Getting so smitten at a time like that?
Glancing up at the sky for another tiny, selfish moment, I let myself imagine a life again in which I didn’t walk alone. Longing clung to me as I envisioned the way Gwendolyn would provoke me with her words, debate with me over something fucking stupid, and the way her eyes would have lit up every time I showed her a piece of my world. Warmth spread through me, followed by grief, and then I willed it all away.
Goodbye, Gwendolyn. Maybe in another life we’d get our chance at love.
After everything that happened, I almost wanted to let my sin run free. I didn’t want to remember the things I couldn’t have, or what I’d lost. Even if I had to disappear inside my wrath for a while.
Glancing around, I searched for the spot I’d left her body. There was no way I’d leave it there. I could heal it and take the corpse to the human world for a proper burial. It wasn’t where it should be. My forehead crinkled the longer I searched for it. It wasn’t anywhere.
Whoosh!
What the hell?
I tilted my head just as a high-pitched squeal filled the air. It echoed like it was traveling through a tunnel. Something hit my back knocking me to the ground. Fucking Hades! My jaw rubbed against the twigs, scraping my skin. Whoever just jumped me was about to die. Scowling, I shoved the sticks away from me and pushed myself up, but I couldn’t stand. Whatever smacked into me gripped my ribcage. Reaching behind me, I grabbed a wad of clothing and flipped the thing over my head until they were beneath me. A female cried out. I froze.
A black hood, falling over her forehead, almost covered the candy-colored eyes blinking up at me. Gasping for air, she pushed at my chest until I gave her enough room to sit up.
“Did Heaven… Um… Just spit me out?”
Those green eyes and youthful face stared at me sheepishly. A Reaper’s cloak covered her body. My mouth fell open.
Gwendolyn.
A loud roar surrounded us as another passage opened. No time for shock. I grabbed her arm—once again solid and warm—and pulled her into my chest. A red stormy essence mixed with her natural floral aura. It seeped through our clothing and teased my flesh. Goosebumps broke out on my neck before the sensuousness slipped inside me. Her power played with mine. The temperamental sin bunched up and stirred erratically. My blood boiled and ignited my skin. It moved lower,
letting me know exactly what it wanted. Desire and wrath clashed inside of me.
How did she have Reaper powers? And why were they clinging to me?
Would I rage?
Gripping her shoulders, I gently pushed her away from me. Her power was like a damn leech, ironically a lot like her. Just as I did, a shiny, delicate red scythe came through the opening. And smacked Gwendolyn in the back of her head.
She gasped and grabbed her skull. Her gaze bounced around. “Ow!”
I didn’t know whether to be shocked or horrified. Embedded throughout the weapon was her new essence and aura. Fucking Hades. It belonged to her.
Somehow, Gwendolyn was a fucking Reaper.
She scooped the slender weapon up with her hands. “It’s like yours.”
It wasn’t. It was drastically tiny compared to mine. But if someone noticed the color when my essence flowed around my weapon, they’d say they were similar. No. It was more like a fucking parallel.
With one fucking glimpse, they’d all know.
“Is it yours?” She batted her eyelashes.
What was I supposed to say? What should I say?
I was just as confused as she was and felt a little guilty for being glad to see her. Then, I let my anger kick in.
“What happened?” I growled, grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet as I stood.
She averted her gaze, scratching the tip of her nose before refocusing on me. “I don’t know. There was a bright light. The next thing I knew I landed on top of you.” Shaking her head, Gwendolyn’s eyes narrowed as she glared at me. “I told you not to send me!”
I tensed as her fingers pressed against my chest. Snatching her wrist, I shouted, “How can you be so oblivious? You’re dead. Have you not noticed the changes to the human world? I was doing you a favor!”
Gwendolyn glanced at my hand. “I’m not a ghost anymore. Why not?” She jerked out of my grip and pinched her flesh between her fingers. “I’m warm.” Finally, she placed her hand over her heart. “The wound is gone, and my heart beats!”
Conjuring Wrath (Seven Deadly Book 3) Page 8