by J. L. Weil
“What? That you like being reckless?” he asked.
“Hardy-har-har.” I turned on my side, facing him. “Crash and Heath were at the club tonight. I overheard them talking outside at the back of the building.”
His hands dropped to either side of his head. “Princess, you’re going to give me a heart attack. If they had seen you…”
“They didn’t,” I assured. “That’s why I borrowed your shadows, to conceal my presence…and TJ’s too.”
Zane raised his brows. “What was your brother doing there?”
“The dweeb followed me.”
“Unruliness must run in your family.”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you want to hear what I found out or not?”
He wiggled on the bed until he was relaxed, lacing a hand behind his head. “Okay, I’m all ears.”
I sat up, folding my legs. My knees bumped up against his thigh. “They were talking about the veil, about how it was destroyed.”
“And this surprises you?”
“No, not entirely. I had seen Heath sneaking out of the sanctuary that night. He was telling Crash that there are many ways to thin the veil, but only one way to drop it permanently.”
Zane nodded. “Yes, my father has spoken of the myths of lifting the veil. But they were always taken as that, legends. The veil has never been broken before.”
My gaze was fixed on his. “There’s a first for everything. He implied Estelle’s death had something to do with it.”
His brows slammed together “Son of a—”
I whacked him with a pillow before he could finish his colorful expression. “What?”
“Estelle,” he stated. “The bastard used his daughter. He wanted you to kill her. It makes perfect sense now. He set Estelle up to kill Rose, knowing how angry you were after your mother died. He used your desire for revenge to push you to take her life.”
When I had killed Estelle, I had absorbed her soul. Unlike Zane, being a death reaper, I hadn’t destroyed her soul. Estelle definitely went to the other side. “Why would he do that?”
“Because to destroy the veil, he would have to sacrifice someone he loved, turn them into a hallow. Having her on the other side would aid him in being able to drop the veil.”
“Wow. I thought I had daddy issues.” But that took the cake, although my stepfather had tried to kill me.
“I hate to admit it, but at least it’s a start.”
“Something we can agree on. It’s not much to go on.”
“A victory, however small, but don’t ever do that again.”
I pursed my lips. “You could just say nice job.”
He places his hand on my hip. “I could, but I don’t want you to get it into your head that what you did was smart.”
I groaned, loud and long. “You’re so frustrating. I actually think you’re the most frustrating guy I’ve ever met.”
“I live to please,” he said, grinning.
I snorted. “You and I have very different ideas of how to please someone.”
“Oh yeah? I bet there is one thing we can agree on.” His lips pressed to mine. He was absolutely right. When it came to this, Zane and I saw eye-to-eye, or more like lip-to-lip, and all the problems and the nitpicking ceased to matter.
We both treasured these moments. Not only because we were able to love each other without feeling guilty, but because we both weren’t sure how long this freedom would last. Our days were numbered. Zane assured me that the divine would summon me, expecting a new oath to be made between a pure heir and the White Raven.
Gag me.
Chapter 12
“Did you just dip your fries into your shake?” Zane asked, eyeing me over his one-pound burger. Soft shadows danced over his face, highlighting the sharp angles of his cheekbone and curve of his lips.
“Yeah,” I replied like he was the weird one.
He shook his head. “What planet are you from?”
“Me,” I screeched, smiling. “I’m the most normal person here.”
He took bite into his monstrosity deemed a burger. “If you say so.”
I dipped another fry in my chocolate shake. “It feels so…quiet in here,” I said, observing the nearly empty café. We were having lunch, doing the normal couple thing for once.
“It’s never quiet here. Not anymore.”
I lifted my head at the sound of the bell hanging over the door. “Speaking of not-so-quiet. Look what the cat dragged in.”
Zoe spotted us immediately. Her raven hair had those beachy waves I could never get, the perfect blend of sexy and messy. She was wearing a flowy sundress, her pale skin luminous from being out in the sun. I watched my casual date with Zane fly right out the door. Parker trailed behind Zoe, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. His knowledge of the island hadn’t affected his boyish charm or his love for worn jeans and manga t-shirts.
He still wasn’t talking to me. It hurt. I missed my best friend. This wasn’t our first fight and wouldn’t be our last, but there was something different this time. I was afraid our friendship might never be the same.
Zane’s eyes rotated between his sister and Parker, a frown pasted on his lips. “What, are you guys dating or something? Every time I see you, you’re with him.”
I picked at my fries, avoiding Parker’s gaze. The not speaking to me was getting under my skin. We hadn’t gone more than a week without talking, ever. I still couldn’t fathom why he would willingly choose this life.
“So what if we are?” Zoe replied, sliding into the booth alongside her brother and plucking a pickle off his plate.
And that left the only empty seat next to me. Parker cleared his throat uncomfortably as he sat as close to the edge as he could manage without falling into the aisle. Ugh. I hated the weird tension between us. Nothing was the same between us anymore. It seemed like the harder I tried to keep him safe, the further we drifted apart.
Zane’s icy eyes narrowed. “When did this happen?”
Zoe snatched a fry from me and popped it in her mouth. I guess we were the kind of friends who ate off each other’s plate. I really didn’t mind. “You’ve been too busy making heart eyes at this one,” she said, pointing a pink nail at me.
Zane looked perturbed. “I do not make heart eyes. I don’t even know what that means.”
The table erupted into giggles as the three of us all envisioned Zane with little red hearts in his eyes like a cartoon character. It broke some of the tension.
“I can’t believe you’re dating him,” Zane commented, genuinely surprised.
“I could say the same thing about Pipes,” Parker voiced.
Nope. There was no hope Parker and Zane would ever be friends. The world could be coming to an end and they still gave one another the stink eye.
“How about we don’t make a scene for once,” Zoe suggested calmly. I don’t know how she did it. She glanced over at her brother and then to Parker, giving them each challenging stares.
Zane relaxed, lounging back in the booth. “We wouldn’t be Hunters if we didn’t draw attention.”
I gave his shin a light nick with my shoe under the table.
His brows rose.
“You gonna eat that?” Parker asked, eyeballing my food.
Did he just speak to me? Was the silent treatment over? It seemed too good to be true. I glanced down at my half-eaten sandwich and pushed the plate sideways, a peace offering. My appetite wasn’t what it used to be. Stress. “Have at it.”
Zoe flagged down the only server in the locally owned café, and ordered a Sprite with no ice and a salad. Parker ordered his usually, a burger. So predictable. “I heard there was some action last night at the club,” Zoe said.
The spoon I’d been fumbling with clattered to the table and my eyes shot forward. “How did you hear about that?” Only three people knew what I had done last night. Two of them were at this table.
“Your brother,” Parker chimed in with a mouthful of my turkey club sandwich.
/> “God, he is worse than a girl,” I grumbled.
“He was wired when he snuck past my room, unable to keep what the two of you had done to himself,” Parker defended. “I think he needed someone to confide in. The whole ghost and reaper business is still surreal to him. Talking about it with someone on the outside makes what happened real.”
I sighed. “I know it probably doesn’t need to be said, but this can’t go any further than this table.”
“We wouldn’t dream of it,” Zoe assured. “Did you learn anything?”
“Only that Heath is the scum we always thought he was,” Zane said.
“And Crash?” Parker asked, dipping a fry in my milkshake.
Zane shook his head, seeing Parker mimic my choice of fry dip.
I gave him my see-I’m-not-crazy smile, and answered Parker. “Undetermined,” I replied.
“Guilty,” Zane said at the same time.
“Helpful,” Parker frowned.
He was accurate. I didn’t need information from the past, but how to save our future. As soon as I thought I might be getting somewhere, making headway, I realize I am still at square one.
“Since the veil to the other side is broken, where do the souls go?” Parker asked.
Zoe swallowed a forkful of lettuce. “They will still travel to the afterlife, but with the barrier down, if they find the way, they can wander back into our dimension.”
“That’s what I was afraid you were going to say, but not all ghosts are aggressive,” Parker theorized.
Zoe nodded. “Right. Only those with souls who are filled with hate or have unsettled revenge. If a spirit doesn’t find peace in the afterworld, it becomes restless.”
“What do we do next? How are we going to stop them?” Parker asked, having finished off the remaining of my plate and was working on his own burger. The boy was and always had been a bottomless pit. It made you wonder, due to his lean frame, where it all went.
Zane fidgeted in his seat beside his sister, who stared down at her healthy-looking salad.
“That’s for me to worry about,” I mumbled.
Parker glanced sideways, scowling. “So you alone are going to save the world?”
“I didn’t say that,” I snapped. There went our truce, the pressure in the air between us rising.
“You might as well have,” he argued.
“What is with you two?” Zoe hissed, her dark blue eyes rotating back and forth from Parker to me and back to Parker.
It was a good thing she intervened. I was about two-seconds away from lunging at Parker and shoving him into the aisle. Parker and I both knew he was really referring to the fact that I refused to take his humanity and change him into a reaper. “Oh, you mean he didn’t tell you he asked me to turn him into a reaper?”
Zoe gasped.
Zane laughed.
And Parker looked like he wanted to throttle me.
Good. If I couldn’t get through to him, maybe Zoe could. However, the Hunters never fail to surprise me.
“By the evident tension, I assume you told him no?” Zoe concluded.
“Duh.” I took a swig of my melted shake.
“I think Parker would make a great reaper,” she announced, smiling across the table.
Chocolate shake went up my nose. “My decision has nothing to do with whether or not I think he could do the job. I don’t want him making a choice he might later regret,” I pointed out.
Zane remained mysteriously mute over the topic of Parker becoming a reaper, but from our bond, he wasn’t as outraged as I was. Am I the only one who can see clearly?
Zoe stabbed the fork in her bowl aimlessly, spearing bits of lettuce. I’d never seen her unnerved. “It is ultimately your decision, but I would think considering your strong feelings for Parker, you would want to turn him. He is human. Death is inevitably part of their nature.”
I’d never thought about the flipside to having Parker as a reaper. His life would be prolonged, greatly. Is that what he was looking for, immortality, or did he truly want this for pure reasons? “I have a lot going on right now. I can’t deal with another important decision at the moment.”
“Have you told your boyfriend about Aspyn’s plan for you guys to get married?” Parker’s eyes glittered in payback.
“I didn’t think you and Aspyn liked each other,” I directed at Zoe, dodging Parker’s attempt at sabotage. The only way he would have found out was from Zoe, and I’m sure Aspyn planted the seed in Zoe’s head in hopes she would join team-knock-up-Piper.
Zoe squeezed a lemon wedge into her water. “Oh, we don’t, but it doesn’t mean I don’t hear things. Reapers talk. And Aspyn tends to run hers a mile a minute.”
Grand. I slowly let my eyes move to Zane.
He leaned forward and propped his elbows on the table. “What is he talking about, Piper?”
“Thanks Parker, I appreciate your concern,” I muttered.
“Piper,” Zane growled my name.
I blinked. He only called me by name when I was in trouble. “I was going to tell you.”
His smoky blue eyes were wary. “Tell me what?”
I played with the end of my napkin, tearing little bits off at the corner. “Aspyn came up with this idea that might force the council to accept the idea we could be together.”
“And you trust Aspyn?” he asked, sounding leery.
“I do. There are things I know about Aspyn, and we understand each other.”
“Then why are you so hesitant to tell me? I can feel your reluctance.”
This moment was one of those times it sucked he could sense my emotions. I took a breath, folding my fingers together. “She thinks if you and I have a baby, the council will have no choice but to prolong the pressure of me being wed until after our child is born.”
Zane choked. “What!” he blurted, shaking the table.
I had played this scene over in my head time and time again. Although Parker and Zoe had never been a part of the equation, Zane’s reaction had always been the same. How predictable in some things he could be. I huffed, unhappy to be corralled into telling him before I was ready. “She thinks once our daughter is born, we could prove that she will be a powerful banshee, one strong enough to take my place.”
“Wow,” Zoe said, tapping a nail on the edge of the table. “That might actually work. I’ll never admit it to her face, but it’s a fairly solid scheme. If I didn’t dislike her from the bottom of my heart, I’d be impressed.”
Zane did not share her optimism. “I hope you told her what a stupid idea it was.”
Dead air.
“Piper,” he prompted, arching his damn brows.
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think it’s stupid.” There. I’d said it.
“Neither do I,” Zoe backed me up.
“Well, I agree with Zane, not that my opinion matters. Piper cannot have a baby. She’s only eighteen,” Parker sided with the oaf.
Guys against girls. I never thought I would see the day Zane and Parker would side together in anything. I guess they finally found a common ground. It should have come as no surprise that it was me. “Why won’t you even consider it? What harm would it do to try? If there is a chance at us being together, why not risk it?”
Zane looked as if he was going to flip the table out the little country style window. “I can think of plenty of reasons. The biggest being, what if our child is a boy? What if she isn’t a banshee?” The mention of marriage and babies turned Zane green and hulkish.
It made me grin inside. He was worried for a child we might or might not have. He was concerned about me, about what kind of life our baby would have if his bloodline wasn’t powerful enough. But he was wrong. Zane was the strongest reaper I knew. I wasn’t going to let his sole insecurity ruin our chance to be together. “I never imagined you would let your fears govern your choices.”
His eyes flashed a warning. “That is crazy. You can’t possibly be pondering an idea so prosperous?”
I twirl
ed my straw around in my shake.
“Piper,” he growled.
Zoe grinned. “I’m going to be an aunt.”
Zane stabbed her with a glare, before peering over at me with sooty lashes. “How you can think a baby will fix anything escapes me. The divine could very well shun our child. I won’t have it.”
“Then what do you suggest?” This was a conversation that couldn’t be avoided forever. As much as we’d both love to stay in our blissful bubble, the sand in our hourglass was almost out.
“I don’t know…yet. How about we tackle one crisis at a time. The council isn’t pressing you at the moment. They have their hands full with the increased amount of death and hallows running around on the Earth to think of you securing your successor.”
I hated when he was so reasonable. “Fine. Don’t think you’ve won. This isn’t over.” Not by a long shot.
“It’s a good thing you’re still a virgin,” Parker said offhanded.
The table dropped into ten different kinds of awkward silence. My cheeks deceived me, infusing with warmth, flaming an unholy red. Super mortifying. I couldn’t respond.
“Oh. My. God. You guys did it,” Zoe shrieked.
Parker was slow on the uptake. “Did what?”
Zoe was all too eager to explain it to him. “Bumping uglies, making bacon, smash, horizontal bop, feed the kitty—”
Feed the kitty?
“Stop,” Parker groaned, holding his belly. “I think I’m going to hurl.”
Zoe threw her head back and laughed. Dark black hair spilled over her shoulders. “Hearts everywhere are breaking. My brother in a relationship, a serious one at that.”
Zane wasn’t thrilled at having his dirty laundry aired over lunch. The dark lines linking down his face spread. “Who would have thought—the black sheep and the White Raven?”
“I did,” Zoe sung.
I was grateful when the conversation steered toward things that didn’t have anything to do with my sex life, hallows, or reapers. Food long gone and drinks watered down, the four of us sat discussing life. Our most embarrassing moments? What our political stances were, democrat or a republican? What our favorite food was? And so forth. It was as close to a double date and to normal as we would get. It was good, like cleansing the soul. Through all the bickering and jabs, in the end we were all friends. Maybe not Zane and Parker just yet, but what did matter was we would be there for each other when it counted.