by Ali Winters
Nivian transported out to the yard behind one of the many trees lining the driveway. She drew a shaking breath and brushed away a tear she didn’t realize had fallen. Lifting her face, she let the cool evening breeze dry her tears.
“There you are,” Holter said quietly. “What’s wrong?”
She let her head list to the side as she took him in. His eyes were rimmed with red, the only outward sign that he was hurting.
“I’m so sorry; I listened in,” she admitted as they walked out of sight of the house.
“I know. It’s okay.” He put his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“Where do you want to go?” she asked. She sensed he would want it to be private and thought now would be the perfect time for him to go anywhere he wanted without anything holding him back. She wouldn’t mind the drain on her power. It would be worth it.
“I would love to watch the sun set over the ocean.”
Nivian quirked a brow at the simple, yet unexpected, request. She hadn’t known what he would want, but somehow it seemed to fit him perfectly. She wrapped her arm around his back and transported them to a deserted beach facing the western horizon.
They still had some time before the sun would fully set so they walked along the beach for an hour, letting their toes sink into the damp sand and feeling the waves of cool water splash over their feet.
Light glinted off something green poking out of the muddy sand. Nivian bent down to pick it up. A small piece of glass, smoothed by time and water. She handed it to Holter as he led her to a sun warmed dune and took a seat, patting the ground next to him.
Taking the offering, Holter examined it and chuckled to himself. “Aurelia told me that when Kain was young, he would always pick up small rocks and things like this whenever they went anywhere and give them to her. She still has them all in a box.”
Nivian laughed, trying to picture a young Kain rock hunting.
The sun inched closer to the horizon, changing the brilliant blue of the sky to a deep orange with rich pink and purple clouds. As anxious as she was to get back to Kain, she longed for time to slow, just a little, and prolong what would come all too soon.
After a while, Holter put his arm around her in the same fatherly way as before. He felt like a friend, he felt like family. Nivian leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. He had such a comforting presence, and she knew that was a quality Kain had inherited from him.
“Take care of him for me,” Holter said. His voice was thick and raspy. But she didn’t look at him, fearing she would cry and make it harder for both of them.
“I will,” she whispered, and meant it. She didn’t tell anyone about Kain’s missing memories, still holding on to the chance he might get them back once he returned to this realm. And in Holter’s case, there was no reason to tell him about it. He would only worry.
She didn’t know if she had a father or a family in her past life, but if she did, she hoped he was a Holter.
The bottom of the sun touched the horizon, creating an illusion that it was sinking into the ocean and putting itself to bed. The brilliant colors intensified. When had she last taken the time to appreciate the beauty of the setting sun?
“I don’t know if I can take your life for Kain’s, it feels wrong. I want him back, more than anything, but…”
Holter’s hand came up from her shoulder and he stroked her hair.
“I would have died during the transfer of powers. It never would have worked with me, let alone any of the others. I am not as strong as I’d hoped. But you finding a way to bring Kain back was the miracle I didn’t know to ask for.” He gestured to the world around them then brought his finger to her nose, poking her gently. “At least now, I can die knowing all of this will be saved.”
Nivian pulled back to look at him and sniffled. He would have given his life for something he knew would never have worked just on the off chance that fate was on their side. He’d spent so many months expecting his death, and he might have prepared mentally for this moment, but she hadn’t and now there was no time for her to.
Nivian reached up and rubbed the tingling spot on her nose, denying even to herself that he was breaking her heart. Kain may not have known him well, but there was so much of Holter in him, and in that way, he would live on, but that did nothing to ease the ache in her chest.
“Now, now,” he said, pulling her into him. “You don’t need to cry for me. I have lived a long and wonderful life.”
She hugged him and hated every tear that fell from her eyes as she buried her face in his shoulder. All the while, Holter continued to stroke her hair. Even if he didn’t think he deserved the tears, he let her have them, understanding she needed them.
Eventually, she was able to calm her breathing enough to stop crying.
She glared at the sun, angry at it for not moving slower. The purple and inky black sky swallowed the other colors as the last flicker of light dropped below the horizon, allowing the stars to twinkle.
“I am sorry this is how it ends. I—”
Holter kissed her forehead then helped her to stand. “I am glad my son found someone who would do anything for him.” His hands slid down her arms and gripped hers. “Do me a favor, if you can?”
“Anything,” she promised.
“If you can, please take Auri’s memories of me. I can’t stand the thought of hurting her because I had to leave again. She deserves better than that.”
Nivian’s eyes burned anew and she nodded.
“It is time, Nivian.”
She half laughed through the tears choking her. “Isn’t that my line?”
Holter chuckled. “I suppose it is.” When she hesitated, he added, “It’s okay; I am ready now.”
Nivian pulled the parchment mark from her pocket and crumpled it in her hands. She willed her power to flow through the paper and when she opened them again, a black watch with the crescent moon and howling wolf embossed atop the lid sat ticking in her palm.
She depressed the crown and opened it.
Pulling her scythe from her back pocket, she held it out in front of her, letting it expand to its full size.
She looked into Holter’s warm, brown eyes for a moment, holding the two objects. For the first time, Nivian would take a mark to the best of her ability and not walk away with a sense of pride in a job well done.
She felt worse than the image of the Grim Reaper that humans held, with it’s rotting body, exposed bones, and maggots crawling through its flesh. She felt like a traitor. But she forced herself to continue.
Nivian lowered the hand that held the watch and left it hovering in the air, bobbing gently on the wind. She waved toward Holter with her now free hand.
He closed his eyes and let his head fall back as his feet lifted from the ground. A golden light emanated from his body, turning silver as if it became stardust. And slowly, a gleaming thread emerged from his chest and floated toward her.
Nivian dropped her hand and took a steadying breath.
Lifting her scythe high into the air, she let the blade drop, severing his life thread. The light faded from his eyes as the silver string dropped into the watch and she closed it with a soft click.
THIRTY
KAIN
KAIN WATCHED THE gates, holding his breath. Not that he needed to breathe, it just seemed like something that might help keep the knot forming in his gut from getting worse. There was a feeling he couldn’t name, something akin to anticipation. But even he knew that was a pale imitation of whatever the feeling actually was.
The massive god, his face once again shadowed by his hood, stood at his side, unmoving the entire time. Kain flicked his gaze toward him. The woman… Nivian had called herself a Reaper, but she was far from what he would have personified death to look like. Hades, on the other hand, looked like he could be the king of Reapers.
The silence between them drew out, long and painful. Kain wanted to break it just to ease the weird tension. But what would one say to
the god of the Underworld?
He looked away, tired of the attempt at intimidation. Nivian had said she would be back soon, but he had no idea what soon was.
To pass the time, he tried to remember anything from his past, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Not having memories hadn’t bothered him as he sat atop the rock in the middle of the lake.
But then she had shown up.
Begging him to remember. Making him want to remember her, something… anything. She’d pulled him from the boulder and dragged him through the river. And as he floated in the dark depths, her desperation had called out to him.
He was dead… she was dead, or she couldn’t be here, so why had the urge to save her consumed him as it had? Nothing made sense. And then after they’d escaped the water, she seemed as if it had almost harmed her in some way.
What could harm the dead?
Kain sighed. Every thought he had only led to more questions he couldn’t obtain answers to.
He jerked his head up as the metal gate groaned loudly. It annoyed him that he could remember the noise but nothing about himself or his existence before sitting on that rock in the lake.
Fog poured though the gates as one side inched opened. Kain narrowed his eyes, searching until his gaze snagged on a shadowy figure.
The woman who’d dragged him from whatever waited at the end strode through. The one with the intense eyes who looked at him like she knew him. More than knew him, as if she shared some connection he didn’t understand.
Nivian’s cool, blue eyes locked on him as she approached, completely ignoring the imposing god at his side. Maybe not ignoring, but so focused on Kain she didn’t see any of her surroundings.
Kain took a half step back at the intensity of her attention, so strong it was almost like a physical force crashing into him.
Nivian stopped several yards short of where he stood. He’d expected her to walk right up to him and throw her arms around him as she had the first time he’d seen her.
But she had stopped. He could sense something was off by the way she looked at him in that moment. She opened her mouth, her brows pinched together. He expected something more than the two words that feel from her lips.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked as if her heart were breaking. Faint, streaks of salt stained her cheeks; tears. Kain tilted his head, wanting to know why she was crying and wanting to ease the reason for her sadness. Nivian had come back, just as she had said she would, but before he could ask why, she turned away.
Hades lifted an expected brow.
Nivian’s throat bobbed and after a short hesitation, she held out her hand, light emanating from her enclosed fist. One by one, each finger straightened. Every movement was strained, she was fighting herself on handing the object over. Or perhaps Hades was using his power to force her fingers to unfurl.
In her open palm sat a black pocket watch. Kain pinched his mouth into a tight line in confusion. She’d brought him a time piece.
Hades took the watch and examined it. He chuckled to himself then said, “I had doubted you would bring me what I required. You have such a…” He gave her a peculiar look that only made her narrow her eyes. “Soft nature.”
Kain reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling out of place standing there as they had a silent conversation between their spoken words and actions. He felt like an intruder.
“You chose wisely, little Reaper. And it is much more powerful than I thought! I expected you to try and give me one worth a fraction of this one’s value.”
Kain bristled at the tone Hades used when he said this one.
“I didn’t choose him, he volunteered.” Nivian’s scowl deepened. “I brought you what you asked for, just… give Kain back to me.”
Hades nodded, his amusement fading. “Step aside, Reaper.”
Then he turned his full attention to Kain.
Kain barely resisted the urge to back up. Hades motioned for him to approach and, with an uncertain glance in Nivian’s direction, he did.
Hades placed the black watch inside the breast pocket of his vest, then pulled out a golden one and opened the watch, setting it on the ground between Kain and the gate.
Light shot up high into the red clouded sky of the Underworld, glittering golden swirls danced out from the watch face in a billowing mass.
Kain shot a look to the woman so determined to pull him from death…
He wanted to go with her for a reason not even he understood; she was compelling in her own way. Yet, the thought of coming into contact with the light? Well, it freaked him out.
Her eyes were glued to the watch. A single tear slid down her cheek, but she didn’t make a move to wipe it away. Her thoughts had gone somewhere far from where she stood, to a dark, sad place he wanted to drag her back from.
Kain wished he understood half of what was happening.
“If you wish to follow her, then I suggest you step forward, boy,” Hades said with clipped words under his breath, only loud enough for Kain to hear.
Kain obliged. Instantly, the golden fog surrounded his feet, clinging to him with each slight movement. Hades met his gaze and raised a hand to chest level. The light pulsed and, as the god squeezed his hand into a tight fist, the fog rose, swirling and circling him like a giant snake. Then it swallowed him up completely.
It was cool with currents of warmth weaving in and out. The cocoon it created around him pressed in tighter and tighter.
Kain opened his mouth to speak, but as he did, the light poured into him until it was gone and he was left standing before the two of them.
Nivian looked on, her soft pink lips parted.
Nothing felt different.
Then his vision blurred and everything was swallowed in a blinding light. Kain’s chest tightened at the sharp pain radiating up from his feet, rising higher and higher until there wasn’t an inch on him that didn’t feel as though he were being stabbed a thousand times over.
The light infused itself within him and he was aware of each and every cell, each and every atom of this body he didn’t know.
But below the pain, the light left something in its wake. Something small, almost imperceptible, yet it was familiar.
It was him.
The void that had filled him shrunk, replaced with a mental awareness of this form. It had been his all along. The connection of body and mind knit itself back together.
Kain wanted to laugh and cry from joy, to scream from the pain… but as it continued to fill him, making him whole, it kept him completely paralyzed within its burning, icy hold.
He tried to reach out to the Reaper, the woman with moonlight pale hair, the stranger who seemed to know him… Nivian.
The fog dissipated just enough that he could make out her shadowy form. It teased him with the visage of her worried face, only to block his view again as it pressed against him, molding to his shape and squeezing from every angle, as if holding him together.
Something pounded on his chest. Once… then again and again and again until it became a rhythmic drumming. Familiar but so foreign as the fog tightened like a vice covering his skin.
It made the thrumming speed up and he only wanted to rip the hold of fog off and feel nothing. He thought it would never end, never lessen.
His eyes slid closed as an inferno spread across his chest and shoulder then up the left side of his neck, spreading its raging flames through his veins.
Then he was on his knees, gasping and panting. His arms the only thing keeping him from lying prone on the ground. His throat burned.
Nivian was at his side in a second, one hand on each shoulder as he struggled to catch his breath.
“Kain… Kain…” his name fell from her lips, hopeful, scared, and everything in between.
He wanted to respond, but he couldn’t move without the pain pulsing though him with paralyzing blades. Spots danced in his vision.
“What’s wrong with him?” Nivian snapped.
Kai
n focused on this breathing, the slower he managed to get it, the more the pain lessened. He didn’t know how long he’d stayed like that, doing his best to drown everything out.
A cool hand brushed against his forehead, pushing hair off his hot clammy skin.
“Kain, are you… are you all right?” she asked thickly.
He managed a nod and lifted his face to find her own a whisper’s breadth away. He swallowed.
“Do you remember?”
Kain stared into her ice blue eyes. She wanted him to remember her more than anything. The glitter of tears in her eyes was familiar, but was it from the short time he’d known her… or was there something lurking in the dark recesses of his mind?
He reached up and ran his fingers down the side of her face. She was so sad, in so much pain, yet, however impossible it seemed, she clung to hope. For that spark, he would try.
Kain closed his eyes and dove into the murky shadows inside his head. Searching for anything no matter how small.
He saw her walking through the wrought iron gates. Saw her in the river reaching for him. Saw her splashing in the water toward him as he sat upon a large boulder protruding from the lake. Then he hit a wall of pitch black. He tried to move past it, to go above or under, but it stretched as high as it did wide, far past his consciousness.
He opened his eyes and dropped his chin, unable to meet her gaze. “No.”
Nivian’s face fell, the intensity of silver shining in her eyes growing thicker.
“No matter,” Nivian said, wiping her face with the back of her hand and rising to full height. She reached down, offering him a hand. “I’m sure they will return in time, like mine did.”
He took her hand, holding on longer than he’d meant to as he tried to get a feel for the heavy and awkward feel of his body.
“You will get used to it sooner than you realize,” Hades said.
Kain had almost forgotten he was there. Nivian had a way of swallowing up his vision, like staring into the sun, she was all he could see.
Reluctantly, Nivian slipped her hand from his and faced Hades. “Can you restore his memories? Or will they come back in time like mine?”