A hundred feet.
I could already see the top of the archway.
Fifty feet. Twenty-five.
“It will not bring you peace.” Death crept out of the black wood, blocking my entry through the arch.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
God, I really need to ward this place. Maybe get a dog, too. A mean one.
“I need to speak with you,” he said.
“Ever hear of a phone?”
“I’ve not much use for them in my line of work.”
“Cute.” I didn't bother meeting his glowing blue eyes, just kept my attention on the archway. The runes, once faint, now burned with fiery intensity, the shadows beyond the gate calling to that primal part of me.
Home…
As if sensing its impending demise, Travis’s soul writhed in my hands.
I wouldn’t let it escape.
“Well. If you’re here to kill me,” I said to Death, “take a number.”
“I’m afraid I’ve been greatly maligned in popular culture,” Death said. “I do not kill—merely collect. And it’s not your time.” His attention shifted to the soul in my hands. “Not his either, I’m afraid.”
I thought of the things Travis had said and done. The things he’d probably done in his past. The things he’d do again, if given the chance. “He deserves to die.”
“Maybe. But do you want the responsibility that goes along with that decision?”
“Isn’t that what you do? Decide who lives and dies, who gets a second chance?”
“Gray.” He placed a hand on my shoulder and I flinched instinctively, but instead of the icy grip I’d expected, his touch was warm and comforting, his energy pulsing through me like hot soup on a sick day. “Search your heart. Look past all the anger at what this man did to you. All the confusion and hurt over the death of your friend. All the frustration that the killer has not been apprehended.”
Travis’s soul slithered. I gripped it tighter.
“Look past your fear, Gray,” Death said.
“I’m not afraid.”
“Look into my eyes and tell me that.”
I lifted my chin, but the moment my gaze locked onto his, I wavered. His eyes were infinite, full of a thousand secrets times a thousand years times a thousand worlds.
I felt instantly tiny, instantly insignificant. A speck. A mote. A fucking atom.
He was right. I didn’t want to do this. Maybe I could convince myself that the vampire’s death was justified—she would’ve killed me. But Travis? For all his faults, for all that he was a human stain, this wasn’t right.
Black magic pulsed in my veins, whispering encouragements to hold on. To see it through. My hands turned black with that oily smoke again, tendrils of it coiling up my arms.
Do it. Do it, Gray. This is who you were born to be.
It wasn’t though. I had to believe that. Toknowit.
Tears rolling down my cheeks, I closed my eyes and released my grip, envisioning the tattered soul traveling back into Travis’s body.Willingit back. It slipped through my fingers like a gush of water, and then it was gone.
