My heart clenched. It had been a long time since I heard my name spoken out loud. How long had it been since I’d given someone my true name? Heard it called by a loved one? Too long…
And it was a damn shame to hear it fromhislips.
“I would never assume to know you, Death.” A lie, spoken if only to save myself the heartache.
“You’d sooner grow wings.”
My eyes fell on Ishani, her sweet rosy cheeks and thick dark lashes. As intimately as I knew him, I could never guess when he’d show up. Grief was my constant companion, its echoing halls my home. The place where love once dwelled, before Death was cruel enough to steal it from me.
“It’s not time,” I argued, knowing damn well she wasn’t getting any better.
“Astoria…”
“No, it’s not time.”
Nobody had defeated Death, until me. There was not one person in history who had come face to face with him and lived to tell the tale. There were plenty of stories of those who had died and come back to life, but many of them were not gone long enough to meet the reaper who would come to collect their souls.I know, because I asked Nemo to look into it.I was an anomaly. One that disrupted the worlds grand design, and hehatedthat.
His features softened for a moment, just a flicker, until the walls of his dark and steely fortress grew high once more. How many times had we performed this dance? The answer was plenty. Over the years I was almost resolved to let him win, he had worn me down and damn near beaten the defiance out of mewith his trickery and guilt. I was tired of the game we played, and yet I found myself stuck in the same cycle, repeating the same movements.
“Astoria…”
I was smarter than to make a fool of death. I had done it once and here I was, almost a century later,stillpaying the price. “She’s not ready, she’s barely started the–”
“Astoria,” Grim spoke firmly, crowding me back against the wall. A single tear traced the curve of my cheek. He was the last entity that I had ever wanted to share a piece of myself with, yet here we were. Again. Because no matter how far I ran, he was a breath away from nipping at my heels once more.
His chest brushed against mine as he gripped my chin between his cold fingers. His ashen skin stopped scaring me a long time ago, as did his dark eyes that were as deep and murky as the seas abyss. He was beautiful in his own right, but a monster still the same.
“Astoria!” Grim was forceful, as he leveled his gaze with my own.
“You—”
“Can’t? You know more than anyone thatIcan.”
The tears stopped then. I sucked in a determined, ragged breath. “I’ll save her.”
“Can your soul handle another mark?” he asked, cocking his head to the side with scrutiny.
He spoke of my soul as if it hadn’t already been stained black. What was another smudge, if not for those I loved? “I’ll do it.”
Letting go of my chin, his hands came down on my shoulders. I didn’t need to speak, he knew my thoughts, and his exploration of them made me burn.
“I’ve come out of kindness,” he said, tilting his chin back toward Ishani, “to warn you.”
“Kindness?” I spit, shaking out of his grip. “Death is not kind.”
“Yet here I am.”
Hewashere. But he was here as the reaper, not the peacekeeper. He was the end all, be all. And it wasn’t her time. “Leave.”
“I’ll be back, Stori.Soon. She’s ready and so am I.”
“Just go.” My shoulders shook, but as swift as his presence had danced with mine, it disappeared. Ink releasing from pen. Gone, but staining.
With no time to collect myself the door pushed open and Piper peered in, her phone washing her face in a blue film as she first looked toward where her daughter slept in the hospital bed and then to me, and back to her screen.
“Mind if I step out for a few hours? I have a few work things I need to take care of,” she asked, her nails tapping against the screen of her phone.
“Of course, coffee’s there on the table.”
