I knew her afterlife would be ideal. It was different for everyone. Most of the time, it meant something natural, like a forest or an ocean. Sometimes it was unique. One man’s afterlife was an endless arcade. Another woman wanted a library full of books, an endless supply of coffee, and cats.
She laid her head on my shoulder, and I let her. Her tears soaked into my robe, then disappeared. It took her a few minutes to stop crying. The tears seemed to help. “What comes next?”
“I’ll escort you into the afterlife.”
“What’s the afterlife like?” She kept her hands in her lap.
Reapers didn’t really know beyond what we saw when the door opened. I still wanted to answer as best as I could. “It’s different for everyone. It depends on what you desire. How do you want to spend your next life?”
“With my wife, Lisa. We have two dogs.” Her voice wavered, and her chin trembled. “The last thing she said to me was, ‘Nora, don’t you die on me.’ She made me promise, and what did I do? The one thing she told me not to do.”
Before I left the house, Phin had said something similar. “My partner told me to be careful this morning. I don’t like leaving him.”
“I don’t like to leave Lisa either.” She let out a watery laugh and shook her head. “I always do what she tells me not to do.”
I stood and held out my hand. She took it, and I pulled her up. “You’ll see her again if she chooses it.”
“I bet she’s so mad at me.”
I rested my hand on her shoulder. “Maybe at first, but then she’ll remember she loves you. That’s when she’ll embrace the pain of losing you.”
As I escorted Nora into the Between, my gaze caught movement outside the window. Donn strolled along Main Street’s sidewalks as if taking in the shops.
If there had been any doubt in my mind that the souls gathering in Hollowbrook were Donn’s doing, seeing him squashed it. He had a reason for bringing all the souls to Hollowbrook. He was forcing us to do our job, whether we liked it or not, and that wasn’t a bad thing. Reapers wanted to reap. I could safely speak for both of us. Phin and Morgana loved their jobs, too. Even Hale liked working for the Bureau, even though he wasn’t a reaper. At least not technically. Bringing them to us worked out great, but that still didn’t explain why Donn was in Hollowbrook.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Phin
Morgana’s new office was technically a bedroom right off the living room. It already had a desk, but she had added another. Elliot must have had some kind of business because an erasable-ink pen sat on top of an accounting book. I assumed it belonged to Elliot because it was his house. It was my understanding that he’d lived alone until meeting Grym.
I sat on a couch beneath a picture window. They kept the curtains open, and the window itself was cracked open about a foot. A pleasant breeze drifted in. A laptop rested on my lap. So far, I’d seen possibilities, but reaching out was problematic. How did you start a conversation about reapers hiding out from the god of death? And how did you reach out to someone who just liked witch paraphernalia but didn’t have magic?
Ezul sat in a chair across from me. His stare was creepy.
When I met his gaze, he smiled in a cold way he hadn’t at dinner. “What?”
“Are you having any luck?” It wasn’t that I thought he was a secret agent for Donn. Ossy and I differed on that. Whatannoyed me was the constant staring and that ever-present smirk.
With a name like Hollowbrook, there was bound to be a witch in town. Maybe I should just go out and ask around. I could put on a cloak and hide, eavesdropping on conversations. That sounded like a much better idea than dealing with Ezul’s condescending stare. Yes, a stare could be condescending, especially when it came with a smile from a demon.
I sighed. “It takes time.”
I would continue my internet search later, after Ezul found something else to do. I shut the laptop lid and set the computer on the coffee table between us. I’d been sitting for a while and needed to stretch my legs. My ass hurt. A stroll through town would help.
Ezul stood when I did, intending to follow me.
“Where are you going?” Morgana asked without looking up from the paperwork she was working on. She didn’t work for the Bureau anymore, but she must be keeping up with it anyway. Knowing Morgana, she might have even made up the paperwork herself just to have some semblance of normalcy. She was the type of person who wanted to be part of hustle culture, even though her job didn’t require it.
“Figured I’d see who I can befriend in town who’s a witch.”
“I’d say it was a long shot, but the town is named Hollowbrook, so maybe not.” She snapped her fingers at Ezul. “Not you. You’re with me.”
“As you wish.” He sat again, folding his hands in his lap and crossing his legs. “I just think I can identify a witch a lot more easily than Phin. It’s a demon’s skill, not a reaper’s.”
“Not this time.” Morgana waved me off, and I left the room. “Stay safe. Find Ossy and stick with him.”
I almost flipped Ezul off but thought better of it. He might have shadowed me all morning, but he seemed to want to help.He was an asshole for thinking he could do better than me. Well, maybe not much of one if he actually could. Not that Morgana was letting him help. She didn’t trust him. He would have to work hard to earn her trust. Morgana was no pushover.
