Piper, however, was still here. She was standing beside the bed, staring daggers at the Reaper.
“Ahhh, the one that got away,” he said, looking at her. “How are you enjoying life knowing I will never be able to come for you?”
“Why are you here?” Piper asked, her voice completely calm.
He ignored her question, going over to my closet and going through all the hangers and clothes.
“Did you want to borrow an outfit?” I quipped. “I don’t think I’m your size.”
Piper gave me ashut uplook.
“They aren’t here,” he murmured.
“What’s not?” I said, still playing dumb.
“My bodies!” he yelled. Piper and I both flinched. “Where are they!”
“I don’t know,” I replied, backing up as he stalked toward me. “I really don’t know.”
“Hey! Get away from her,” Piper called, moving across the room toward us.
“I wonder,” the Reaper mused, “if Charming would be a little more forthcoming if I brought him your dead body.”
Oh, this wasn’t going well. Not at all. “I don’t really think that would help.”
“I think it might be worth a try.” He yanked his hand out of his pocket and reached for me, all five of his fingers waving about like they were snakes trying to slither away.
I shuddered and backed up some more, coming up against the wall.
I was trapped.
He came closer, his hand just inches from my face. I squeezed my eyes closed.
“I said Leave. Her. Alone.” Piper cried, her voice so close that I opened my eyes to tell her to run.
But it was too late.
Piper grabbed the Reaper by his wrist, yanking his deadly touch away from me.
“Piper, no!” I yelled, my chest seizing up so hard that I fell backward against the wall. If it hadn’t been there for support, I would have crumpled to the floor. “No!” I cried again, staring at where her slender fingers wrapped around his wrist. She was dead. She was going to die. She went and wasted a perfectly good death pardon from the Grim Reaper by touching him.
I waited for her body to fall to the floor.
I waited for her to die.
Nothing happened.
I blinked, trying to clear my eyes of the tears that filled my vision, thinking I was just seeing things.
I wasn’t.
She was still breathing. Moving. Living.
And her hand was still wrapped around his wrist.
She was staring down at where they touched, frozen in shock.
I looked at the Reaper, thinking maybe he knew what was happening, that he wouldn’t be surprised. But he looked just as shocked as the rest of us.
