“You’re touching me,” he said in awe.
Piper snapped back to reality and snatched her hand away. She backed up, pulling the ends of her sweater down over her hands.
“You didn’t die,” he said, looking at her with a creepy sort of reverence.
“Still breathing,” Piper said, like she still couldn’t believe it herself.
“Wait. You didn’t know that was going to happen?” I burst out. “What the hell were you thinking!”
“That I didn’t want you to die,” she said quietly.
“You shouldn’t have done that!” I rushed over to her side, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. “That was officially the stupidest thing anyone has ever done.”
“You’re welcome?” she said, a hysterical laugh bubbling out of her throat. I pulled her against me and crushed her in a hug.
“If you had died I would have been so pissed.” I pulled back and looked at the Reaper. “Why didn’t she die?”
He shook his head, still staring at Piper.
“He lost his claim to me when Dex broke that stone. You heard him just now. He can never come for me.”
“I guess I just thought that meant he would never kill you, not that hecouldn’t.”
“I kind of thought that too,” she whispered.
We both looked at the man who should have all the answers. He looked rattled. Like he couldn’t even form a sentence. “I… I didn’t know,” he muttered to himself and I had to strain to hear.
“Are you saying you didn’t know that was going to happen?” I asked.
He looked up at me. His eyes were still a little glassy and vacant. Beside me, Piper shifted and his eyes fastened on her once again.
“No.”
It was a simple word, a single response. But the weight behind it was immense.
“I have to go,” he said, shaking himself and walking back through the apartment and toward the front door.
We rushed after him, watching to see what he would do. On his way past the coffee table, he stopped and looked down at the vase of white carnations I put there just before I went away with Charming.
Without saying a word, he reached out and fingered the snowy petals of one of the flowers. It died instantly, turning an ugly shade of brown as the petals dried out and curled in on themselves. He looked down at his hand and then back at Piper again before walking quietly out the door.
We stood there for a long time. The only sound was the ticking of the clock on the nearby wall. Finally, I snapped out of it and rushed forward to throw the lock on the front door, turning around and collapsing against it.
Piper sat down on the couch, staring at the single dead flower in a vase full of living ones.
“I touched the Grim Reaper,” she said.
“You saved my life.”
“I didn’t die.”
I pushed away from the door and joined her on the couch. “You’re badass.”
She looked at me and grinned. “Yeah, I guess I am badass.”
I nodded. “But never do it again.”
“Definitely not. I hope I never see him again.”
