Piper looked at me. “Hold her.” I wrapped my arms around Frankie, locking them into place, and she struggled against me, begging Piper not to do this and telling me she would never forgive me if I let her best friend die.
It was a risk I was willing to take. This was it. We were down to no other options. If this didn’t work, we would all be dead in minutes.
“Do it,” Piper said, looking directly at the Grim Reaper.
While Frankie continued to struggle, G.R. reached out tentatively, extending his hand like he was touching something so delicate it might shatter with the merest hint of a touch. He drew closer and Frankie began to cry.
Piper just stood there, stock still, waiting, and then the tips of his fingers brushed her cheek.
She blinked.
She drew in a deep breath and smiled, looking over at Frankie, who practically collapsed in my arms.
“It’s been so long,” he murmured, becoming braver and cupping the side of her face with his palm.
Piper stiffened at his caress and lifted her foot like she wanted to step away, but she didn’t. She glanced at me instead.
“You got what you wanted,” I told him.
It’s like he didn’t even hear me speak at all. He was so entranced by her that it was like he saw nothing else. He began stroking the side of her cheek like she was a treasure he had searched out for hundreds of years. “You’re soft. And warm. I forgot how warm live skin could be.”
Okay, he was just being creepy now.
“We had a deal.” I reminded him, my voice hard.
He drew away from her slowly, like he didn’t want to let go. Maybe he didn’t. I would think that never being able to touch anyone ever would make a man feel a certain hunger—the kind of hunger that never really went away. It was the kind of hunger that not even Death would be able to get away from.
When he stepped away, Piper let out a huge sigh of relief and stepped back.
The Reaper looked at me. “Charming, I release you from the employ of myself, the Grim Reaper. From here on out, you will no longer possess immortality. You will no longer have the abilities that were bestowed upon you during your work. You will live and die like any other human who walks this earth. You have my word that I will not come for you or the girl.”
I was free.
Free from death. Free to live. Free to love.
It was something I never once thought was even possible and now it was mine.
Frankie wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. Her laughter made me smile and then my smile turned into a laugh.
I am free.
“Now I want what’s mine,” G.R. said, cutting into my happiness.
I nodded. “We can go right now.” I pulled away from Frankie. “Go wait in the car. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
She bit her lip and glanced over at the Reaper. I couldn’t really blame her.
“I do not go back on my word,” G.R. said. Then he looked at Piper. “Perhaps we will meet again.”
That got Frankie moving. She grabbed Piper’s hand and towed her toward the door. G.R. watched Piper until she was out of sight. Once they were gone, he turned abruptly, pinning Storm with a hard stare. “You’ve been very busy.”
Storm didn’t say anything, but his cloudlike body shifted.
“You’re going to make it up to me.”
“Yes, I’ll show your soul how to borrow a body.”
G.R. smiled and gazed back to the door Piper and Frankie just went through. “Yes, how to borrow indeed.”
