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It was time for Maddox to see his ex, again. Well, that was some shitty timing.
Maddox
Addie drew a summoningcircle on the kitchen floor after I moved the table and chairs out of the way. She kept pausing and stealing glances in my direction. I watched her curiously, but I couldn’t figure out why she was being so ominous.
The way she put it, Hel was missing and there was only one person she could call for information. She kept acting like I wasn’t going to like this person. While I wracked my brain for clues, I couldn’t think of any divine being that I’d come into contact with other than Hel and Fenrir.
Or Vi, but Addie didn’t need a summoning circle to call one of her friends. That’s what cell phones were for.
It didn’t help that as Addie moved, my bathrobe would slide open and reveal swaths of skin that made my heart race. Though we’d had plenty of fun in the bedroom, my beast still wanted more. It took everything in me to keep from dragging her back, so we could continue the night.
She had a promise to uphold, and I would make her keep it if it was the last thing I did.
All horny thoughts vanished the moment Addie knelt by the summoning circle and said a single name.
“Paige.” Addie kept her face turned away from me so I couldn’t see her, but I knew she was braced for a reaction.
Inside, a part of me screamed. I managed to keep the outside perfectly blank. Years of training at work helped me contain my panic. One moment, the space had been empty. The next, Paige stood there like she’d been on that exact spot the whole time. And the first thing she did was level her attention in my direction.
I gave her a flat smile in greeting, and that was it.
What was Addie up to? Why did she feel the need to summon myex-wifetonight of all nights? I didn’t understand how this related to Hel. As hard as I tried to catch Addie’s attention, she refused to look at me. My wife closed the robe tighter around herself, lifted her head, and looked at Paige.
“I’m sorry to call you like this,” Addie said.
Paige gave a half shrug.
Why were they acting like they were old friends? Had they met before? What was going on here? I’d wanted to keep Addie and Paige from ever meeting, but it seemed that I’d failed at even that. There was nothing I could do. Addie was going to learn about all the ways I’d been an awful husband.
Addie was going to ask for a divorce. I knew it. There was no way that Paige would leave here without convincing Addie to leave me. Everything I’d built with the love of my life would crumble in my hands tonight.
The way Paige smiled at Addie bothered me. Paige stepped outside of the summoning circle and embraced Addie. It took several moments for my brain to kick back into gear and notice something that I should have clocked at the beginning.
“Why is she corporeal? I can’t see the old man that smells like cigarettes, but I can see Paige. That doesn’t make a lick of sense.” I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
Everything about this sparked a kind of panic that I hadn’t felt in a long while. Sure, I could handle becoming an undead wolf shifter. I could even handle meeting the monster that I could very well become. However, I couldn’t deal with this. My wife and my ex-wife in the same room seemed like a recipe for disaster.
“Paige is a Reaper, like me,” Addie answered.
I licked my lips nervously. It had to be the only hint of my panic that reached my face. If I was wrong, then I was going to spend hours in front of the mirror trying to get my shit back together again. I couldn’t work like this. If seeing Paige was enough to unsettle me, then I needed to control myself better.
“A Reaper?” I asked, like I didn’t already know what that was.
Paige gave me a half-smile, an apology lighting her green eyes. “I might have had a crisis before we parted ways. You never deserved what I put you through.”
I pursed my lips and nodded. Paige’s words filled my mind, but I couldn’t process them. It was a bit of closure that I never thought I’d get. I mean, sure. I knew that Addie could contact ghosts. Addie could have contacted Paige at any time. What I never thought I’d hear was an apology.
I shoved all thoughts save for facts from my mind. “How did the two of you meet?”
“Paige saved me when Hel decided to try punishing me. If it weren’t for her, I would have been stuck in that glass coffin.” Addie gave Paige’s hand a squeeze.
I had to shake myself to tear my eyes away from the two of them holding hands. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. The Paige I knew never would have forgiven me. I’d destroyed her life and given her nothing to live for.
No, that wasn’t it. She’d said it herself. She’d been in the middle of a crisis. Reapers didn’t have long lives. The afterlife needed them, so Paige’s life had been limited. In her fear, she’d blamed me for what she’d lacked. I’d been a good target. Our love had died long before then.
I couldn’t process the things this made me feel, so I shoved it aside for later. Right now, we needed to focus on Hel.
“The ghosts residing in Hel’s domain tell me you’re keeping something from them.” Addie met Paige’s gaze. “What’s going on? Why can’t anyone contact her right now?”
