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Chapter Twenty-Two
The reaper didn’t move at first, floating there, clothed in black fabric. I understood the whole grim reaper myth, now. Clearly people who repeated the myth had caught a glimpse a reaper and twisted the facts.
I pushed myself faster, somehow managing to not miss a step or go tumbling down the stones despite the lack of a guardrail.
Reapers were almost indestructible. They weren’t really alive or dead, not tied to the living or the dead realms, so they couldn’t be harmed by either beings.
That meant Lucifer had placed before the men something they hadnochance of actually defeating. He’d set them up to die, because once the round started, there was no forfeit.
Lucifer did nothing without cause, though. I’d learned that if nothing else, so what was he trying for?
I shoved past the tightly packed bodies of people who saw this entire thing as a spectacle, just entertainment for them.
It was so much more to me.
Any other time, I’d have been hesitant about barreling into countless hell creatures and immortals, but right then I had bigger issues at hand.
Past the gathered people sat the chairs for the VIPs, Lucifer at the center, the one to his side, my chair, empty.
When I tried to pass him, he caught my wrist to pull me to a stop. It reminded me that he wasnothuman, as his strength seemed to make amockery of even Kase. It was like a statue holding me back.
“You’re going to get them killed,” I snapped.
“I am doing nothing.”
“Youknowthey can’t hurt a reaper.”
“They’ve seemed fairly capable up until this point. Perhaps they’ll surprise us all.”
I couldn’t pull my gaze from the arena, from where the men had spread out to flank the reaper.
It moved, side to side, as if examining the situation. Then again, reapers had no enemies, no reason for fear.
It floated toward the crowd, not at any sort of speed as if worried. However, when it hit the boundary where a line of rocks sat, it bounced backward.
“You trapped it in there with them?”
He nodded. “It isn’t an easy task, but it is possible.”
“I thought they were untouchable…”
“By normal means, yes. There are a few ways to restrict their movements, at least for a while.” He released my wrist. “Of course, doing so has the unfortunate side effect of agitating the reaper.”
I turned back toward the arena to find, sure enough, the reaper shifting in quicker motions, side to side, before heading toward the ravine. It bounced off a wall there, too.
My head pounded, a sharp ache as if I’d heard some horrible screeching even though it didn’t seem real, even though no one else flinched.
“That’s what it sounds like,” Lucifer said. “Most people can’t hear it, have no idea what a reaper actually sounds like, but you can, can’t you?”
I didn’t answer—I doubted he really wanted me to. Besides, I couldn’t explain it. I could hear it but I couldn’t. It was an odd sensation, where the pain told me I sensed the sound even if I couldn’t identify it.
Each time the reaper bounced off a wall, my headache increased as if it screamed louder.
It moved toward Grant, who lifted his hands in front of him. The quick motion that normally would have thrown back anything that neared him had no effect. At the last moment, just before it struck him, Kase rushed forward, yanking him clear.
The reaper hit Kase instead, and while it was not entirely corporeal, it still interacted with him. He pulled back, as if seared by the contact.
“If the reaper had touched Grant, it would have been able to sever his soul from his body. Lucky for you all, Kase doesn’t have a soul in the same way. Not that the reaper won’t be able to kill him eventually.”
