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My stomach sank to the floor. Reaper had a lover?
He was waiting for someone?
Then I couldn't have him.
The revelation hit me like a hurricane. Of course, this was a waste of time. Of course, I would fall for someone I could never have.
Thunder boomed above. I reeled in my emotions, focusing only on Gaksi beside me and not the rising panic that I’d been kidnapped or killed.
Did I even know this demon? Why did he bring me here?
“Interesting,” was all I could say.
Gaksi continued hopping, and I scurried behind him, terrified of being left behind in unfamiliar land. We passed a massive statue of Reaper, traditional gat on his head, completing the lovely rendition.
“He commissioned this of himself?” I asked.
“No,” Gaksi replied. “The souls built it for him.”
“Why?”
“They admire him,” Gaksi said simply. “For many, he was their last memory of earth, and for some, he was their best.”
How horrible was a life that Reaper was their best memory? With his red cloth of names, did he often comfort people before they officially died? Without meaning to, a vision of him came to my head, holding a soul’s hand gently before they passed on. It softened my heart a bit, making me unusually fond of him.
Ghosts and phantoms roamed every few paces, several of them now bowing their heads as they passed. I bowed back. One of them, a gwisin, I recognized. She bowed lower than the rest, holding her glasses on to do so before departing.
“Reaper holds the escaped demons hostage here?”
Gaksi gave me a skeptical look. “No, child. They always live here. But they get pulled, like a vortex, out to the other side when there’s an imbalance of energy.”
“What do you mean? I thought they enjoyed tormenting mortals.”
That was what all the texts said. That they drew energy from draining ours. Dark magic was built on stolen energy, and when humans weren’t being drained, lights flickered, and the earth rumbled from energy being stolen from the environment.
“We’ve been over this. They were mortal once, too. They have no reason to harm you.”
A younger soul, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, waved at me. His chubby little fingers reminded me of Joseph.
I waved back. He giggled and ran away.
Joy. I was playing with the dead. I wondered if his parents were here too or if he was alone.
“Reaper enjoys tormenting me,” I insisted. “He only made that bargain to do so.”
“You know him much less than you think you do,” Gaksi replied. “Reaper made that bargain with you because he was desperate. He had to find a way to determine whether you were the gumiho, lest the rest of his kingdom fall into disarray between this universe and yours. He has never desired to harm a mortal. He feels enough of their pain during their demise.”
I fell silent. I never considered many ulterior motives for Reaper’s deal-making. I had always assumed he was inherently evil, like all demons, which was sufficient for his motivations. Sure, he’d told me he needed to ascertain my identity, but I’d never dwelled onwhy.
I hadn’t dug into his identity at all.
But that didn’t justify everything he put me through. Sending a hound at me, mocking me, pushing my boundaries at school—he was inherently devious.
“Why do you defend him?” I accused.
Why did he do all this for others and go out of his way to torment me? Why did he tell me so little about his life while spying on all whereabouts of mine? Did he want me to despise him?
Gaksi snickered. “He does not feel the need to convince you his actions have merit.”
