“You heard,” I snap, just begging him to start a fight even when it wasn’t me who said a word. I’m so done with today and this soaking wet dress.
“That’s enough,” Alun demands, and we both look at him as he holds his hand in the air. A scythe, the one from earlier, appears in his grasp from nothing but shadows. “Daesyn, can you travel through shadows?”
“No,” I truthfully answer, feeling Torfinn’s eyes on me. Alun nods at Torfinn. “Well, I did it once as a kid, but it was driven by fear.”
Alun smacks the end of his scythe on the stone ground, and a black shadow wall appears out of nowhere.
“If you want a new life and a chance at staying alive, I would suggest following me. I will understand if you do not, but the offer will not come again,” Alun tells me before he walks through the darkness and never looks back, his body disappearing into shadows.
Silence fills the space around me and Torfinn, and I stare at the shadows. My uncle told me never to come back to the Otherworld, but the Reaper Realm he never once mentioned. Maybe I would be safer there, and it sure beats dying here. I highly doubt my boss could get into the Reaper Realm…so I might actually be free.
“What would you do in my shoes?” I ask the not-so-angel.
He looks down at me, his next words rocking me to my core. “The question you should ask yourself is if you wish to live. I suspect you know the answer, and you do not need me to give it to you.”
I nod and take a deep breath. Fuck it. An adventure in sucky Reaper-ville, it is then.
“You must hold my hand then,” Torfinn explains, reading my expression like he has known my decision a lot longer than he actually has. He offers me his outstretched hand. “I will guide you through the shadows, and I will not let you go.”
Talk about trusting a stranger.
I glance at Mossy, who nods once, though I can feel his nerves just like my own. “Fine,” I reply and take Torfinn’s hand. A strange warm feeling shoots through my hand, like an electric shock, but it’s gone so quickly I assume it’s just the nerves. Torfinn guides me into the darkness, and it smothers me the second I am inside of it.
Walking through the shadows is something I have always feared. To be lost in it is said to be a fate worse than death.
And here I am, trusting an angel and a reaper to guide me in the shadows.
Torfinn’s hand never leaves mine, gently coaxing me through the darkness until we tumble into a field of flowers, and my monkey passes out on my shoulder. Fae magic and reaper magic are a bad mix, and poor Mossy can’t deal with it. I pick him off my shoulder, holding him in my arms as I look up at the sky. The eternal night of the Reaper Realm. It is dark, like I heard it always is here, and I stare up at the stars above my head for a moment. The stars here are like nothing I have ever seen, even in the Otherworld or on Earth. The stars make patterns, looking like someone actually painted the sky with stars to make these images. They say the stars above in the Eternal Night are actually the homes of the gods.
Who knows if that is true, though.
“Welcome to Messorem, the city of reapers,” Torfinn states as I let go of his hand, tugging mine harshly to my side like it burns. Messorem, Latin for reapers, is a place of nightmares for me. The city of the reapers looks so beautiful in the distance, and I can see it all from the hill we are on. Tall buildings made of pure white stone smother the outskirts of the city, and magic shimmers between each building, making a barrier around the whole city. At the back of the city is a large cliff, and right at the top is a portal that is always open, a portal to the Otherworld. It’s said to be the only one in the reaper world, but I know that is a lie. I know exactly where there is a smaller portal. The portal here is the size of five houses at least and as tall as a tree. The yellow magic shimmers in the night, a stark reminder of the portal I dropped through when I left the Otherworld. At the front of the city are two massive white statues of cloaked beings holding scythes that meet in the middle to make an X shape. Above where the x is, is the only light other than the stars in this place. A giant sphere spins constantly, filled with enough magic to end all the living beings on Earth and turn everything to dust.
And it’s not reaper magic in that thing. I grit my teeth with anger and pull my eyes from the city.
“Why does the city make you angry, Daesyn?” Alun asks me, running his eyes over my face. “Are you not happy to be back in a place your parents were from?”
“I am angry because it was made with blood and stolen magic,” I bluntly answer. Alun’s eyebrows bunch together, and Torfinn stares down at me. “You could never understand as you are part of the lie. I’m freezing, where is your house?”
No one answers me for a long time, even as snow starts to fall from the sky, marking my bare skin and drenching my dress.
“This way,” Alun finally answers. Feeling Torfinn’s eyes on my back, I follow Alun over the hill of glowing white moonflowers and down a bridge to a house hidden by the hills around it. The house is small, almost Earth-like with its brick walls and white-framed glass windows. It can’t be more than two or three bedrooms at most. At the side of the house is a stable with a row of stalls facing out, and I can hear the clip-clop of horseshoes on the stone floors. Alun places his hand on the door and pushes it open.
“I’m home and we have two guests!” Alun shouts through the house as I step inside the small entrance hall, which only feels more cramped as Torfinn steps in after me, shutting the door. It’s warm in here, and it smells like roast dinners and coffee. I already like it.
“I thought it was only—” An older woman stops mid-sentence in the middle of the stairs right in front of us as she sees us all. The woman has an apron on over a simple grey dress, and her black hair is pulled up into a messy bun. Her eyes are kind as they fall on me, and she smiles softly before looking to Torfinn.
Now, her eyes look fearful for a moment before she finishes her descent down the stairs. She hugs Alun, and he kisses the top of her head. “I think introductions are in order?”
“This is Daesyn Heartlocke, and you know Torfinn from my stories,” Alun comments and then looks at me. “This is my mate, Velia.”
Velia looks a little confused, but she hides it well. “I’m glad to meet you both. I’m afraid my twin daughters are out with the horses, but they will be back within a few hours. The only issue is we have one spare room and only one spare bed.”
“I will take a sofa, and Daesyn may have the bed,” Torfinn suggests, and I glare at him.
“Considering I’m an unexpected guest, I should take the sofa. I don’t want any favours from you,” I growl.
Torfinn smirks. A dangerous smirk. “Take the bed. It’s not a favour.”
“It is,” I snap.
“Is there food?” Mossy wakes up, grumbling. Everyone’s eyes, including mine, fall on the monkey in my arms.
“What is that?” Alun asks, frowning at it. “And how does it talk?”
“This is Mossy,” I say. I’m not telling them he is fae kind. Not considering what they do to fae here.
“How about I take you to your room, Daesyn,” Velia kindly suggests, not thrown at all by the talking monkey. “And then I will start dinner.”
As Velia makes her way to the stairs, Torfinn leaves through one of the doors.
“I want to know why you have me here first. What do you want, Alun?” I question. Velia pauses on the stairs, looking back between us.
“If you don’t leave, you will find out” is Alun’s only answer before he walks through the same door Torfinn left out of. Velia smiles softly at me and nods her head up the stairs. Knowing I don’t have a choice and I could really use a shower, and new clothes, I follow her up.
“Why did you look at Torfinn in fear?” I ask Velia when we get to the top of the stairs. She looks back at me.
“I was taught as a child to fear the gods, and you should too,” she quietly answers. “It’s not often a demi-god is sent to our world.”
