“They gave me a cookie,” I deadpan. “Look, I’ll admit I’m not at my best and you worry about me, Ethan. But I can do this. We don’t know where X is or what he’s up to. And I can’t…I can’t.” My eyes shut in a long blink. “I can’t lose myself again. I don’t want to waste another minute questioning if what I’m seeing is real or not.”
Ethan holds my gaze for a few seconds. He’s scared of something happening to me, but he gets it. He doesn’t want me to live like this anymore either. “Okay. But eat something first to get your blood sugar up.”
“I can do that.”
Ethan kisses my forehead and then goes to heat me up a plate of the Chinese food we had for lunch only an hour or so ago. How quickly things change, right? Nikolai works on a healing balm his faery sister has made before, buzzing around the kitchen humming show tunes to himself. I’m going slow, wanting nothing more than to sink back down on the couch and fall asleep.
And I will, once this is over.
“My coat is toast, isn’t it?” I ask. “If X scratched me through it, it has to be all torn. And bloody.”
“It’s in the trash,” Ethan says. “Sorry babe.”
“That was my new barn coat.” I scoop up the last bit of fried rice and then finish my cranberry juice. I feel a little better after I eat, and the healing balm is done and ready to be slathered over the nasty looking claw marks on my arm. I use the bathroom, put on a new sweater, and get my nice “going out” coat from the front closet.
“How are you going to call the reapers?” Rene asks.
“I’m not really sure. I’m hoping if I think about them, they’ll come.” I make a face when I say it, knowing how flimsy that plan sounds.
“Right away?”
“If they’re around, which I think they are.”
Silence falls over us again and Ethan holds out his hand for me. “Ready?”
My heart speeds up. “It’s kinda now or never, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. It’s go-time.”
Nik looks his arm through Rene’s. “We’re staying at the house the whole time. Unless you need me, of course.”
“Have another sleeping charm ready,” I only half-joke, and then Ethan, Hunter, and I go out the back door. Holding my injured arm against my body, I lean against Ethan, needing to feel him physically next to me so I don’t panic when I close my eyes and let my mental shields all the way down.
A maelstrom of dark and angry energy hangs in the air. That would be Xozon, and I think he’s hanging around the mirror. Good. Shifting my focus, I think of the reapers, of the beautiful glowing light that the reapers see when they look at anything living.
I feel something tug on my heart and the connection to the reapers forms. When I open my eyes, gold shimmers all around Ethan. I place my hand on his chest and the colors explode into a galaxy. When I take my hand off of him, the rainbow melts back to gold. I put my hand on his chest again, wanting to stare at the colors.
“What are you doing?” he whispers.
“When I touch you, your aura is so much brighter. And it has so many colors,” I whisper back. My eyes dart around his body. “It’s beautiful.” I let go once more and reach my hand out for Hunter. His midnight blue aura magnifies when we connect. We stand there in silence for several minutes, waiting for the reapers. They’re close by. I can sense it. They were already on their way here because they could feel my fear.
Holy shit.
Something moves in the brush along the tree line. Hunter lets out a low growl when a reaper appears. The reaper’s thoughts enter my mind, wanting to know if I can guide him to a new kill.
“I have a big one waiting for you,” I say and then turn to Ethan. “Our of context that sounded really bad, I know.”
“Yeah,” he says quietly. “I’m not going to fill in the blanks there.”
I smile and turn back to the reaper. “Where are the others?”
The reaper turns around and one by one, more reapers creep out of the woods and into the yard. Not all of them trusted me. Squaring my shoulders, I step off the porch.
The first reaper to arrive sticks his head out at me, casting his eyes on the ground. Unsure of what to do, I pat his head, trying my hardest not to grimace when his greasy hair touches my fingers. Six more advance, and Ethan’s aura is stained with a spot of brown as his worry manifests.
The seven reapers form a circle around me, and I’m more than aware they could easily kill me. I can’t let my own fear show through. If they want me to be their leader, I need to act like it.