Chapter Twenty-Nine
~Kalo~
In my bedroom, work had already begun. A few sturdy men had cleared the furniture to one side, even tipping the bed up on its side to create a wide, open space in the middle of the room.
Felix had left our impromptu dinner a little early, and he was waiting for us with a box of the items he’d collected to create the trap, while Calista carried Brendan’s book with the instructions.
“What can I do?” I asked, eager to be useful since they were going to all this trouble on my behalf.
Calista grabbed a box of salt from Felix’s box and handed it to me. “I’m going to draw the trap symbol on the floor with chalk. Follow behind me and cover the chalk with a thick layer of salt. Make sure there are no breaks in it. If the line breaks, the trap fails.”
She pointed a finger at everyone in the room in turn.
“That goes for everyone here. Don’t break the line.”
Leo remained at the doorway while Calista and I got to work creating the base of the trap and Felix started assembling the iron pieces that the Ravenstone pack had sent with the other items mentioned in the book.
My mate’s jaw worked back and forth as his gaze swept over the room, making calculations I could only guess at.
“Won’t the reaper notice a giant symbol made of salt on the floor? It can see, can’t it?”
Calista didn’t look up from her work as she answered. “It can see, yes. Don’t worry, we have a plan.”
Asking Leo not to worry felt like asking the stars not to shine, but I kept that thought to myself.
By the time the pattern was complete, it took up most of the room. There were a few spots in the farthest corners that wouldn’t be covered, but if the reaper came anywhere near the bed where I’d be sleeping, it would be on top of the trap.
“The iron creates anchor points,” Felix explained as he placed the pieces he’d assembled at all the junction points of the pattern, just inside the salt line. “The other elements act like little hooks on the anchor, keeping the reaper’s energy contained.”
It sounded almost poetic for something meant to incapacitate someone.
“And it can’t get free?” Leo pressed. “Once it’s in the trap, it can’t free itself?”
“Not as long as the line remains intact,” Calista confirmed, standing up and brushing chalk dust from her hands.
With the book in hand, she examined the trap we’d created, comparing it inch-by-inch to the illustration.
It resembled a wheel, circular in shape with spokes at various intervals, and a couple of ancient symbols in a language I didn’t recognize. “I think this is right.”
“You think?” Leo repeated, huffing the word in disbelief.
A deep voice spoke from just behind him. “When Callie says she ‘thinks’ something, it means she’s certain. She’s just too humble to say so.”
We’d been so caught up with building the trap, no one had noticed Vaughan joining the other men in the hall.
My mate immediately bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Alpha. I didn’t mean…”
“I know you didn’t.” Vaughan waved away the apology. “Callie, I have the rug here. Are you ready for it?”
“Ready,” she confirmed, taking my hand and pulling me gently outside of the trap we’d created.
Together with Felix, we crowded into the doorway of the ensuite bathroom to watch as Vaughan and other men entered with a heavy-looking area rug.
With impressive lightness for men of their size, they stepped around the salt lines of the trap, careful not to disturb anything, and gently lowered the rug until it hovered half a foot off the ground.
“Good?” Vaughan asked.
Calista dropped to her stomach to watch the final descent. “It looks good. Bring it down very, very slowly.”
One of the men shuffled his foot forward, his toe brushing against the salt, and Calista immediately held out her hand. “Stop. Wait.”
They lifted the rug again, and Calista reached over to readjust the line before they lowered it again. The last few inches felt like an eternity, but finally, the rug was firmly in place atop the trap.
“Now the reaper won’t see it,” she announced as she got back to her feet.
“And no one else will accidentally move the salt. That rug is heavy enough that it’s not going anywhere by accident.
The head of the bed is not inside the trap, so once the reaper’s inside, get out of the trap so it can’t touch you. ”
With the trap set, the men all set about returning the furniture to its original place. Besides the addition of the rug, it looked like nothing had changed once they finished.
“Now, we’ll wait outside in the hall so you can call us as soon as it appears.” Felix gestured to everyone else to leave, including Leo. “All of us should go. It’s more likely to appear if Kalo’s alone.”
“That’s not true,” Leo argued. “It appeared this afternoon when I was there. In fact, I’ve been in the room every time he’s dreamt about it. I’m not leaving.”
Since he outranked him, Felix could order Leo to go, but when Leo crossed his arms and planted his feet, the Beta just sighed. “Alright, fine. But if anything goes wrong, you follow my instructions.”
Leo didn’t move. “If anything goes wrong, I’m getting Kalo the hell out of there. You can do whatever you want with the reaper.”
I had to force myself not to smile. Despite the circumstances, there was something strangely reassuring about Leo’s complete refusal to compromise where my safety was concerned.
The others withdrew to the hallway outside the room, and with the door shut behind them, it suddenly seemed very quiet.
I offered Leo a good-natured shrug. “Well, I guess I’ll get ready for bed.”
After our earlier nap, I wasn’t tired, but I would have to at least try to sleep. The reaper seemed to appear more frequently when I was dreaming.
Leo nodded. “Go ahead. I’m going to stay dressed.”
Of course he was. “You don’t have to stay awake. It won’t make any difference.”
“I know, but I’m going to anyway.”
Knowing I wouldn’t win that argument, I didn’t try.
After using the bathroom, I stripped off the day’s clothes and dressed in one of the warm pairs of flannel pajama pants Leo had got for me.
He’d taken a seat on one side of the bed, so I climbed into the other side, doing my best to get comfortable.
Leo flicked off the light, plunging the room into darkness, and for several moments, neither of us spoke. I closed my eyes, willing myself to sleep, but too many things were still running through my thoughts.
“Kalo?” Leo whispered softly, soft enough not to wake me if I was asleep.
“Yes?”
He exhaled a long breath. “Are you afraid?”
I considered the question for a while before answering because it wasn’t an entirely straightforward question to answer.
“A little? I mean, I think it’s normal to be a little afraid of the unknown. But…”
I paused, trying to find the right words to explain the conflicting emotions competing inside me.
“For so long, my life has been shaped by forces outside my control. By the society that forbade Akkara and me from being together in the first place, then by the genie’s magic and my masters.”
“And the mate bond,” he added quietly.
I couldn’t deny it. “Yes, that too. In a way, the reaper feels like an extension of those external powers, except this time, I might actually have a chance to confront it and dictate the future for myself. For that reason, I’m kind of excited to talk to the reaper. Is that strange?”
“I don’t think it’s strange at all.”
Leo’s voice sounded a little huskier than usual, and its deep timbre warmed me in a comforting way. Closing my eyes again, I listened to the steady sound of his breathing, predictable and reliable.
I was just starting to feel a little tired after all when the air in the room began to change.
The temperature dropped, enough to make me shudder, and next to me, Leo shifted in place, his breathing suddenly sharper.
“Leo,” I whispered.
“I know.”
I sat up, letting my eyes adjust in the darkness. Leo was already staring at one corner of the room, and I looked there too, watching as the shadows thickened, growing denser until the familiar hooded figure appeared in the darkness.
Just like it had in the cabin earlier, the reaper stood silently near the wall, its presence draining warmth from the room. Leo’s arm immediately went across my body, but other than that one movement, both of us remained still, waiting for whatever came next.
The reaper moved forward, as if taking a step, but with no sway or lilt to its movement. It hovered on the edge of the rug, still not quite within the trap. Again, we did nothing, not speaking and barely daring to breathe.
At last, it moved forward again, and suddenly, the air seemed to hum. The floor vibrated, like a miniature earthquake, and the outline of the salt pattern flared through the rug, as if it had briefly caught fire, before fading into darkness again.
Holy shit. The trap activated. It actually worked.
The reaper’s hood dropped, as if it, too, was looking down at the floor, as surprised as we were by the ancient ritual.
Remembering Calista’s words, I pulled my knees up so that no part of me was still within the trap, and Leo flicked the light on.
I had to shield my eyes for a moment against the brightness, but when I opened them again, the reaper was still there, standing stock still on top of the rug, within the reaper trap.
“Talk to it,” Leo whispered to me.
I cleared my throat. “You’ve been following me and appearing in my dreams. What do you want?”
The figure tilted its head but didn’t respond.
“In case you haven’t noticed yet, you’re trapped,” I pointed out. “I know what that feels like, and I have no intention of keeping you longer than necessary. Just tell me what you want.”
Again, no answer came, and I was just about to call out for Felix to come in when the figure slid forward again, moving until it stood right at the foot of the bed.
At last, it spoke, but the voice was nothing like I expected. It was no longer the hollow echo of my own voice that I’d heard in my dreams.
More than that, it wasn’t a male voice at all.
“You misunderstand,” she said with a resonance that seemed to echo deep in my bones. “I’m not here for you.”