Chapter 14 Sephtis
Sephtis
I didn’t want to frighten Cole, but the thought of him giving himself to the hounds under some misguided assumption it would reunite him with his brother was enough to make me lose whatever sensibility I might have had.
They occasionally gathered wayward souls in one piece if they’d somehow gotten lost, but anyone who intentionally defied their Master paid a violent price.
I’d already accepted the fact that I was going to reap more souls before their time to take their Vitality—not for Death, but to keep Cole alive.
It was clear that being away from me had cut off the supply flowing between us, that I hadn’t just brought him back to life when the Enmity attacked by forging the soulmate bond between us and feeding it to him once.
I needed to be close—he needed a constant supply. He was feeding off the life of others, and without it, his soul detached from his body. I didn’t know if it was so he could try to find me, or if the natural order of things was trying to force the death I’d prevented.
I just knew that I couldn’t let it happen—that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to the Lake, back to Death. I wasn’t going to be able to continue making him think I was doing my duties.
I had to stay with Cole.
I had to kill for Cole.
And I didn’t know if I could tell him that’s what I was doing for him. I was pretty sure if I tried, he’d do everything he could to stop me.
But judging by the way he was shaking so violently in my arms, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be by way of the hounds.
Not anymore.
After they’d finished devouring the scraps of the soul that I’d torn apart, there was a moment where the same fear pulsing through Cole’s body poured into mine. My hand slid up, pressing against his nose. I didn’t have to say anything to let him know what I meant. He held his breath.
The hounds sniffed, the wet sound deeper now that they’d been fed, and I walked us back until the wall hid us from sight. Though it wasn’t like they actually had to see their quarry to know what they were looking for.
But between the body I’d left behind and the way I was casting my essence over Cole, relief poured through me when I felt the looming presence of the beasts leave the alley with the heavy footfall of paws on pavement before it disappeared.
“Are they gone?” Cole’s voice was shaking when he spoke, and I nodded.
“Yes, they’re gone… but I don’t know how much longer we can keep them off our scent. Especially when I don’t come back.” Saying the words aloud made it feel permanent. Final.
I couldn’t go back.
I could never go back as long as I was with Cole, and if I had my way… that meant forever.
“What does that mean?” His voice was soft and shellshocked, still holding the slightest tremble after everything that had happened.
“It means we need to move.” It meant more than that—it meant that I was going to compromise everything I was, everything I’d been for centuries, to keep him safe. As much as I wanted to tell him the whole of it, I wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle the truth after everything that had just happened.
I wasn’t sure he’d accept the fact that I was going to end life to keep him safe, to keep him tethered to his body and throw the hounds off his scent.
It was strange—I was a bringer of death, a creature made to ferry souls… but I wasn’t actually a killer.
At least, I’d never been until Cole. For him, I’d break apart my purpose and build myself into something new. I would be the monster he thought I was if it meant I could keep him safe. Whole.
If it meant I could keep him with me.