Chapter 2
Chapter Two
The moment her fingertips brushed against my palm, a violent shudder rippled through the veil.
It wasn't a physical tremor, but a shift in the air. The moment a living being willingly touches Death with intent to bargain, the universe takes note. Her skin was scorching hot against my hand, a blazing promise of life and raw magic.
I closed my fingers around hers. She flinched, her breath hitching, but she didn’t pull away. Good. The little witch had backbone.
"The deal is done," I murmured, and with a flick of my free hand, the chalk lines on the floor dissolved into harmless gray dust. The binding was no longer anchored to her living room floor, it was anchored to our souls.
"My sister," Clara whispered, her voice trembling as she looked down at our joined hands. "When?"
"Now."
I closed my eyes, letting my consciousness drift away from the cozy, rosemary-scented kitchen and into the cold air of the hospital three miles away.
It took less than a second to find the fading remnants of Lily’s soul.
She was so close to the edge that my reapers were already gathering in the shadows of her hospital room, waiting for the final exhale.
Leave her, I commanded, sending a pulse of authority through the ether.
The lesser reapers vanished instantly. Reaching into the ledger of the almost dead, I found Lily’s name, written in the ink of fate.
With a thought, I didn't just cross it out, I rewrote the page.
I infused her fragile, failing cells with a spark of my magic, knitting her back together, commanding the rot inside her to wither and die.
Back in the living room, I opened my eyes. Clara was staring at me, her eyes wide with a
mixture of awe and absolute terror.
"It is done," I told her softly.
"Even now, the machines keeping her alive are growing quiet because her lungs are breathing on their own. By tomorrow morning, the doctors will be bickering over a 'miracle' they cannot explain."
A tear slipped down Clara's cheek, reflecting the dim light of the room. A massive, invisible weight seemed to lift from her shoulders, but as she looked back up at me, a new, heavier weight took its place. The realization of what she had traded for that miracle.
"And now," she swallowed hard, her gaze dropping to my chest, bargain."
“Do not speak of it as an execution, little doe,” I said, stepping closer, closing the distance between us until she had to tilt her head back to look at me.
The scent of her fear was intoxicating, but beneath it was a fierce, golden current of magic that practically begged to be touched.
"I told you, I am not a monster. I will not take what is mine by force or in anger. "
I raised my hand, gently brushing the pad of my thumb against her cheek, wiping away the tear. She shivered at the contact, her eyes fluttering shut for a fraction of a second.
"You are afraid because you think of death as a void," I whispered, leaning down until my breath stirred the loose strands of hair at her temple. "But tonight, I am going to show you how much life lives in the dark. Go to your room, Clara. Wash the hospital from your skin. I will be waiting."
I stepped back, melting into the shadows before she could see the hunger dancing in my silver eyes. I would give her a few moments to prepare, to steel her nerves. But I had tasted her magic, and the absolute purity of it was already driving me mad.
She was mine now.