Chapter 16
Caiden
When I woke up, I wasn’t curled around a hound… I was held in Soul’s arms, against his bare chest. I could still smell the flowers on his skin from the field, like they’d followed us straight from my dream…
Fuck, had I really told him I loved him? I’d always been so sceptical of love at first sight, or anything like that… but it was hard to deny when Fate himself came and told you that you were destined to be together.
It was hard to deny when the only place I’d ever felt true peace, completion… was when I was in Soul’s arms. Maybe if he’d found me while I was still alive and told me all this, I would have called him a liar… or at least demanded we go on a few dates.
But… this wasn’t that kind of situation. Maybe once this was all settled, I’d tell him we could go back to the beginning and pretend we were getting to know one another before we confessed… but…
Well, the field I’d been in had been empty until he showed up, and then the blue flowers blossomed the same way they had when Sephtis had come to my dreams before.
So at least my sweet hound had brought me flowers.
“Are you awake?” The low rumble of Soul’s voice spilled through me in gentle vibrations that made me want to close my eyes and go back to that place where we’d been.
He’d been there too, right? The sudden thought that the field might have just been a dream streaked through me, but before I could manage to voice it aloud, he rolled me beneath him and nuzzled against my neck.
“You still smell like those blossoms in the field. You’re the first dream I’ve ever had, little flower. ”
He said it so matter-of-factly, like his words weren’t sweet enough to make anyone fall in love with him regardless of what they did or didn’t think was possible. Anyone who spent five seconds with this Soul wouldn’t have been able to resist.
“You’re the only dream I’ve ever wanted to keep.
” My response came from a place deep in my chest—that same place the rumble of his voice brushed against every time he spoke.
It made his expression go soft, and I felt the warm lap of his tongue running along my neck a second before he lifted his head and pressed his lips to mine.
The kiss was so achingly sweet; it made me wish I really could fall back into that dream, that we could live forever in that field and not have to worry about anything else.
But… that wasn’t the world we lived in. As much as I wanted to stay here, to pretend that things were solved because Soul had his original form back…
Well, I was still a problem, wasn’t I?
“What is it?” My worry must have shown in my expression, because he was back to nuzzling my neck and licking my cheek. He really was just a big puppy with me. When Death had made him, did he model him off the wolf he looked like? Had I somehow managed to domesticate him?
“I just wish we could stay here forever… but we have to figure this out, don’t we?
” I was reluctant to bring it up, but I also wasn’t the kind of person who wasted time.
I’d had enough of my life divided into little minutes, hours, seconds…
dates and predictions and estimates of how much time was left.
I didn’t want that anymore. Soul made me crave the possibility of forever, and I’d do whatever it took to make sure it was something I could have with him.
“Don’t worry, little flower,” he murmured against my throat, pressing one more gentle kiss there before sitting up. He dragged me with him, though, as if he couldn’t stand the thought of not touching me. “We’ll figure it out.”
I still wasn’t sure what we were even figuring out to begin with—there wasn’t some simple solution to our problem. I couldn’t just be alive again. I couldn’t stay like this.
I needed Death to… what… just forget about me?
“Does your boss have a good memory?” I asked, half-heartedly hoping he’d tell me what I wanted to hear.
Soul’s nose scrunched as he shook his head. “He remembers the first words Fate ever said to him, and that happened before a time you could possibly imagine.”
My eyes widened in shock. Fate and Death, huh?
I wondered what those words were.
We talked in circles around a plan, but at the end of the day our best bet really was to hang around the graveyard and hope we could catch the person who’d erected the barriers out in the open. Soul said they worked together… kind of…
I wasn’t sure if his plan was coworker friendly, or if he really was going to abduct him and hold him until he gave us answers.
The problem with staying around the graveyard was that Soul still wasn’t sure if it was safe. He wasn’t willing to get close enough to check if his collar was missing this time, because he told me in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t going anywhere he couldn’t see me.
My mind drifted back to Corvin, to that shocked expression in his crimson eyes.
He’d been scary, sure. There’d been a part of me that was pretty sure he’d actually wanted to eat me alive.
Soul told me what he was—some kind of monster that existed on human emotions—but there’d been something else beneath that.
Maybe I recognized it because I’d spent so much of my life lost too.
But judging by the dark look that crossed Soul’s face as soon as I mentioned his name, I realized there was going to be no finding him for help. If he showed up again, I wasn’t sure he’d get off with something as simple as a few scratches across his chest.
That meant we kept to the alleyway, and this time when we found a house to break into, it was something close enough that we could easily see the graveyard from the windows.
The problem was, the man who lived there seemed very unwilling to leave, like he could tell that someone was watching him. I caught a glimpse of him in the distance the first night we were there, his head turned to the sky like he was seeing something in the stars I couldn’t understand.
The next morning, Soul dragged me to an alley on the opposite side of the graveyard with a sigh.
“Are we just going to keep watching and hope he comes out eventually?” I wasn’t trying to question his plan, since I didn’t have a better one.
“I don’t know what else to do.”
There were options, of course. There was always the possibility of me just going back with him. Maybe we could work things out—maybe we could explain.
Maybe…
A low snarl interrupted my thoughts, and for a moment I was worried that I’d somehow summoned Corvin here just by thinking about him earlier… but it wasn’t him.
The figure was taller than I was, but slender. And… I had a feeling that the man in front of us probably wasn’t actually human. I could see it from the almost frayed edges around his form… that and the fact that his eyes were half crazed and nearly glowing.
The growl that tore from Soul’s chest told me everything else I needed to know.
“What’s wrong with him?” I whispered the question like we hadn’t already caught the man’s attention. He was pacing back and forth, back and forth, like a caged creature waiting to strike.
“Sometimes when a person dies, they flee from Reapers. Corrupt souls… it’s what I was made for, to tear them apart. To bring them back to the Lake.”
That’s what he’d come to do to me. The knowledge sat heavy in my chest as Soul looked down at his hands, at the dark claws tipping his fingers.
“Soul?”
“Maybe if I rip him to shreds, I can give him to Death as an offering. Then he’ll understand that I’m still loyal, that it’s just you I couldn’t hurt.”
Rip… rip him to shreds? My eyes lifted back to the man pacing in front of us—to the anger on his face, the confusion…
And somewhere beneath that, there was fear.
Soul started to step forward, and I caught his arm without thinking. “Wait…” He paused instantly, like my words were a command he couldn’t help but listen to. “Wait… maybe there’s another way.”
His gaze snapped from the pacing figure to me, confusion clearly painted across his face. “There’s never been another way.”
“And you told me before that a soul hound has never had a soulmate. So… let me try.”
Soul reached for me as I stepped forward, but I shook off the sensation of his claws trailing along my skin as I carefully approached the man in front of us… because at the end of the day, glowing eyes or not, that’s what he still was.
And now that he’d explained what was going on… I understood. I really did. I’d been ready to die by the time I’d met Sephtis, but there’d been days before that when I would have wanted to run too.
“Hey…” I kept my tone as soft as I could, trying to keep the figure in front of me calm. Those wild eyes turned to me, and his lips curled up in a snarl. His fingers clenched and unclenched. When he swiped at me, I felt Soul moving up, heard the low warning of his growl.
“No.” I threw my arm out, stopping Soul from surging forward.
“No… it’s okay.” I raised my other hand slowly, telegraphing the movement…
and the man in front of me froze when I gently grabbed hold of his shoulder.
“He’s just afraid, aren’t you? I understand…
” My lips turned up into a melancholy smile.
“I was afraid to die too, you know. Once upon a time. It’s not actually so bad. ”
“Caiden…” Soul’s voice was cautious, and his arm sliding around my waist felt like an anchor… but my eyes were all for the man in front of us.
He wasn’t saying anything, but he wasn’t attacking me, either. The only thing I could do was offer him another kind smile. “It’s easy to want to run away… I get it… but I’ve been there, you know?”
“Y… you have?” His voice came out hoarse, sharp… like glass tearing from his lungs. But he was looking at me now like he could actually see me.
That was good. At least, I was pretty sure it was good.
“Yeah, I’ve been there. It’s a little scary at first, letting go of everything you’ve ever known…
but then you realize nothing is really over.
” I squeezed his arm gently, and those glowing eyes blinked, the color slowly mellowing.
“It’s just another step. Another moment.
And then there’s water… cold and clean.” I leaned in, my voice turning to a whisper. “It can make you something new.”
“Something… new?” That seemed to interest him, so I nodded.
“Another life. Another chance. When it’s time… when you’re ready.”
“Ready,” he echoed, and the last of the glow faded from his gaze. His eyes were actually a soft, sweet brown. “I wasn’t ready.” When he glanced up at me, I could see it now, where all that anger had come from.
Fear.
Sorrow.
“No one ever really is… I wasn’t.” When his brows hiked, I nodded. “But it’s okay. I think it’s better to wait in the water than stay here and fade away to fear, right?”
He stared at me—silent, still terrified… but his eyes were human again, and he nodded once. And then again. His hand came up, and he grabbed my wrist, the feel of his fingertips cold to the touch.
“I can just go?”
I had no idea if he could, but I was rolling with it now. Whatever fury had been turning him into a monster just beneath his skin had all but faded, and those frayed edges that had wavered around him before were slowly spilling into light.
“Yeah, it’s okay. You can let go.”
He nodded again and bowed his head. At first, nothing happened… and then I realized the hand on my wrist wasn’t cold anymore. It was sweet warmth, soft rays of light. The soul—because that’s exactly what he was—slowly dissolved.
I turned to look at Soul as the man in front of me faded, but a voice spilling out from behind me made me pause.
“What the fuck, Cole? Since when have you been the soul whisperer?” The sound of my twin’s name made my stomach ache, and when I turned, I recognized the person speaking immediately.
It was the man from the graveyard, the one we’d been watching so carefully.
“Don’t tell me you’re working with Death now.
Only one of us needed to make bad decisions like…
that…” He trailed off, his eyes searching my face.
That glance drifted between Soul and me, and then down to our chests, where I knew that red line existed.
“You’re not Cole, are you? You’re… Caiden. ”
How did he know my name?