Chapter 19
Soul
For a few moments, all I could do was stare at the empty space in the bed beside me where Caiden had been. I recognized the light—I knew what he’d done.
Meet me by the Lake.
My beautiful, brave, selfless soulmate. He’d gone back to Death’s door because he was so certain that we were meant to be together… because he had blind faith in Fate saying that things would work out.
I didn’t have that kind of faith. I’d spent my entire existence being told what a bastard Fate was. And I knew Death well enough to know that if Caiden brought up who’d told him things would be okay, he might be unmade out of pure spite.
But that left me with the same problem we’d been running around since the moment we’d met.
How did I prove to Death that I needed to keep Caiden?
We were soulmates, and maybe that would mean something…
but how could that be enough when Death seemed so keen on ruining anything that Fate had a hand in?
I needed him to see that there were other reasons—other choices.
I needed someone who understood Fate far more than I did.
I knew exactly what I needed.
I pushed from the bed and took off for the main house at a run. When I banged on the door, it took Gethin entirely too long to answer. As soon as he opened it, I reached out, grabbing his wrist.
“You know if I say a few words, these barriers will—”
I jerked him against my chest before he had time to finish his threat. There were no barriers in my realm, no powers he had to expel me. There was just the Lake, and Death waiting…
And Caiden.
Fuck, I needed to see Caiden.
The world around us dissolved before Gethin finished his sentence. When he realized what had happened as I let him go, he looked up at me with narrowed eyes.
“Gods damn it dog, this isn’t what I agreed to when I said I’d help you.”
He could protest all he wanted. He was here now, and as far as I knew, he had no way to get back to his world without my help.
He knew more about soulmates than I did—he’d seen how good Caiden was.
I needed someone in my corner, and I had to think that regardless of what Gethin thought about me, that softness I’d seen in him when he looked at my soulmate would be enough to make him help us.
Speaking of… my eyes searched the Lake until they caught sight of a burst of blue.
The flowers by the water’s edge had spread into a field along the shore… and settled amongst them, like he’d been in our dream, was Caiden.
The relief I felt was short-lived, because I saw the figure standing behind him.
Tall and pale, with black eyes save for that haloed ring of light.
Death’s hand was on Caiden’s shoulder, but his gaze instantly lifted to focus on me. I didn’t need to hear his call to come. I started across the water, grabbing Gethin’s wrist before I went.
“Fucking gods, Lassie. I get it, okay? Timmy’s in the well. I can walk on my own. Stop dragging me.” I didn’t trust him not to try to run, so I kept my grip firmly on his wrist as I dragged us both around the edge of the Lake, only letting him go when we were standing in the middle of the flowers.
Caiden’s eyes were soft when he looked up at me, and something in my stomach slowly unfurled when Death took his hand from his shoulder and let him close the distance between us.
“Soul…” Death’s voice was calm when he spoke, but his eyes were focused on the way my arm instantly went around Caiden’s waist. There was no point in trying to hide this from him—he knew everything. He always did. “You seem to have gotten lost on your mission.”
It wasn’t a question—he wasn’t asking for an explanation… and I honestly wasn’t sure if I could give him one anyway. All I could offer was the truth.
“I can’t give him back to the Lake. He’s mine.”
Death’s pale brows knit together, a warning sign that made my stomach clench. “Yours? Every soul that passes belongs to me, to the Lake.” Death looked at the water behind us. “He’s meant to be amongst the others, waiting for his chance to return to a mortal life.”
Just the thought was enough to make my entire body shiver, to make a growl threaten to bristle up my throat. At the cool cut of Death’s gaze, I swallowed the sound down.
“We’re connected.”
“Connected?”
I knew the word for it, but I didn’t think Death was going to like it.
“Soulmates,” Gethin interrupted, like he was ready and willing to make me pay for dragging him down here with me. “They’re soulmates.”
That word did catch his attention. When Death stalked forward, I knew what he was doing. His hand reached out, running across the space between Caiden and me. I knew he couldn’t see the line, but this close…
This close…
“Fate has been meddling where he doesn’t belong.
” The scathing, furious tone made me want to go to my hands and knees, to change into my hound form and take Caiden in my teeth.
I wanted to run as far from here as I could, before that anger spilled over to us.
“He’s always finding a way to… inconvenience me.
” The word inconvenience sounded like a curse.
“That’s fine. I’ll break his bond—maybe it will send him a message. ”
That’s what I’d been afraid of, coming here. Even knowing Caiden was mine, really and truly mine, it wouldn’t be enough… that maybe it would just make things worse. I knew how Death felt about Fate.
“Please,” I found myself whispering the word. “Please, Master. Don’t take him from me. I…” My eyes turned to Death, and I watched the tremor of curiosity run through his black gaze at the pleading tone in my voice. I’d never asked him for anything in all my existence. I’d only served, only given.
This was the one time I wanted to take.
“He’s not yours to keep, Soul.” Death’s gaze flicked between Caiden and me, then back to the place where I could see that thread glowing red in defiance of what he was saying.
“He belongs to the Lake, and you belong with your brothers. This bond is just a twist of Fate’s foolish games he likes to play. ”
But it wasn’t.
It was so much more.
“I love him.”
Death scoffed. “Soul hounds can’t love.”
The warmth of Caiden leaning against my side made me stand taller, and his soft voice anchored me. “I came out of the Lake for him. I know you think that’s where I belong, but you’re wrong. I belong with Soul. I love him.” And then, softer. “Don’t you care about him too?”
Death’s eyes widened, but it was Gethin who snorted like he was tired of being here.
“Fuck. Why is it always me?” When we all turned to look at him, Gethin shrugged.
“Come on, Death. I know you hate Aiden as much as I do, but you’ve known him long enough to realize that he doesn’t just throw around these bonds willy-nilly, right?
” He took a step forward, his finger reaching out to pluck the red thread between Caiden’s chest and mine.
“As fun as it might be to pitch Caiden into the Lake and make them find each other all over again, you’ll probably end up killing your good boy here. ”
“You can’t kill a soul hound. Unless I unmake him, he is eternal.” Death sounded so sure of himself, but I noticed he paused after he said it, like he was waiting for Gethin to speak again. When Gethin realized it too, he rolled his eyes.
“I’ve never seen a thread so red or pure.
You destroy the heart connected to that and who knows what will happen.
Maybe you won’t kill him, but I can’t guarantee he wouldn’t lose his mind.
Besides…” Gethin pointed to Caiden with a flourish.
“This guy is a fucking certified soul whisperer. I watched him turn a man three seconds from becoming an Enmity into a pussycat. Seems like a waste to just drown him.”
Death was silent. I couldn’t read his expression. I’d never heard of him making an exception for a wayward soul… and how could he understand that Caiden was different? That Caiden was everything. That…
“If you need a soul in the Lake, I’ll go with him.
Unmake me.” The words were terrifying—I wasn’t sure what would happen to me if he did that, what I would become.
But if Caiden had enough faith to come here without knowing what the result would be…
I had to believe that no matter what I was, no matter what I became, we’d always be together.
Tethered.
Even Death couldn’t break that.
“Soul…” Death’s voice held that soft, eerie cadence that could mean anything.
My master could have been furious and still spoken in that gentle tone.
I’d seen him unmake souls completely while speaking just like this.
And usually I would have curled around his legs, butted my head against his side… but now…
Now… I couldn’t move. I kept my body between Caiden and the only family I’d ever known, and Death’s head tilted.
“Soul, you don’t have to do this.” Caiden’s voice in my ear was soft, and only a little concerned. It was strange, feeling the smile that drifted across my features from just the touch of his hand, from the way he was just as willing to give up everything for me as I was for him.
“I do.” I turned, dipping to run my nose gently along his jawline. “It’s okay. You’re worth whatever happens, little flower.”
A sound caught my attention, the soft whisper of leather sliding against leather. When I turned, Death was holding my collar, letting it dangle loosely from his fingers.
The collar that I’d so carefully hidden, the one that he’d apparently sent my brothers to find.
“Does your little mate need one to match, or is that too human a ritual for you?” He offered it to me, but I was so caught up on his words that I didn’t move.
It was Gethin who laughed behind us, the sound both amused and bitter all at once. “Fuck, even the pets get a happy ending, don’t they?” When I still didn’t make a move, he actually planted his hand between my shoulder blades and shoved me. “You won, Bingo. Go fetch your happy ever after.”
I was still hesitant to step forward, but when my fingers wrapped around the leather of the collar I’d buried beneath Caiden’s flowers, something in my chest settled.
Death wasn’t looking at me like he’d caught me in some ploy.
He was looking down at me with a slightly confused expression, but beneath that was a brush of softness.
“You know I give nothing freely, right?”
He hadn’t let the leather go, and somewhere in my chest it felt like my heart had stopped.
“I know… I… whatever you want. I’d give everything…”
Death’s expression never changed as his gaze lifted. “My little assassin says you can soothe souls without tearing them apart?”
Caiden nodded. “I didn’t know I could, but I did.”
“I know. The man you found earlier wandered into the Lake on his own. He was still intact. Whole. His Vitality followed him like a stream. It was… pure.” Death’s eyes flickered between the two of us, and he tilted his head.
“My hounds rip and tear, they bring things home by force. Perhaps they need a hunter holding their leash to teach them temperance.”
He wasn’t asking Caiden to go into the Lake… he wasn’t asking him to give up his life.
He was asking him to join me.
“I…”
“You can do that, right? Death’s temperance… it’s not a title I’ve given out before. Of course…” Death’s eyes flicked back to me, and if I wasn’t mistaken, the corner of his mouth lifted in the slightest smirk. “You’ll have to stay with the hounds for the rest of eternity.”
Eternity.
Forever.
Caiden turned to look at me, and the soft smile that crossed his face was full of the bravery that had brought him down here, the love that had saved us both. When he answered, I knew it wasn’t Death he was speaking to. “I think eternity sounds just about right.”