Chapter 3
Duske
The air ripples between us as the mug completely disappears from this plane and moves into the next.
I can only just see the warm energy flowing from it, the steam still rising into this world.
As the Grim Reaper, my entire job revolves around guiding souls to the afterlife and then letting Fate take care of the rest. Never once did I think I might have to guide Esme, nor did I think she’d still be attached to the very house she died in.
She should have passed over on her own but Vesper and Milo aren’t wrong. Her spirit is still here or at least some of her essence. I hold my breath, waiting to see if something ripples or changes in front of us but there’s no movement.
Not at first.
And then, I can just see the outline of her energy reaching for the mug, the soft echoes of her laughter carrying through to this plane.
“Is she drinking it? Does she like it? Duske, fuck, tell me what’s going on!”
I snort at Milo’s excitement as he all but vibrates by the fridge, his hands clasped together.
I wish I could answer him because to be honest, I have no idea.
The steam rises higher which means she’s able to pick up the mug but that’s all I’ve got.
“Milo, you know I can’t see the spirits, not without disrupting the balance between our planes but she’s holding it. ”
That puts a smile on Vesper’s face, the first I’ve truly seen since Esme died.
We’re all feeling a bit worse for wear with her gone, something tugging at the heart this human body has.
It wasn’t our decision to step onto Earth like this but it’s been easier to do our job.
I just didn’t bank on becoming close with anyone. Especially not someone like Esme.
A mixture of sunshine and sass and gone too soon.
“Let’s get started upstairs before Liora comes back.
I don’t want to deal with her mouth if she finds us standing around the kitchen.
” The only reason I agreed to help her pack was to have a few last moments with Esme’s memory.
Now that I know she’s still here, I’m banking on helping her cross over while getting to see her one last time.
Hopefully, I’ll have enough power to let the guys see her too.
They follow me up the stairs, each step pulling me closer to her lingering presence. Her energy seems to have shifted from the kitchen to her room, Milo rushing past me to follow what we all feel.
He leans against the entrance, his arms crossed tight against his chest as his wavy hair falls over his eyes, but I can see the pain in his green gaze. Vesper pushes inside the room, his fingers trailing across the bedding, brushing the dark blue sheets like he’s searching for her.
“I can feel her, but I can’t see her, and it’s really fucking with me. Of all things, down the fucking stairs?” Vesper growls out as his fingers dig into the blanket. He pulls it to his nose, his shoulders falling in defeat.
I know from experience Esme didn’t have a scent when she was alive, but there was a certain aura around her that still brought warmth despite it.
I weather my emotions and force a neutral expression onto my face, hating that it came to all this. We don’t even fit into the Alpha-Omega dynamic of Earth but found our places the moment Satan gave us physical bodies.
Despite being an Alpha, as the Grim Reaper or Death as most people know me, emotions slide off me most days, locked behind a wall that only cracks for a mate.
It’s what makes reaping souls bearable—guiding them to the other side without carrying their heartbreak.
Every death, every grieving family, I let it pass through me.
But Esme… she’s different.
I reach up to wrap my hand around the scythe dangling from my necklace, the small charm holding the same power as my full weapon. “We should probably start and get it over with,” I say, keeping my voice steady despite the ache in my chest. “Lingering here is only going to make it worse.”
Milo sighs, fiddling with the piercing through his bottom lip. “I really don’t want to pack her room. I want to leave it like this.”
I glance around. Esme’s room isn’t what most would expect from an Omega.
Liora’s got her frilly pastels, but Esme was always fun and vibrant.
Her room’s all greens, blues, and oranges with black woven in.
“I’ll talk to Liora.” If I press that we need to send Esme’s spirit on, maybe Liora will give us a little more time before she puts the house on the market.
Liora appears in the doorway a few moments later, her cinnamon-cherry scent hitting me like day-old cheap perfume.
We all grimace as I turn to face her, wondering how she could be smiling so soon after her sister’s tragic death.
“Talk to me about what?” she asks, her voice dripping with fake sweetness.
Despite how much she pretends, I can see that she doesn’t truly have feelings for us. Why she hangs around us at all, pushing her voice a few octaves higher and trying to will us into her bed is beyond me.
She sets down a bag from the local bakery and a tray of coffee beside it. “You can trash most of that in Esme’s room,” she says, brushing her hands down her dress. “It’s not important, and I can’t handle the reminder. I have pictures of her, but…”
Someone truly distraught over their sister’s death wouldn’t talk like that, dismissing her life so easily.
“I was going to talk to you about cleansing the house before you sold it. Otherwise, you won’t get a good asking price.
” Vesper chuckles and then clears his throat.
We both know my reasoning is bullshit but I’m not going to let Esme linger here on her own.
Liora blinks and then perks up. “Oh! Your exorcist stuff? I mean, sure, if you’d like.”
“We’ll have to stay here for a little bit.”
Her bottom lip juts out as she sets her hands on her hips. I suppose it’s supposed to be cute, but she just looks like a petulant child. “But I got a hotel…”
“We’ll have all the time later,” I cut her off. “If we don’t rid the house of this energy, it’ll fester.” I push a mixture of my Alpha instincts and Death’s influence into my voice, forcing her to back off. She would easily bow down to Vesper’s Alpha bark but there’s no contest when I step in.
Liora lets out a dramatic sigh, throwing up her hands as she tries to make it seem like it’s her decision to give up on the conversation. “Fine, sure. Whatever.”
Milo saunters over, his eyes firmly planted on the coffee tray. “Did you get a pumpkin-spiced latte?”
She frowns, nose wrinkling up in disgust. I still have no idea how Liora and Esme were sisters. “Of course not. Those are nasty. Just take what I gave you, okay?”
Milo’s green eyes flash with irritation, but he grabs a coffee anyway before stalking back into the room.
He flings open her closet door and just stands there.
I know it’ll be a few minutes before he even touches anything, Vesper moving up behind him.
The chaos demon wraps an arm around Milo’s shoulders before dipping his head to his shoulder, the embrace a little too much to bear as I grab a box and head to Esme’s bathroom.
Liora follows me, going off about something that happened last week, her animated hands flying around. A few weeks ago, I might have cracked a smile to give her some semblance that I was listening. Now? I wish she would just fuck off.
She mentions something about moving in together, my irritation growing at her presence.
She has no idea we’re not staying on Earth after the funeral.
There’s no reason to. Our lease is already up, and in a week, we’ll say goodbye to humans for good, back to our realms, and settle in our true forms. Liora’s fantasies of claiming us are just that—fantasies.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
Her voice echoes against the tile as she stands behind me and I just need it to stop.
I whip around and breathe out a demon's curse under my breath.
It mutes her instantly, planting the idea in her head to go somewhere else, anywhere but here, bothering me.
Her eyes glaze over for a second, then she smiles happily and turns away, heading toward her bedroom to start packing like it's her own brilliant plan.
Milo pops his head in the doorway, green eyes sparkling with mischief. "What happened to not using our magic however we want?"
I just shake my head as I start placing some of Esme’s perfumes in a box. "That applies to everything on Earth except for Liora. I cannot stand her bullshit, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure she had something to do with Esme's death."
Milo frowns as he steps inside and perches himself on the edge of the toilet.
"She fell, didn't she?" Unlike Vesper, Milo’s one of the most innocent, hard-loving demons I know.
His love of pumpkin is unprecedented and he always chooses to believe the positive.
I hate what a few centuries in hell is going to do to him—not that the human plane has been all that nice to him either.
"Yes, that’s what the police have told us but none of the story makes any sense.
We still haven't seen her body, and the autopsy report hasn't been released." I refrain from telling Milo that Liora put in a request to have Esme cremated because I don’t need him wilding out on Liora. I have no idea what Esme’s plans were when it came to burial or her funeral because we never got that far.
Milo throws me a grin, that quirky smile breaking through his worry. "That's why you want to stay here. You want to bring her spirit forward and ask."
I nod again, piling more from the cabinet into the box, the clink of glass echoing softly against the tile. "I want to know the truth. Even if I can't save her, I will avenge her."
I look up into the mirror, and there it is.
A glimpse of orange hair flickering in the reflection before it disappears.
A small streak down the mirror catches my eye, brown liquid drawing a pattern that’s only visible in the spirit realm.
I bite back a smile as the pattern ends, a delightfully silly ‘brains’ staring back at me.
Of all the things Esme could have written, that’s one thing that lets me know not only is she still here but that it’s her and not just her spirit.
“I think she’s looking for a way to talk.”
“You saw her?” Milo pops off the toilet and starts looking around the bathroom. “Did she like the coffee? I put too much creamer, I think but I have to know…”
I cut him off as a small smile appears next to Esme’s other letters.
It’s less legible than before and I suspect that her ability to touch anything from earth is waning.
“Yes, Milo. She loved it. Now, I just have to figure out a way to make her visible.” What I don’t tell Milo is that spirits aren’t really human anymore.
They’re beings. Entities that just need to pass over.
If Esme was truly a spirit, she wouldn’t have been able to drink that coffee.