Chapter Thirteen
~Leo~
The word reaper struck me deep in the chest. If our strongest warrior had punched me as hard as he could, it might have winded me less. Of all the creatures Calista and Felix could have named, a reaper was nowhere near the list of possibilities I’d prepared myself for.
Silo was equally stunned, whimpering in my head with such despair, my heart ached.
Against the rising panic, I forced myself to breathe.
Whenever chaos arose, I fell back on the one thing that could keep fear from turning into paralysis, and I could do the same thing now: I’d ask questions, gather information, and analyze, forcing logic onto the situation until I could feel in control again.
Somehow, when I spoke, my voice came out steady. “What exactly is a reaper?”
Felix’s answer didn’t stray too far from what I would have imagined. “They’re soul harvesters. An ancient species, older than any written history. Older than humans or werewolves, or just about any being you can think of.”
“They appear when a person’s life ends,” Calista added. “It’s their job to deliver them to the next realm, whatever that might be.”
Not wanting to get sidetracked into a conversation about the nature of the afterlife, I stuck to more practical concerns. “What do they look like?”
Calista fielded that one. “From what I’ve heard and read, the pop culture image is surprisingly accurate. They’re often shadowed and cloaked in dark colours. No one has ever seen their face, as far as I know.”
Or at least, hasn’t lived to talk about it. Though she didn’t say those words, everyone in the room heard them anyway.
“What are their weaknesses?” I asked next.
Felix grimaced as he exchanged a glance with Calista. “Documentation is pretty scarce.”
No weaknesses, then. That didn’t do much for my racing pulse, but I pressed on anyway. “Why could Kalo see it when you couldn’t?”
Calista glanced over at my mate with an expression somewhere between concern and sympathy, but Felix was the one who spoke.
“Reapers only appear to people who are marked for death.”
I could have sworn my heart actually stopped for a second. An abrupt, painful stillness filled my chest until it kicked back into rhythm.
Beside me, Kalo had gone completely still too, not seeming any happier with that response than I was.
Calista leaned forward. “Let’s back up a step. Kalo, can you explain exactly what you experienced when Amanda freed you?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.
“The magic left my body, the same as it always did when granting a wish, but instead of replenishing inside me as it always had before, nothing took its place. I felt weak, but it didn’t worry me.
There was warmth around me, and light. It felt welcoming and safe. ”
His brows tightened as he sought the words to describe whatever he’d seen in those moments.
“I can’t recall any specific details, but it was beautiful. And the next thing I knew, I was waking up with Leo’s mark on my neck.”
All eyes turned to me, and I cleared my throat before sharing my version of events.
“That’s not exactly how it looked from the outside.
Kalo was flickering in and out of sight, almost as if he were fading in and out of existence.
I didn’t know what was happening. One moment, he looked happy, just as he described.
At peace. But the next, he was terrified.
He asked me for help, and since I didn’t know what else to do, I marked him to give him a tether to this world if he wanted to stay. ”
Calista exhaled slowly as everyone absorbed both of our accounts.
“Honestly, that lines up with the lore I’ve heard around reapers.
They appear in a pleasant form that helps encourage those who might be hesitant about leaving this world to make up their minds.
It sounds like the reaper came for Kalo almost as soon as the wish released him, when his soul became untethered. ”
“But Leo pulled him back,” Darius reminded us all. “Kalo’s not sick or close to death now. He’s out of danger, so why is there a reaper in our woods?”
“I can’t say for certain,” our Luna warned. “But I would guess it’s actually the same reaper. I suspect it didn’t like being denied the soul it had come to collect, and it followed Kalo back here.”
Silo snarled inside my head, and before I could think better of it, I reached out and took Kalo’s hand. Once again, the sparks of our bond travelled up my arm, warm and reassuring, and to my relief, Kalo didn’t push me away.
When he spoke again, his voice sounded strained. “If the reaper’s here for me, why didn’t it approach me in the forest? Was it because you were there?”
Calista shook her head. “No, that shouldn’t matter. They can take a person in a room full of people. I couldn’t see it, so there are no ‘witnesses’, so to speak.”
“What is it waiting for, then?” he wondered.
No one had an answer for that, and as much as I wanted to push for one, I had another question of my own.
“If the reaper is only here because of Kalo, why did I feel it?”
Surprise flickered across the faces in front of me, and behind his desk, Vaughan shifted. “What do you mean?”
I hated having to say the words out loud, knowing how illogical they sounded, but if it might help Kalo, I couldn’t hold anything back.
“Last night, when I went back to my office to shut off the alarm, I felt a… presence. A shadow, just out of sight, watching me. Like it was just outside my window.”
Kalo’s hand squeezed mine. “I felt the same thing, coming from outside the house, after the alarm went off.”
I wished he’d told me so when it happened, but to be fair, I hadn’t told him either.
Felix’s eyes dropped to our joined hands. “Maybe the mate bond played a role? Maybe you could feel it because it’s tied to your mate. Which… actually, that might help us. It won’t be looking for you, but you might be able to sense it.”
Kalo’s head snapped towards the Beta, his amber eyes narrowed. “Are you suggesting using Leo as bait?”
His almost-protective tone caught me completely off guard, and my chest tightened again, that time with warmth.
Felix blinked, also taken aback for a moment by Kalo’s tone. “No, not at all. I’m just wondering if Leo could help us get closer without attracting its attention. But we need more information before we even think of attempting anything. We have almost nothing to go on.”
Calista nodded in agreement. “I’m going to reach out to my old hunting network. There might be reaper sightings we can cross-reference.”
Vaughan gave his assent and added, “I’ll contact Brendan as well. If anyone understands entities like this, it’s him.”
Since I’d filed all the reports about the incident with the spirit back when Calista joined us, I knew who Brendan was: a human with knowledge about the supernatural world whom Vaughan had consulted at the time.
I knew nothing about the man personally, but at that point, I was ready to speak to anyone who might be able to keep my mate safe.
A heavy hush settled over the room, and with my enhanced werewolf hearing, I could count every fluttering beat of Kalo’s heart. Strangely, it had remained fairly steady through all the discussion of reapers, only kicking up when he thought Felix meant to put me in danger.
I didn’t want to read too much into it when my heart was also working overtime as I contemplated all the pitfalls awaiting us.
“Is it safe for Kalo to leave the house?” I asked the room at large.
Felix shrugged apologetically. “Unfortunately, no walls are going to keep a reaper out. They don’t use doors or windows. Until we learn more, he’s just as safe in the open as he is in here.”
Which meant not very safe at all.
“Until we have some answers, then, Kalo should stay with Leo,” Vaughan concluded. “Since Leo’s the only other person who can sense the reaper, that might give you both some advantage.”
My wolf hummed with fierce approval. Yes. Keep him close. We’ll protect him.
How we would do that, I had no idea, but when Kalo turned to me and nodded his agreement, I also didn’t really care. I’d protect him with my life if it came to it.
If a reaper wanted to get to him, it would have to go through me first.