Chapter Thirty
~Leo~
For several seconds after the reaper spoke, neither Kalo nor I said a word. Cold radiated from the hooded figure. The trap beneath the rug hummed a low vibration I could feel through the mattress beneath me, and the lights overhead flickered in response to the supernatural presence below them.
My mind, however, refused to focus on anything other than the reaper’s words.
I’m not here for you.
What the fuck did that mean?
Kalo seemed to recover from his shock first, and he leaned forward, his amber eyes fixed on the figure at the foot of the bed.
“If you’re not targeting me, why can I see you?”
The reaper tilted her head beneath the shadow of the hood. “I don’t know. It’s never happened to me before. Your mind draws me into your dreams, but the connection isn’t of my making.”
Kalo frowned, clearly trying to make sense of that, but Silo beat him to it.
It’s because she’s magic, my wolf growled in my head. That’s why he can sense her.
Immediately, I shared the thought out loud with my mate. “Felix and Calista said your magical sensitivity still exists. It must make you susceptible to her energy.”
Kalo turned towards me, his brows knotted with worry. “Then why can you see her?”
A cold weight settled in the pit of my stomach as the answer slid into place with terrifying clarity.
Every time the reaper appeared, I’d been there. Every time Kalo had dreamed about her, I’d been nearby. Every time he sensed something watching, I felt it too.
I’d assumed the mate bond was to blame, that I was tuned into the danger through our connection, but a new, undeniable truth made far more sense.
“Because I’m the one she’s here for.”
Kalo’s eyes widened in shock and, unless I completely misread it, dismay. At least the idea of me dying didn’t please him. I could take some comfort in that.
“No. That can’t be right.”
He could deny it if he wanted to, but it was so obvious now that I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t guessed it before.
“I thought I was picking up on her because of my proximity to you, but it was the other way around.”
“No,” Kalo stated again, his head swivelling between me and the reaper. “There has to be another explanation. Maybe…”
Before he could devise any alternate theories, the reaper cut him off with three simple words.
“He is correct.”
The confirmation should have scared me, but if anything, relief dominated my mix of emotions.
Kalo wasn’t going to die. I’d saved him that day in the Ravenstone forest, exactly as I meant to.
Whatever happened to me, I could live with…
or not live with, as the case may be. As long as my mate stayed safe, I would come to terms with it.
The reaper’s featureless hood made it difficult to guess what she might be feeling, or even if she was capable of feeling anything at all, so I stuck to logic for my next question. It suited me better that way anyway.
“If you’ve come to claim me, why don’t you just take me and be done with it? Why are you following me?”
Her unnatural stillness before answering was unnerving. Her cloak didn’t even shift as she breathed. Did she breathe? I had no idea.
“It’s not that simple,” she finally said.
I should have guessed. “What complicates it?”
“The bond between you.”
Those words were unexpected, and when I glanced over at Kalo, he could only shrug. Apparently, neither of us knew what she meant. “I don’t understand.”
Her voice remained calm and almost detached as she laid it out for us. “When you prevented his death, you disrupted the natural order. His soul had already begun its passage. The path had opened.”
In my memory, I could still see the strange way Kalo had seemed to phase between this reality and another, fading in and out of existence. Was that the ‘path’ she meant?
“You pulled him back, and the balance was broken. A life was claimed but not delivered. Death doesn’t permit such discrepancies, and as the perpetrator, he blames you. I was sent to bring you to him."
Him? She spoke of death as an acquaintance, or perhaps her superior, and the familiarity chilled me all over again. All of this was surreal, but focusing on that aspect wouldn’t help us. We needed to find out what our options were, assuming we had any.
“What does our bond have to do with it?” Kalo asked.
“The bond between you is unfinished. It hasn’t been rejected but hasn’t been completed either. You are neither two lives nor one.”
Understanding crept slowly through my tangled mess of thoughts. “You can’t act until a choice is made.”
She didn’t reply, which in my mind confirmed I was right. I kept going, following the logic to its natural conclusion.
“If Kalo rejects me, then he dies, as he was originally meant to. But if he accepts me, you’ll take me in his place, because I stole him from death. Is that the choice?”
“Then I’ll reject you,” Kalo stated before the reaper could respond. “You’re not dying because of me. Tell me how to reject it, and I’ll do it.”
“No.”
The word snapped out of me with all of Silo’s force behind it, and Kalo blinked at me in surprise.
A second later, the door burst open, and Felix and Calista rushed in, obviously having heard my outburst too. They immediately pulled up short, their eyes fixed on the reaper at the foot of the bed.
“Holy shit,” Felix breathed, and Calista’s hand went to the iron blade at her side, drawing it out in seconds with a practised, steady hand.
“I guess you can see her too?” I asked wryly.
Felix shot a disbelieving look in my direction. “Her?”
“What else did we miss?” Calista asked, her eyes not leaving the supernatural intruder.
“Leo, please.” Kalo took my hand, drawing my attention back to him. “You did your best to save me. You gave me this extra time we’ve had together, and it’s been wonderful, but I won’t let you give up your life for me. I don’t deserve it.”
The fact that he so obviously believed that stung my heart, but I forced myself to put emotion to one side. “We don’t have to rush into anything. She’s trapped, remember? As long as she’s in that circle, she can’t take either of us. We have some time. We can figure something else out.”
I had no idea whether or not that was true, or if there could be any alternative to the reaper’s cruel choice, but I did know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I would never let Kalo sacrifice himself for me that way he had for Akkara.
No matter how this ended, I would never allow that.