Chapter 27 Where’s the Scythe?
Chapter twenty-seven
Where's the Scythe?
Cian
My head is pounding and my chest feels tight. I can feel the wet tracks on my cheeks and a breeze ruffling my hair. I try to open my eyes, but they flutter stubbornly as my body struggles to get in line with my befuddled mind. What the fuck happened to me? Where is…
“Trissa!” My eyes fly open and I pull in a gasping breath as I push upright and fight against the spinning feeling that follows me.
“About fucking time, sleeping beauty! Who fucking FAINTS in the middle of an emergency, Cian? Do you have any idea—I might have actually pissed my pants. Either that or it’s Trissa’s… Trissa’s…” Seth chokes on his words and draws in a quick, panicked breath.
“I—I didn’t faint, I was with…” My head finally catches up to what’s happening around me as my eyes widen with dread.
No. “Trissa!” I can feel my heart stop beating in my chest at the sight of Trissa, my Trissa, lying bloody and unresponsive in Seth’s lap.
“What the fuck is going on Seth? Why is she—is she?” My heart lurches and starts racing painfully as panic floods my veins.
“Cian—I…”
I can feel Seth’s concerned stare, but I refuse to meet his eyes.
I lean forward and grab Trissa into my arms, carefully cradling her head and pressing kisses into her hair, her quickly cooling skin sending goosebumps over my own.
FUCK! Was it a dream? Did I fucking faint and dream it all up while Trissa was…
No. My head shakes and I hold onto her tighter as I feel my mind starting to fray.
No. NO! It was real. It was… it was real. It was…
“Cian, love, you need to let me go.” Trissa’s voice is gentle, with an otherworldly ring to it that’s not quite right.
A sob escapes my throat and I whine, shaking my head frantically. I’m going fucking crazy. I squeeze my eyes shut at the sound of Seth’s indrawn breath.
“Fucking hell! You owe me new pants, six hugs, and at least three fucking pizza parties for the sheer amount of stress you’ve put me through tonight.”
Trissa laughs and I pause. If Seth is talking to her—that means…
I lean back and look down at her lifeless face and shudder.
What the fuck is… wait. My eyes are drawn to a flicker of movement and I gasp.
There’s a thin, glowing blue thread coming from Trissa’s chest. I follow the line of it up and away from her body to—relief crashes down on me so viscerally that I growl.
There, connected to the soul thread coming from Trissa’s body, is a perfect duplicate of Trissa, looking at me with so much tenderness that my breath catches.
Her eyes sparkle as she answers Seth, never taking her eyes off me. “Deal.”
“Trissa…You’re real? You… chose me?” My throat closes up as a tear trickles down my cheek. I’m too emotionally raw to even give a shit or wipe it away.
She smiles at me and nods.
“Alright, well, let’s get the show on the road, yeah?
We’ve got… eh—maybe ten minutes until the Guild shows up.
If we’re lucky.” With a tremendous amount of effort, I break eye contact with Trissa’s soul-form and glance at Seth.
My eyes bulge at the sight of the overly ornate scissors in his hands as Trissa frowns.
“What the fuck are those?” Her voice is doubtful and I nod my head in puzzlement, apparently still too shell-shocked to process things in real time.
Seth’s eyes slide to the scissors in his hands and he shrugs. “They’re my soul reaping scissors.”
“What do you mean?” Trissa tilts her head, a pout forming on her pretty lips. Gods, I want to kiss those lips.
Seth clucks his tongue and sticks his hip out with attitude. “I mean I use them to sever souls.” As he speaks he opens and closes the scissors in the air in display.
“Soul reaping… scissors? Are you for real? Where’s the scythe?” Her brows shoot to her hairline and she squints her eyes, clearly unimpressed.
Seth scoffs and his eyes flare blue with annoyance.
“Do you know how heavy a fucking scythe is? You know how tight I like my pants… where would I even put it?” He huffs with amusement.
“Besides, the scissors are more personable. Now, shut up and get over here so I can harvest your soul.” He glances over his shoulder anxiously, clearly expecting to see guild members appear at any moment.
Trissa’s soul floats closer to me and she shakes her head, “No, you can’t. Cian has to.” Her eyes meet mine and she nods toward the key on the ground between my body and her corpse. “You need to use the blade on the key.”
I snap to attention and spring into action like I’ve been electrocuted. My fingers close around the key and I ask, “Is that all? Do I… need to say anything, or?” I raise the key to the soul thread coming from her chest and pause.
“Nope. Gran said you just have to cut the thread with the key. She… already did the spell and paid the debt for this.” Trissa’s voice is soft and I glance up to see her eyes soften with emotion. I swallow thickly as she nods, urging me to continue.
“Thank you.” I hold her gaze as I slice through the soul thread, putting as much love and feeling into those two simple words as I can manage, and binding us together… eternally.
Trissa’s soul-form flickers and she smiles as the key is pulled by an invisible force from my hand, to hover in the air between us.
We all watch as a small stream of Trissa’s soul starts to float into the key, and I gasp as a ripple runs over me, my eyes widening with wonder as a stream of my own soul joins hers into the key.
Faint pops of sound come from behind Seth, and he turns away quickly to intercept whoever just showed up.
The key starts to spin in the air, tangling our threads together until it’s impossible to tell whose is whose.
It stops all at once as a bright flash fills the space between us.
I blink and watch with awe as the threads of our souls turn a deeper shade of blue, looking almost purple as they slowly retreat from the key and return to each of us.
By the time the end of the strands appear, the key has vanished, and instead of two separate soul threads, there’s just the one, joining us together.
Trissa’s soul-form glows brighter and I squint as the light slowly dissipates, and Trissa floats to the ground.
As her feet touch, she shimmers and blinks into a corporeal form right next to her corpse.
The soul tether between us winks out of sight, but I can still feel the connection.
She smiles brilliantly at me for a moment before she jumps into my lap.
A laugh bubbles out of me and I wrap my arms around her waist as I pull us to our feet. My hands shake as I raise them to frame her beautiful face, and I lean forward until our foreheads touch. She rubs her nose against mine and lets out a breathy laugh against my lips.
“Hi.” She presses a sweet kiss to my mouth before she smiles, our lips still touching.
I laugh on a shaky breath as my eyes and throat burn with feeling, “Hi.”
We’re pulled out of our stolen moment of bliss as a deep and agitated voice growls out, “Sephtis Drowgar… what the fuck have you done?”