Chapter Four
Ossy
Aphone call was all I had, so I sat at the kitchen table with Tan’s whiskey half gone and my phone in hand.
Joel and Miles argued in the living room about how shady their new situation was.
I agreed with Joel. It wasn’t that shady, considering they were in Elliot’s house.
It wasn’t like I dropped them in the Between or anything like that.
Miles seemed to like being in control. He wasn’t exactly the daredevil type. He probably didn’t even watch scary movies. Whatever, man. Maybe it was baked into his personality. I didn’t blame him. A guy in a cloak said, “Come with me.” Blindly following was stupid in most cases.
I dialed Phin’s number for the fourth time in twenty minutes.
He was ignoring me, which, of course, he was.
I didn’t have to teleport into his living room to know he was watching late-night television and chewing his lip every time the name Asshole Reaper popped up on his phone screen.
And before you ask, yes, that was how he had me saved in his phone.
And then he took a picture of me with jelly on my cheek to remind himself of the mess I’d made of his life and that he shouldn’t have started fucking me in the first place.
I knew Phin better than I knew just about anyone.
I knew how his mind worked. And I knew exactly why he wasn’t answering my calls. He thought I was flaking on him again.
I would wear him down, even if I had to blow up his phone. I didn’t care if it was a stalkerish, dickhead move.
His not answering was entirely my fault, though. I took a lot for granted with Phin, and it was biting me in the ass.
Miles was five seconds away from stabbing me with the sharpest object he could find, which happened to be one of the knives in the block on the kitchen counter next to a butcher block. He stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room.
Joel seemed comfortable in the house. So comfortable that he immediately went to the kitchen to look for food. He went for the ice cream, which was a good choice.
The bottle of Jack was a quarter gone by the time Phin finally answered his phone. “Fuck, man. Where have you been?”
“Oh, that’s rich coming from a guy who ghosts me regularly.” Phin sounded fine, as healthy and feisty as ever. Thank the gods.
I let out a sigh of relief. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He paused for a heartbeat. “Where has everyone been?” he whispered.
My heart jumped. I didn’t know what to say.
My instinct was to tell him the truth, but Morgana made it clear that doing so would put Phin in danger.
The more the whiskey warmed me from the inside out, the more I had to agree.
I didn’t want to lie to him either. I’d never lied up to that point.
Sure, I’d gotten caught up in other things: waves, liquor, parties.
I always told him the truth about where I’d been.
“I can’t tell you that. Not yet.” That was the truth, at least. Maybe I couldn’t explain why, but lying to him wasn’t an option.
Without a single reply, the call ended. Phin hung up on me. In the past, when phones were big and clunky, slamming the receiver down was far more satisfying. I took comfort in knowing that Phin couldn’t experience that by pressing a button on a screen.
“Fuck!” I banged my fist on the table. It helped, but only marginally. I was mad at myself, not at Phin.
Miles jumped and recoiled into the living room, behind the wall. The poor guy didn’t know what was happening any more than Phin did. He certainly didn’t trust me. Not that I blamed him. I might have had a good reason to kidnap him, but I still took him against his will.
“You’re safe, man. I’m just upset because my guy hung up on me.” Even though I deserved it, it still stung.
“Why?” Miles was cautious as he stepped across the threshold again. He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at me. It would have been intimidating if he were larger.
“Because I can’t explain something to him.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Ugh.” I sat back in the chair and shut my eyes.
I'd made a grand mess of things with Phin. I would apologize, but I’d already done that about a thousand times.
I’d skipped out on our plans and apologized afterward.
It wasn’t always better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Too often, that attitude had made Phin stop trusting me. “Both.”
Miles shrugged and glanced at the fork and plate on the table. “That’s gross.”
“Tell my brothers. Not me.” I didn’t leave it there. I was pretty sure Azriel did, but only because he’d been eating when Morgana ordered us all to find beloveds and reap souls. “We should all be on a cleaning rotation.”
“Yeah, not my problem.” Miles’s scowl deepened.
“It will be when you’re on the rotation, too. You can’t go anywhere. It’s not safe.” Not that Miles believed or trusted me.
“I’m going home just as soon as Elliot tells me what the hell is going on.” He yelled Elliot’s name, not for the first time.
The last thing I wanted to deal with was someone else’s beloved. I already had enough problems with my own. To start, Phin was in danger and didn’t know it. If I knew who Miles belonged to, I would make him that reaper’s problem. Whoever it was owed me big time.
I dialed Phin’s number again.
This time, he answered on the first ring. “Are you going to explain what’s going on?”
“I can’t, baby.”
“Don’t call me until you do. And don’t call me baby. I have been ghosted for the last time, Ossy Reaper. I mean it this time.” With that, the phone went silent. Again.
Gods, I hated not being able to tell Phin.
I set my phone on the table around the same time Miles lunged for what I thought was a knife, but he grabbed the butcher block instead and hurled it at me.
I moved at the last second. The heavy slab of wood crashed into the kitchen cabinet.
Nothing broke, but that had more to do with where the block hit than anything else.
The block slammed onto the floor and sat there, a casualty of war.
That was about the same time Elliot came down, looking very satisfied and relaxed. He had just showered.
“What the fuck, Miles?”
I zoned out when Grym came down the stairs. I caught the part about Miles and Elliot dating at one point, but my mind was on Phin.
Ezul showed up. His shadowy form, taking shape in the center of the living room, pulled my focus back to the present.
All I heard was Ezul say, “I’m working with the reapers to keep beloveds safe.” That was enough to make me realize it was now or never if I was going to rescue Phin. Ezul’s help getting into the building was all I needed.