Chapter Fifteen
Ossy
As soon as we arrived at the farm, I would show Phin how much he mattered to me. I would show him there was a connection, even if we couldn’t feel it at the Soul Management Bureau. The farther from Donn’s realm, the more Phin would feel our connection.
Even though I could no longer tell if Phin was my beloved, I could still express my love for him.
That was something Donn couldn’t take away from me.
Because that was the thing: Phin and I had built a bond, and all those times together had meant something.
They weren’t wasted moments that amounted to just getting each other off and moving on with our day.
I felt the connection, even if it didn’t seem like it.
I knew Phin was scared and that the love was shared.
It wasn’t one-sided. That meant Donn couldn’t block everything.
Just that niggle of knowledge when I encounter a beloved, including my own.
That was what pissed me off most about this whole thing.
So we had beloveds, but we weren’t supposed to have feelings for them?
Everyone, dead and alive, was loved by someone.
I hadn’t met a person yet who went unloved.
The families of the dead grieved for them.
Their absence caused pain. But the pain was really the love they felt.
Grief equals love. If something happened to Phin, it would devastate me.
I mean, technically, he was immortal and could walk between realms, including between the afterlife and the living.
Nothing could ever separate us. Or maybe I should never say never.
It would be difficult to separate us since we were bonded.
Even if he had never recognized the bond for what it was, he had felt something, right? He let me hold him. That had to mean he accepted me as his love, at least on some level. “You’re mine, baby.”
“You’re mine, too.” It came out breathy, as if he were saying it more to himself than to me. Maybe it was too much for him to hope for, which made me sad on some level. It meant there was also doubt alongside hope.
“I’m definitely yours,” I countered.
I wished I could see his face better. I wanted to read his expression. Did he have that sparkle in his eyes when I annoyed him, even though he secretly thought it was cute? Did he smile because hope outweighed his doubt?
I tilted his chin and kissed him. I kept it brief because if I deepened it, the kiss would pull us under, to the point that I would forget where we were. It always did. Every time we came together, I lost everything else.
I could no longer see the door. The room expanded.
The colored folders grew in number, their shelves multiplying.
We were stuck somewhere in the middle of the madness.
I heard the door open. I saw the shreds of light, dim but stretching through the tops of the files like fingers reaching out to us.
And I heard the gentle click as it closed.
Phin stiffened.
I locked my arms around him, unwilling to lose him if the worst happened.
I couldn’t hear footsteps. No shoes hit the tile. That told me it was a demon. In the dark, I might not see the shadow when it came. We couldn’t stay in one place. They’d find us soon enough if we did. We had to keep moving.
I kept my arm around Phin’s waist as I guided us down a row.
When we reached the end, I peeked around the corner.
There, between the stacks, was the shadow of a demon, barely visible yet darker than the surrounding shadows.
I didn’t know whether there was more than one in the room.
Probably. Those HR demons stuck together.
They hunted in packs like wolves. We turned together and headed the other way.
Phin ended up in front of me. I held his hand as he peeked around the corner. He nodded. We moved as quietly as possible around the stacks, getting closer to the door with each turn. So far, our luck had held.
As soon as the thought entered my mind, a demon appeared.
Its shadow was thick and menacing, hovering just above the floor in front of us.
I turned and ran toward the back of the closet, pulling Phin along.
It was the wrong direction from where we wanted to go.
The main objective was to get as far away from the demon as possible.
We’d worry about leaving the closet once we solved our demon problem.
Another demon came down the row toward us. It felt like they were herding us, pushing us where they wanted us to go, most likely into a corner. It was not good. Not good at all. That would be our demise.
I cut down another row between the shelves, pulling Phin with me. We had to keep moving. That was all we could do. Eventually, we could head in the right direction, but with the room expanding, I wasn’t sure where that was anymore.
At the end of the row, I would have turned left toward the door, but a demon waited. I cursed and turned right. Two more stood in front of us, and one behind. I cut down another row between the shelves, but another demon was waiting for us.
I stopped. Demons surrounded us. With my heartbeat thundering in my ears, I knew we had to reassess the situation.
The light flickered, then turned on. That was when I saw just how many surrounded us—at least six.
Phin clung to me, shaking. “Oh gods, Ossy.”
I kept my arm around him.
The lights cut off again. This time, the darkness was absolute, completely taking over in a way that was unnatural in the Soul Management Bureau building.
Something changed, but what?
My other senses kicked into overdrive. And that was when I felt it. The breeze and the sound of leaves rustling together in the trees. We weren’t in the Bureau building anymore. We were in Tech Duinn.