Counting Stars #2
“No. I lived in another galaxy.”
I know there are other lands, the Fae lands being one, but this is the first time I’ve met someone not of Heaven, Earth, or Hell.
“I’m from a small planet too far for Earth to glimpse even with their fancy telescopes and space travel,” she explains. “It’s similar to Earth’s Scotland in way of terrain, but it’s much smaller. The entirety of my planet is the size of the United States.”
“Interesting. What’s it called?”
“Searfoss.”
“You’ll have to tell me about it sometime.”
She beams. “I will. But back to why you hunt,” she presses. “I’m so intrigued.”
I sigh, not knowing where to even begin. “To be honest, when I fell, I was miserable. I wanted back into Heaven, and the closest thing to that was hunting demons. I devoted my entire existence while I was on Earth to doing that.”
“Why did you fall if you didn’t want to leave Heaven?”
My eyes land on Lee’s, and she looks away.
“I fell in love.”
Cat’s eyes widen. “Oh … well I guess that’s one reason to fall.” She doesn’t seem convinced that my reasoning makes sense.
I shrug. “If you’ve never been in love, you wouldn’t understand.”
Her eyes squint in confusion. “But you said you were miserable.”
“I did,” I admit. “When I fell, I realized that the man wasn’t exactly who I thought he was.”
She gasps. “You were catfished. I’ve heard about that,” she says, sounding excited by the prospect.
“Some of the reapers”—she leans in conspiratorially—“well, they kind of have a sort of Earth obsession. They collect stuff while there on assignment. Even though they’re not supposed to,” she whispers.
“One smuggled in a cell phone with some YouTube clips recorded on it. We’re really not supposed to have that stuff, so don’t mention it to the queen, please. ”
I mimic zipping my lips. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“So tell me, was it a woman?”
I laugh at how invested she is in something that didn’t quite happen. “No, it was not a woman.”
I suck on my teeth, trying to decide whether to admit the truth to this reaper. I’ve already made one of them faint today; should I tempt River’s wrath? What the heck do I care? She asked. They both did.
“It was Lucifer.”
Gasps, grunts, and even a shriek pop off like gunshots around us. I can’t even process all the sounds that just assaulted me. Apparently, every reaper in the vicinity had been tuned in to what I thought was a private conversation.
“Lucifer as in Satan?” Cat asks.
“One and the same,” Lee grinds.
“I’m so sorry. That’s horrible. For him to mess with you like that … I mean … I’ve never had any direct contact with him, but most of the reapers who have don’t make it seem like he’s as bad as Heaven has led people to believe.”
“He’s not,” I snap a little too forcefully in Lee’s direction. I soften my tone and turn back to Cat. “For the record, I wasn’t miserable because of who he was. I was miserable because he thought I couldn’t handle the truth, and he left.”
“Oh.” It’s all she says, looking horrified.
“That’s water under the bridge, though. We’re together again.”
She shuffles her feet, looking at the ground. “I’m sorry if this is overstepping, but aren’t you to marry River?”
Lee grunts, and I laser her with a glower. “Stay out of this. We just made amends; don’t make me take that back.”
Her hands rise in surrender, but I don’t miss the smirk she sports at my distress.
River is the second highest reaper in this kingdom and I’m about to make it clear I have no interest in him. That can’t go over well. At least, I imagine it won’t.
“That’s … not happening. He seems great, but my heart belongs to Lucifer.”
There, I softened it as much as possible.
“I just … I thought the queen …”
“Yeah, well … it’s not going to be a thing. Even if Camille demands it.”
Cat appears to ponder what I’ve said for a couple minutes, looking more confused by the second. “You don’t find him attractive?” she finally asks.
I smile. “It’s not that I don’t, but I love someone else. That matters more.”
She nods her head, but she doesn’t seem to be comprehending what I’m saying, so I change the subject.
“Are you done for the day?”
“Yeah, I think so. I have patrol shortly.”
Something crackles, and she grabs at her ears. “It’s an announcement,” she says in explanation.
That’s when I realize she’s wearing an earpiece.
“Okay boys, time to finish up. We have some preparations to work on.”
“Preparations?” Lee asks.
“Apparently there’s to be a ball tomorrow in your honor. The directive just came down from River, straight from the queen herself.”
“So the damsel’s finally awake?”
Lee snorts.
Cat looks between us, perplexed. “Awake?
“Never mind,” I say, not wanting to get into the specifics of what’s happened. “Lee, can you help me find my room? I’ll see you later, Cat.”
“See you later, princ—Tori,” she corrects, smiling shyly.
I wave over my shoulder. My mind is stuck on this ball. Reapers didn’t strike me as creatures who put stock in fancy shindigs. I’m definitely going to need a lot of rest if I’m to grin and bear a ball. Especially one in my honor.