Page 65 of Paris and the Reaper

“You’d know,” the stranger sneered. “It’s my turn now.” Yellow and gray swirled in his eyes, blotting out the green, and he conjured two sizzling yellow globes of magic.

And Paris knew with heartbreaking certainty what came next.

“Evan, no!” Atlas shouted, but he was too late.

With one hand, Evan flung a globe at him. Atlas barely managed a magical green shield before getting slammed back into a tree, his magic no match for Evan’s, which disappeared Atlas from the scene before he could throw the green globe he’d had in hand.

Before Evan, with his other hand, hurled the other yellow globe directly at Deborah.

Paris ripped himself out of the vision, nearly losing his stomach as he gasped for breath, his own fingers digging into the earth, reconnecting to this plane, waiting for the ringing in his ears to give way to the jazz notes of the bond that anchored him here. He’d come back with Liam for the lingering soul, give him the peace he deserved, but Paris had needed to get out of there, to plant his soul firmly back here before it got sucked further into tragedy and pain.

“It wasn’t him, was it?” Mary asked once he finally righted himself with Robin’s help. At some point during his vision, the coyote had moved to his side, a steadying hand wrapped around his biceps.

“It wasn’t,” Paris said, and Robin yanked back his hand like he’d been burned. “What do you mean it wasn’t him?”

“It wasn’t him,” he repeated. “He’s after the same thing you are. The person who killed your sister. Evan.”

Mary gasped.

“You didn’t know?” Robin said.

“Not all of it.” Sadness flashed across her hazel eyes before she shoved to her feet. “Well, we’re going to find him first.” She kicked Robin in the knee with her booted foot. “Let’s go. We have a new mission.”

“We?” Robin rose, almost as quickly as his bushy blond brows. “They’ll think I took you.”

“They already think you’re a traitor. What’s one more betrayal?”

As Paris rose, he worried how many more barbs like that Robin could take. Yes, he was a selfish ass, but beneath that front was a man ravaged by guilt, by a heart that was too big for the tragedies that continued to pummel it, by the death he doled out for a living. Darkness soaked his aura, and Paris feared he’dnever escape it, that no one would ever be able to crack through his walls and find the heart that had so much to offer. So much potential for joy and good.

For love.

If he’d just believe he deserved it. Paris stepped closer and lifted a hand, cupping his dusty cheek. “They may not trust you, but I do. I see your aura. I know what haunts you, why you need to fix this. And on behalf of all of them, I’m trusting you with her.”

A flicker of light in his golden eyes. “He was lucky to find you.”

“I’m the lucky one,” Paris said with a smile, remembering Mac’s soft sleepy one as he’d left that morning. The same one he got to wake up to for the rest of their lives. Anyone with a heart as big as Robin’s deserved that kind of happiness too. “We both got what we deserved. And you will too.”

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