Page 59 of Paris and the Reaper

He shifted, soaring into the air, and as soon as he did, he saw the smoke billowing through the treetops of the forest. He sailed across the highway and up the hill, cutting a direct path, slicing through the trees, the heat ratcheting up the farther into the woods he flew, the closer he got to the cabin.

A wall of smoke met him at the last dense arch of foliage where the other corvids had retreated. Sailing past them and under the arch, fire and flames greeted him on the other side, stinging his eyes and singeing the ends of his wings as he sailed around the burning cabin, searching for any signs of Paris.

Then hurtling back as a blast of heat erupted from inside the cabin, shattering the glass windows, buckling the walls, and caving in the roof, the entire structure collapsing.

He wasn’t in there, Mac told himself. He couldn’t have been. He would’ve gotten out, and the corvids would’ve escorted him to safety, to him, except they hadn’t. They’d fallen back instead. Like they’d been ordered.

He dove closer to the ground, to where the front step of the cabin once existed. And that was when he saw it, in the morning damp earth, beside the massive footprint that could only belong to a giant.

A familiar oval-shaped paw print.

Mac shifted into human form a few feet shy of the villa’s front door where Liam waited, trench in hand. “I felt you coming.” His brother handed him the coat, and by his pinched brows andanxious gaze, Liam had also sensed the anger and desperation warring inside him. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Where’s Paris?”

Mac shoved his arms into the sleeves and belted the coat around his waist. “Robin’s in the barrel room?”

Liam nodded. “With some of the others. Where’s Paris?” he asked again, voice pitched higher with worry for his friend.

Mac was sure his “Gone” didn’t help, but he needed to get to Robin before the coyote was gone too. As it was, he was shocked the traitor had the gall to return here, unless he wanted to be caught. Which seemed to be the case, his golden gaze locking with Mac’s as soon as he cleared the bottom step. “I can explain.”

Mac flew at him, shoving him two-handed against the nearest wall and snarling through clenched teeth. “What did you do?”

“What he would have.”

“Mac,” Adam said, his footsteps approaching beside him. “What’s going on?”

“I went out this morning to get Paris some tea, and this asshole led the giant right to him.”

“How do you know it was the giant?” Liam asked.

Mac splayed a hand over his chest where the soul bond should be. “Because I felt it, here. Paris’s fear and the fire he associated with him, the resignation when he surrendered himself.” He pressed harder with the other hand against Robin still. “The betrayal. I found your paw print next to the giant’s in the dirt outside the burning cabin. Why’d you do it? Why’d you betray us?”

Robin didn’t put up a fight, didn’t even try to skirt out of the hold Mac had on him. He could have—Robin was bigger, more powerful—but he gave him an explanation instead, their gazes locked. “I was patrolling last night. I found Brett on the outskirts of the property. Paris was right; he was the giant who attackedhim. And he was coming after Pati. I offered him a different target.”

“You brought him to our doorstep.”

“He was ready, Mac. You’re ready.”

“He’s on my fucking list, Robin.” One more hard shove and Mac stepped back, desperation eclipsing anger, his voice ragged as he confessed the secret he’d shared with only a few. “I was supposed to deliver his soul that night at the altar in YB. Same as I had to deliver the first person I ever loved, and now you might’ve just doomed me to do it again.”

Startled sounds echoed around the room, while in front of Mac, Robin paled and slumped against the wall. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know.”

“What else did Brett offer you?” Mary asked from where she stood at the head of the table. “Information on Atlas?”

Robin lowered his chin, running a hand across the back of his neck, a guilty tell Mac had seen countless times over the years, and anger surged once more. But not as fast and fiery as Jason’s, the phoenix’s glowing red fist connecting with Robin’s nose. He reared back for another, but Kai backed him off at the last second.

Only for Icarus to take Jason’s place, seething in Robin’s face. “This vendetta of yours is going to get all of us killed. Do you get that?”

Robin wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve. “I get it, okay.”

“Do you, Robin?” Adam said, as he pulled his partner back. “Because your actions say otherwise, time and again. How many more good people have to die for your selfishness? How many more souls can your conscious bear?”

It was a blow that even Mac, despite his own fury at Robin, felt in his gut, empathy not something he could just turn off.

Robin’s guilty gaze shifted past Adam to him. “I’m sorry,” he said, and Mac believed some part of him meant it. Butanother part of him also knew he’d make the same choice again, evidenced by his words. “But we know who the giant is now, and we know he’ll be in one of two places tomorrow.”

“What if I’m at the wrong one?” Mac said, letting the anguish he felt creep into his voice, the last hour of adrenaline burning out of him, leaving only fear and the very real prospect of despair. “What if I’m not there to save him again?”

“The Canyon Lands,” Adam said, shifting into tactical mode. “We don’t control and couldn’t cleanse that one. There’ll be more lingering souls to offer to Chaos.”

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