Page 78 of Dante's Circle Reborn

At his equally blunt words, she stood straighter. “Okay, then. Only, I’m not going to die today.” She knew that was a lie.

“I didn’t know a banshee was supposed to scream…or sing…for their own death.”

Her power slid out of her as she thought of him. Thought about the bond they may share. A song slid through her body, and her eyes widened.

She didn’t sing. Banshees didn’t. They screamed. And yet…she remembered an old folktale, one she hadn’t remembered until now.

Banshees only sang for their true halves, the ones that would be with them for eternity.

But he was death, and she was apparently destined to die. How could that be?

“Do you remember anything about who you were before this? Did you want to be a reaper?” She wanted to get him on a new topic since she was confused. Thankfully, he let her.

“I don’t know if I had a choice about being a reaper.”

“Well, I don’t want to die. So, maybe if you find out who youwere,we can figure out how to save me.”

“I don’t know who I was. Would the man I was before help you? Or would he reap your soul without conscience.”

She looked down at her goose-pebbled flesh and swallowed hard once again. “I don’t know.” A pause. “I have a friend who might be able to help us find out.”

He tilted his head, staring at her. “A friend?”

“Is that jealousy I hear? Just because we have the potential to be mates, doesn’t mean I’m actually going to mate with you.”

“I don’t feel jealousy. I feel nothing.”

Okay, then. “Would you like to meet my friend? Maybe he’ll have some answers.”

“I didn’t help kill you. Perhaps it’s not your time. Maybe it’s because you’re my mate.”

“I’m not going to die today,” she repeated. “I suppose we might have to think about exactly what the idea of being mated means. Because I scream for death, and yet my banshee wants to sing for you. And that only happens with mates. Sometimes. Maybe. I don’t know.”

He stared at her, his unusual eyes unblinking. “Your time may still be coming. I might have to reap your soul no matter what.”

“I hope to the gods that whoever told you to come here was wrong.”

“They can be wrong?” Ashen asked, his voice almost eager now.

“I hope so. Because there’s a reason you’re here. A reason I am. I suppose we should find my friend to figure out exactly what that might be.”

ChapterThree

Ashen was confused once again, but as he’d spent nearly the entirety of his new life in that state, he was used to it. He still couldn’t quite believe that he had passed out while meeting Eva. Had other paranormals ever done that when they found their mates? He hoped so, because he was already different enough, he didn’t want to add to that.

Even as he looked at her as they stood in the middle of the banshee realm, a hill of flowers and darkness surrounding them, all he really wanted was to lean down and touch her.

The mating urge was such a weird thing. He didn’t know exactly what happened with reapers. He didn’t even know if reapers were able tohavemates and the bonds that came with that precious gift. However, he could feel the bear inside him prowling. It wanted, it craved. And he didn’t think it was going to hold back much longer.

Because when a bear found its mate, it was immediately ready for the inevitable, ready for its future. It wanted to mate, mark, and show the world that this person—or people in cases of triads—were theirs. The bear didn’t want to hold back. And, frankly, Ashen wasn’t sure he wanted to either.

Yet, he was going to. This wasn’t the time or place for him to mark his mate. And he wasn’t sure she would want that anyway.

After all, he had come to kill her, or maybe just to take her soul. To reap it.

Reaper had been very insistent that Ashen know he wasn’t killing. He was merely there for death and the taking of souls. Ashen didn’t want to reap Eva’s soul. And not just because she was his mate. Although that was a very large part of it.

No, he didn’t want to do it because it didn’t feel right. It felt as if something were wrong. Like whoever had pulled her name out of a hat, or the cauldron, or had tugged her thread on the loom of fate had been wrong. Eva had so much light inside her, so much life. She didn’t deserve to die. Not that he was the one to decide who deserved death or not. He didn’t have that power, didn’t have that righteousness within him, but he didn’t want to lose Eva when he had just found her.

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