Page 86 of Dante's Circle Reborn

Eva’s eyes widened.

“Torrent died protecting his brother’s mate. Protectingmymate. It was during the first war of the dragons, the one of the lightning-struck. He wasn’t destined to die then?”

Reaper looked between them, and Eva sucked in a breath, unable to do anything.

“I do not know. And as one who has held fate in his hands, who has been to the loom itself, that worries me. There has been a shift, not merely that of the lightning-struck, but of something more. I will have to figure out exactly what that means.”

“So, I died for no reason?” Ashen growled out.

“Perhaps. Or maybe the reason was to protect those you loved, to come back to safeguard another.”

Ashen looked at Eva, and her hand squeezed his arm even harder.

“She was not meant to die,” Reaper began, and she started, looking at him.

“Excuse me?”

“The other reaper, the one you so easily killed—something you’re not supposed to do by the way—was the one who found your name in fate. He was the one who gave me your name at first, Ashen, when you were Torrent. He lied. For reasons unknown. Perhaps he wanted to be fate itself, wanted that power. We may never know, but I will find out.”

Ashen began to laugh, but there was no humor in it.

“I died for that man’s amusement? And I almost killed my mate, an innocent, for nothing. I won’t kill her. I won’t kill for you at all. I want no part of this.”

Reaper nodded. “Understandable. However, you will always be a reaper. You will always have those powers.”

“I refuse to reap.”

There was a finality in his tone that Eva agreed with. After everything that had just occurred, she didn’t blame him.

“We can discuss that in a hundred years or so,” Reaper said calmly as if he hadn’t just passed a century between them in terms of what Ashen needed to do.

“What does that mean?” Eva asked.

“It means, I apologize for the inconvenience.”

“Death, an inconvenience?” she asked incredulously.

“When you’ve been touched by as much death as I have, sometimes, it’s nearly just. I am sorry for what happened, but I am glad that you found your mate. We will give you a century, Ashen, for you to find your path. If you choose to come back to us, we would be grateful. After all, there is a spot open in our Collective, and with the fate of the worlds resting on our shoulders, the loom needs to be read.”

And with that, the ten shrouded figures disappeared, leaving the three of them standing there slack-jawed and wide-eyed.

“Well, that doesn’t happen every day,” Levi said, tapping his fingers on the wood next to him. “Or maybe it does in my case. Being mated to a lightning-struck seems to change everything.”

Eva looked over at Levi, blinked, then turned back to Ashen. “What now?”

Ashen shook his head and then leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. “Now, I suppose, we figure out exactly who I am.”

She looked up at him and knew that this was the beginning. The start of everything that she had ever hoped for. She wanted to find out what would happen with him, what would happen with them.

And without the reapers on her tail, she would finally have time to do that.

ChapterFive

Ashen looked up at the sign for the old bar that reminded him of an Irish pub and frowned.

“Dante’s Circle?”

“It’s his bar. Dante. And his circle of friends. Plus, I think he enjoyed theDivine Comedy.”

---