Page 81 of TBR: Dead But Well Read

The flat side of the blade slammed into my side, hurtling me into a metal filing cabinet. I crumpled to the floor, thankful I didn’t need to breathe since it felt like he’d broken several of my ribs and the agony was making it hard to not pass out.

If he’d been a collector, I could have escaped to the reaper plane and he couldn’t have caused me physical pain. Just like a human couldn’t hurt my ghostly body. But there was nowhere I could go that Zacharias couldn’t follow.

“I was so close and you just had to come in here and screw me again.” His fingers grabbed my hair and used it to lift me from the ground.

The searing pain had my eyes burning with unshed tears, but I stubbornly blinked them away. He would never see me cry or hear me scream. Even if he killed me, he’d know he hadn’t broken me.

“Why can’t you be a normal ghost and follow the rules? And why didn’t you vanish the moment my scythe touched you? A slice by a reaper’s scythe is fatal for every living being. Only a reaper can survive the cut of a scythe. Ghosts gopoofwhen touched by a scythe.” He held me in front of him, narrowing his eyes and studying me as if he’d find the answers written on my face. “So what makes you different?”

Relaxing my throat so he wouldn’t hear the anguish I was experiencing on the inside, I borrowed Lochlan’s lazy smirk. “I’m a free spirit.”

Zacharias wasn’t amused and spun around to shove me onto the countertop. Stars sparkled in my vision as my cheek connected with the unforgiving surface and I nearly vomited from the edge of the counter punching me in the gut.

I could teleport far away, but I wasn’t sure if the ghosts and my collectors were far enough away yet. Zacharias couldn’t kill me with his scythe, but my men weren’t immune. And they couldn’t teleport away from him. If I teleported to Saul, there was a chance I could get him back here before Zacharias mowed down hundreds of innocent ghosts and my circle. They would be sitting ducks.

No, I would give them as long as possible before I teleported away from here. Assuming I could still summon the energy to do it.

“You haven’t won,” he hissed against my ear, crushing my battered body into the counter. “I have a backup plan to destroy the reapers because I knew if Saul figured out we weren’t going to help the ghosts into the beyond all at once, like he believed, he’d shut it down. No, for my plan to work, I needed to drain them dry, and Saul wouldn’t have liked that. He was broken and so set on getting justice for his brother that he trusted me without asking questions. Until you showed up and his entire focus changed. It’s amazing what a guy will do for a girl if she knows how to suck a dick.”

Despite my dire situation, my heart soared with happiness. Saul hadn’t known Zacharias’ true plans. My husband might have been the grimmest of reapers on the outside, but he was gooey goodness on the inside. I smiled just thinking about how much he would hate to hear me to say that out loud.

“You think this is amusing?” Zacharias used his grip on my hair to twist my neck to the side with a hard jerk. “You’re not walking or floating out of here alive.”

“Duh. I’m already dead.” I forced out a harsh laugh. “What’s funny is I’m dead, but you’re the one who needs to get a life.”

Zacharias shouted in fury and yanked my head back. I braced myself for the blow I knew was coming. How long had it been since the fight started? How much more could my body take?

The tremors in my muscles, my waning energy, and the sticky fluid that was leaking from my body to pool on the floor answered my question.

I’d underestimated my injuries.

I’d waited too long.

But I didn’t regret my decision. I’d trade myself for the lives of my circle and hundreds of innocent captive ghosts every single time.

If it was my time—again—I couldn’t help but be thankful for the incredible death I’d been given the chance to live.

Zacharias’ eyes were wild and his grin had that unhinged edge that made for the most terrifying horror movies. “The best part of this is knowing your death will destroy Saul. The reaper who could have had it all, but never appreciated it. He lost his brother, he’s about to lose his species, and now he’ll lose his soulmate.”

“You think by bringing Death to his knees, you will prove you’re superior?” I lifted my chin and locked eyes with Zacharias. “Even on his knees, my husband towers above a pathetic, sniveling, butt-munching leech like you. I bet you hide your own Easter eggs and still can’t find them!”

His chest was heaving, and the vein on his temple pulsed. Pressing his scythe against my throat hard enough that it cut a thin line in my skin, he hissed, “Are you finished?”

“Actually, no. There’s one last thing.” This time I was the one wearing the unhinged grin. “You might be faster than me, but you can’t outrun Death.”

I didn’t even get to see his reaction to my Oscar-worthy last words before he vanished.

No, not vanished. Just tossed through space and time faster than any being had traveled before.

I would have collapsed on the floor if not for the arms that caught me mid-air. “Boo!”

“That’s my line, idiot,” I croaked, my throat tightening with unshed tears at seeing Lochlan’s face.

I turned to see Saul’s scythe clash against Zacharias’. Both men were powerful, but Zacharias’ arms and legs trembled from the impact of each blow he blocked.

“I tried to warn him Saul wasn’t going to be happy,” I told Lochlan, wanting to see him smile, rather than look at me with such sorrow in his eyes.

“We’ll be lucky if Saul doesn’t accidentally lose it and reap all of Amberwood with a click of his polished leather loafers.” Lochlan clamped his hands around my forearms, trying to slow the flow of ectoplasm.

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