Page 116 of When Death Whispers

I exhale. It should bring me relief. It only makes me ache more.

“I don’t want to lose them.”

Steorfan doesn’t speak.

“I don’t want to lose them like the others.” Like my dad. Like my roommate and neighbor when they got too close to me. But I can’t seem to speak their names out loud, the heartbreak and fear all leading to this very moment, where I confront my mortality once and for all.

For a second, I think maybe he didn’t hear me. That the Evergloom absorbed it before it could reach him, swallowing my words the same way it swallows light.

But then he tilts his head—slowly, deliberately—like he’s listening to something else entirely. Not me. Not the room.

Something deeper.

“Those two insignificant mortals at the bakery? They were simply a means to an end. I required their essence to open a portal strong enough to combat the light and bring you here, Snow Pea.”

Guilt slams into me like a punch to the chest. Fuck. I’d almost forgotten about them—Jenna and Donovan.

I didn’t like Jenna, but she didn’t deserve that. Donovan—he was a simple, honest man, someone with a family who’ll be left wondering where he went. A family that will miss him, mourn him.

Shit. Will the police think Hudson had anything to do with it?

My heart starts racing, my breath coming faster as panic creeps up my throat, blurring the edges of my vision. Why didn’t I think of that until now? How the hell do I keep dragging innocent people into this nightmare?

I feel, more than see, his shadows react to my sudden change in emotion, creeping closer but still keeping just out of range, waiting, hovering.

“Do not fret, my sweet,” Steorfan says, his voice as soft as if he’s trying to calm a scared animal. “Their deaths were already foretold. I simply advanced their timeline by a few days.”

His words hang in the air, and I focus on the rythmic pulsing of his shadows, still just hovering around him like extensions of himself, steadying me as I try to breathe. In. Out. It’s the only thing I can focus on—this slow, steady pace.

But then his words sink in.

“What do you mean ‘advanced their timeline’? How did you know?”

“I know death, Parker. Iamdeath. And thus, I can taste when death is looming, when their essence is tainted with their impending end.”

My mind struggles to keep up with what he’s saying. It’s like trying to catch smoke with my bare hands. I have far too many questions and suddenly, my head feels like it’s too small to hold them all.

“So… you knew they were going to die soon?”

Steorfan nods, like this is simple. “Yes.”

“How were they going to die? In what way?”

“Both were going to die in an accident. A swift death was awaiting them, and so a swift death is what I gave them.”

The weight of that revelation sinks into me, the truth of it like a blanket enveloping me. My heart accepts it as a fact before my brain manages to catch up.

But then, what about?—

“My father. You killed my father ten years ago.”

Anger and hatred flare from a lifetime of blaming my shadow monster for all of my grief, not just of losing my loved ones, but also the grief of a life I could’ve had, if only I hadn’t been afraid of the darkness.

My hands tighten into fists, my outrage causing my skin to flush, which causes Steorfan’s head to tilt in curiosity again.

I’m still trying to piece together all the deaths that have followed me. My father. My friends. All of it. I can’t forget—he is still, within his essence,death.

“No, Snow Pea,” Steorfan responds softly. “Your father died of a weak heart. His mortal body failed him. I do not particularly enjoy scaring or hunting the frail.”

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