Page 23 of Merciless
“She’ll find a way to come for us.” Shadow used to sound so optimistic, so gung-ho. Now even he didn’t seem convinced by his own words. “You should go to Gunner’s hot spring with her when we’re back. It’s a beautiful, secluded little place. It’ll be perfect for you two to reconnect.”
That did make me laugh, which quickly turned into a wracking, wet cough that felt like knives dragging along the inside my lungs. I probably had pneumonia. And, fuck, probably cancer from all my damn smoking. Just as well.
“Be quiet!” A guard smacked his rifle on our cell door.
“He really needs a doctor,” Shadow answered.
“You think I give a fuck whatheneeds?”
“…don’t…” I tried to warn Shadow, but the guard had already decided. I heard a metal clang as he began to unlock the door.
“The Sha wants him alive, right? He won’t be for much longer, he’s in bad fucking shape.” Sweet, innocent Shadow, still thinking reason applied to these people. Still thinking he could save me, that we’d reunite happily with our family if we just kept the hope alive.
“The Sha can bring him back if he dies.”
Boots scuffled across the stone floor toward me, then one snapped up to kick me in the face. The slap of cold, filthy stone hit my temple as I slumped over.
“Stop! Come hit me, you fucking coward!”
As usual, Shadow’s pleas went ignored as the guard whistled for more to join him. The blows pelted down, my body already too beaten-down and exhausted to react anymore. Sliding into unconsciousness felt different this time.
I might not make it back,was my last realization before it took me under.
The strangest sensationwoke me up. I couldn’t place it as I squinted against the bright sunlight. The feeling was so jarring, it didn’t occur to me until a moment later how strange it was to seesunlight.
I touched my abdomen, face, and arms frantically in disbelief. I couldmove.The endless blue sky above me nearly brought me to tears as I figured out what this feeling was.
I wasn’t in pain anymore.
Which meant I had to be dead.
I rolled up to sit, my surroundings even more shocking than the lack of pain in my body. I was home, in the community where I grew up. My old neighbors’ RVs and cabins surrounded me on either side, with the steep canyon walls of Yavapai Point in the distance.
Taking a glance behind me, I sawmyhouse exactly as I had left it. Everything looked pristine, not like an abandoned ruin like when I brought Mari here to tell her about how I grew up. It felt like I could walk around the back to find Carter lifting weights, or Nolan tilling the soil to grow vegetables. Or even Daren.
I scrambled to my feet, suddenly eager to reunite with the family I’d lost.
“They’re not here, Reaper.”
I whipped around at the sound of a voice I knew all too well, to see a man I didn’t recognize standing where there had been no one before.
“Hades,” I said.
“Correct.”
The God of the Underworld looked like…a normal guy. If I passed him in a crowd, I probably wouldn’t look twice. He had brown hair and eyes with a clean-shaven, unremarkable face. He walked toward me at an unhurried pace, like he expected to find me here.
“Why isn’t my family here?” My eyes bounced around all of the surrounding structures. “Why isno onehere?”
“Because you’re not dead.” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets, an oddly human gesture for someone who spent so much time as a dog. “Not yet, anyway.”
“So why am I seeing you?”
“You’re on death’s doorstep, as the saying goes.” Hades said it easily, even lightheartedly, like we were two strangers chit-chatting in line for food. “You’re in a coma. And if you don’t receive medical attention soon, youwilldie.”
“Let me guess.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Mari and the guys aren’t anywhere near close to breaking us out, are they?”
Hades didn’t say anything, which was enough of an answer for me.
