Page 54 of A Shadow in the Reaping
"It can. All you have to do is say yes. But the way I see it, you don't really have another option."
A slow and poisonous smile creeps across Ember's face. My fangs graze my tongue. We're staring at one another when footsteps approach from the far end of the corridor. Neither of us moves. We both know who it is.
"What are you doing here, Ember?" Ashen asks, his voice calm and measured. I glance toward him and his eyes are fused to mine. I turn my gaze back to Ember and she smiles as though we're the best of friends.
"I'm just visiting, brother. I thought Lu might recognize this vampire soul I found wandering nearBit Akalumtonight. I guess not."
Ashen halts at my side and glances at Molpe before training his eyes on his sister. "How lovely. I am sure Lu appreciated the intrusion. Time to go."
Ember's smile grows as she looks from Ashen to me. "You are right, brother. The hour is late. I will see you tomorrow, before you leave."
Ember turns away, pulling the chain with her as Molpe stands before me. My sister's eyes say so much in the instant before she's torn away. She keeps them tied to mine until she's forced to turn away. My throat closes tight, like every second suffocates me. I feel tears gathering in my eyes.
When Molpe turns her back I throw my dagger.
The blade strikes below her shoulder. Molpe drops to her knees. The silverkaikenis still laced with Angelwing. Within a breath she falls to the stone, unmoving.
I notice for the first time that Ashen's hand is curled around my free arm. He could have stopped me, but he let me throw the blade.
Ember looks down at the soul who has died a final death at the end of her chain, then bends down and pulls my dagger free. She tosses it in the direction of the door and it clatters across the floor. Ember turns her gaze back up to mine and smiles. "I expected nothing less," she says, then turns away, pulling the chain taut as she drags my sister's body down the corridor.
I clasp a shaking hand to my mouth. Ashen skirts around me to pick up the dagger and then pulls me back into the room and closes the door, locking it behind us.
"What's going on, Lu? What's happened?" Ashen asks, his gaze surveying my face as he tosses the dagger and a thick book onto the armchair.
I shake my head, trying to subdue the tears that are determined to streak down my face no matter how hard I fight them. Ashen stands before me and grasps my upper arms as his eyes bounce between mine.
"Who was that soul? What does Ember want from you?"
I can't even shake my head this time. I can only bite down on the inside of my lip until blood hits my tongue.
Ashen lets go of my arms and stalks to the bed, grabbing the pen and journal. He returns, shoving them into my hands.
"Tell me what the fuck is going on," he says. I hear the thinly veiled frustration in his voice, even though he tries to keep it measured and clear. I hear anger too, and I'm not sure if he's furious at Ember for her manipulations or at me for shutting him out. Maybe both. "Tell me, Lu."
I tear my pen and journal from his hands and throw them across the room.
I can't do this anymore. This place, these Reapers, this life. These demands. This confusion and all the things I feel.
All I've tried to do for the last three hundred years is feel nothing at all. I've spent centuries cocooned in a life that wasn't mine. Always hidden. Always lonely. And now I'm in the Shadow Realm and it feels like I've broken out into the light, but there's no safe place in which to hide.
Ashen turns away, casting his confusion to the pen and journal on the floor. I feel split wide open as I watch him move away to the centre of the room. I know I can't go back to the way things used to be. And I don't want to go back.
So if Ashen is going to kill me, I want it to be for a single word. One that means something to me. One that he'll never forget.
"Ashen."
His spine fuses, rigid as a blade.
There's a moment where time seems to stop. He doesn't move. I don't even blink. The only thing that's real here is the air that moves in and out of our lungs.
The seconds tick by but there is no blade through my heart. There is no fire and smoke. There's nothing between us but space and all the things I've left unsaid that can't stay quiet anymore.
"I'm falling in love with you, Ashen."
He turns his head. His eyes are locked to the floor as though it has swallowed him into another dimension. The tattooed bird on his neck seems to take flight. When he turns, he breaks away from his thoughts and his eyes lock on mine, his expression unreadable.
I stand my ground. I accept whatever happens next. All the moments of my life that have brought me here, I'm thankful for every one. I will not close my eyes.
