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“I’m so fucking happy,” I tell him.

He nods. “Me, too, but Wraith is right. We need some distance.”

As I lead him to my room, I wonder if we can really make this work—even with the Fates working against us.

I really fucking hope we can.

Chapter Twenty-four

Audrey

I’mplayingagameon my phone when the alert comes in. Opening up the Serene Souls app, I click on the new message to find an address.

All I have to do is think of the address as I stand, and with the next step, I’m outside the one-story home. It’s pretty enough, but it looks just like the houses on either side of it. I hate cookie-cutter homes. Not that my thoughts on the home are relevant.

I climb up the stairs and step through the door without opening it.

Yeah, that was an interesting discovery to make. While reaping, we’re not only invisible to the living but incorporeal. It makes getting around easy, but if you’re not expecting it, it can be a little freaky. If the first soul I had to reap hadn’t been my sister’s, I probably would’ve known this during my final.

I step into an entryway with a living room to the right. It’s empty, so I continue down the hallway. I pass the empty living room and kitchen before hitting the bedrooms. The first one is empty, and it’s in the second that I locate my soul.

No, that’s not right. It’s not just one soul but two. They’re huddled together, waiting for me.

I can’t help smiling when I glance at the bed to see it’s an older couple. They’re holding hands, likely having passed in their sleep. I’m surprised that they’re living alone at their age, but it looks like they’ve lived a long life. I’m choosing to believe it was a long and happy one because I like how that sounds.

Because sometimes we just need a win when our own lives feel like they’re in the toilet.

“Hi,” I say softly, drawing the attention of both spirits. “I’m Audrey. You might be confused about what’s going on right now, but I’m here to take you to where you belong. We can’t stay here. Unfortunately, you’re already dead.”

“Are you an angel?” one of the spirits asks—the woman, I think. It’s hard to tell, as the voices of spirits aren’t actually verbal. It’s also not like they speak in my head, as Cassian did the first time we met. It’s like I just know what they’re saying.

I glance down at my leather shorts, oversized tank top, and my scythe—which is totally badass, and I’m mad I didn’t have it for my final. I’m not at all what anyone would imagine as an angel, but I also don’t know what they see when they look at me. It’s possible that I appear to them as they appear to me—as a vague outline of a body and a bright glowing light.

I laugh. “Not quite, but I am here to bring you to the afterlife. Are you ready?”

Not all souls are ready to leave their lives behind. No matter what, I’ll have to take them to the underworld, but it’s easier if they come willingly.

Both of their heads turn back to the bed before they nod.

“We’re ready,” the other spirit confirms.

I smile, moving forward until I stand just in front of them. This close, the light is almost blinding. “I’ll touch each of you, and you’ll go into a trance-like sleep. You won’t remember that part. When you wake up next, you’ll be in the afterlife together.”

I touch each of the spirits with the scythe, and then they’re gone. Their souls will remain in my scythe until I bring them to the ferryman at the end of my shift.

I glance at the bed once more, smiling, and then take a step forward, appearing in the lounge at the reaper headquarters.

Being a reaper is a lot different from how I thought it would be, but I love it so much. It’s almost like working a corporate job, which is really fucking weird. But the actual reaping of souls? It brings me peace.

The reapers are split into three eight-hour shifts. There’s the midnight to eight a.m. shift, the eight a.m. to four p.m. shift, and the four p.m. to midnight shift. During our shifts, we’re required to stay at the reaper headquarters, which is a large compound in the center of Ephonia. It has a lounge for us to hang out in, a cafeteria if we get hungry, offices we can work in, and even bedrooms for us to sleep in.

It’s not a bad place to spend eight hours in—although, we don’t usually have a lot of time to just hang out considering the amount of people who die in a day.

As if to prove my point, my phone sends another alert. With a sigh, I zip off to the next address and then to the next.

By the end of my shift, I’m tired and have nearly two hundred souls hanging out in my scythe.

Instead of going back to headquarters after I collect my last soul, I head to the docks where the ferryman waits.