Page 24

Audrey

I ’m playing a game on 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.

I sigh as I realize I’m one of the last ones to arrive, so now I have to wait in the long ass line.

Ugh.

Of course this happens on a day when I have plans after work.

Luckily, it’s a pretty fast process—even when there are hundreds of reapers in front of me. But it also means I’m going to be late meeting my besties.

AUDREY

I’m at the end of the line, so I’m going to be a little late.

DIANA

No worries. We’ll just grab a booth and order a round.

CELESTE

Depending on how long it takes, don’t be surprised if we’re on our second by the time you get here.

AUDREY

Brat.

CELESTE

You know it. Love you!

DIANA

See you soon!

AUDREY

Love you both. Be there when I can.

Both of my besties had to work today, too, but obviously they were closer to the front of the line.

Lucky bitches.

I should just be glad that Wraith was willing to move them to the same shift as me. Before I started reaping, they were stuck working the midnight to eight a.m. shift, and Wraith didn’t want me working that shift—for which I’m eternally grateful.

I guess there really are some perks to being mated to the boss since he wants me to work the same shift as them. So now I work the eight to four shift, Monday through Thursday.

Yes, that’s right. I might have to work in my afterlife, but I don’t have to work forty hours a week, which I’ll take as a win.

Finally, I make it to the front of the line.

I’m not going to lie—the ferryman still gives me the creeps. He wears a dark cloak that keeps his face hidden in shadows—the kind most humans think the Grim Reaper wears. He never speaks as he holds unnaturally still. The first time I came here, I was sure he was a statue as I stared at him. Then he moved and I let out an embarrassingly loud squeal. His shoulders had moved as if he was laughing at me, but no sound came out.

Now, every time he sees me, his shoulders make the same movement. I don’t know how he remembers me when he sees thousands of reapers every day, but he sure does.

Leaning my scythe forward until it connects with his, I watch in delight as hundreds of souls slide from scythe to scythe. I’ve been doing this for almost three weeks, and it never gets old.

Once he has the last of the souls, he pulls back his scythe and bobs his head. He sets it down in the boat and picks up his pole to shove off into the water.

I watch him for another moment as he leads the souls to the holding area further down Ephonia, where the judges will sort the souls before sending them off to their proper island.

Spinning on my heel, I shadow walk to the pub where I’m meeting Diana and Celeste. It’s the same one where I met Cassian, and it’s close to their apartments, so we tend to meet up there since they can’t shadow walk like I can.

I push open the door and step inside. The familiar sounds and scents rush through me, and I instantly relax. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I always feel right at home.

“Audrey!” Diana is on her knees in our usual corner booth, waving her arms at me wildly. I grin at how over the top she’s being as I make my way over to them, only to be stopped by Gael.

“Little sister!” he roars as he jumps out of his seat and pulls me into his arms. “I didn’t know you’d be here tonight.”

I pat his back, laughing as he lifts me off the floor. “I’m having a girl’s night tonight.”

“Gael, put Audrey down.” Octavius chuckles as Gael releases me. “We won’t keep you then, but it’s good to see you.”

I wave at the three of them before dodging around Gael to get to the girls. I’ve learned I have to run away as quickly as possible or Gael will keep me with them—even if the girls are waiting.

“I expected that to take longer,” Diana comments as I slide in beside her.

I take a sip of my margarita. “Octavius saved the day and distracted Gael.”

Celeste leans out of the booth for a moment before sitting back up. “Are you sure they don’t want in your pants?”

Of course, I’m in the middle of taking a drink when she asks that and end up choking, margarita spewing out of my mouth and nose.

“Ugh, can you not do that?” I grab a napkin to clean up the table and wipe at my nose, wincing as it burns. “No, they don’t want in my pants. I just think they’re lonely. It’s always just the three of them. Wraith even said he doesn’t see them as often as he should.”

“I’m happy to spend time with them if they’re lonely.” Celeste smirks, wiggling her eyebrows.

I just shake my head at her antics. Now that we’re working together, I get to see them more frequently, but it’s not the same as living with them.

For the last three weeks, we’ve been getting together on Thursday nights since it’s the end of our work week since most of my weekends are spent with my mates. Not that I couldn’t hang out with the girls on the weekend. My men would understand, but I like having that time with them.

I push aside my drink, wave down the server, and order a new one. I’m not drinking it since who the hell knows what ended up in it after the margarita shot out of my nose.

Thanks, but no thanks.

“Any news on the Nex front?” Diana asks, cautiously, and I feel my good mood deflate.

“Nothing. I haven’t even seen him this week—not even when I crashed Brenden’s classes last Friday. He’s doing a very good job of avoiding me.” I shrug. “It’s better this way. Wraith and Cassian are still struggling with their emotions, but we’re doing the best we can.”

Celeste scowls. “Nex is an asshole, and I’m glad you decided to not give him any more of your time.”

Diana squeezes my arm. “I’m sorry about Wraith and Cassian. I know that’s hard on you.”

“It is what it is.” I stare into my drink as if it holds all the answers to my problems. “I don’t know how long we can keep this up. It’s really putting a toll on both of them, trying to fight it off. I’m afraid one of them is going to fly off the handle at any moment and say something they can’t take back.”

“Oh, Audrey.” Diana pulls me into a hug the best she can when we’re sitting side by side.

I have to bite my cheek to keep myself from crying. I’ve been doing my best to make sure the guys don’t know how upset it makes me to see Wraith and Cassian swipe at one another. Diana and Celeste are the only ones I can be real with, and it’s getting harder and harder not to fall apart when we talk about it. I can already feel the snapping point building up, and I don’t know where we’ll go from there.

It’s selfish of me to want to keep Cassian when the Fates told me it would be three or five and nothing in between, but I love him. How can I not?

And now there’s Donovan to think about. He’s been spending more and more time with Cassian as they find their way back together. I’m afraid that he’s going to be forced to choose between them again, and I don’t know if he can survive it.

Brenden’s already struggling with staying away from Nex—something Nex also seems to be failing at. It’s as if they’re two magnets being drawn to one another. I already told Brenden he could be with Nex, even if he’s not with me. But my stubborn mate refuses to be with him after the way he treated me.

Honestly, it feels a bit like we’re being torn apart at the seams, and I don’t know how to fix it.

Can I fix it? Or is it always going to be like this without Nex?

Fucking hell, I hope not.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I declare, pulling away from Diana. “Tell me about Melody and Warren. How are things going with them?”

Diana flushes, filling us in on how things have been going, and I push away all my shit. For just a few hours, I don’t want to have to worry about my relationships.

It’ll all be waiting for me when I go home, so for now, I’ll let the girls distract me and enjoy our time together.