Page 151 of Finders Reapers

And I prayed.

A dozen more sinkholes sprung up in the expanse of desert on the side of the road.

Oriax continued to fly in circles above it all, his magic raining down and summoning the beasts to the surface.

I opened my hands and closed my eyes.

Ollie must have spotted that I was alone, next to the dead Camaro with my arms outstretched, because he lowered himself to the ground thirty feet from me.

Half a mile down the road, the guys had stopped running, having realized that I hadn’t followed.

“What are you going to do?” Oriax sneered. “Rip me to pieces again? In case you haven’t noticed, it didn’t work. I can’t die. You are just a Drude. A nobody. The only thing special about you is your connection to the goddess of death, but where is she now?” He threw his head back and laughed. “Mara is dead, and you’re going to wish you were!”

I told him.

Ollie pursed his lips, and a flash of the man I knew came through for only a second before he smothered it. “By all means, honeybunch.” He quirked a brow. “Make my day.”

Maddox, Fletcher, Jamal, and Rome began to sprint back to me.

I screamed. but I knew they couldn’t understand me. That didn’t matter. They probably wouldn’t have left anyway. It was a long shot.

I needed to make it quick. I rolled my neck and shook out my hands. Ollie flapped his wings, remaining in the same spot above me, with a knowing smirk on his face.

Another screech echoed through the air.

One of the holes about a hundred feet away began to widen as a pale, wrinkling head filled the entire diameter of it, a bald creature wiggling its way out of a birth canal.

I’d seen the creature in my nightmares. Thousands of teeth in rows, set in a circular mouth. A creature with no eyes and an endless hunger that would consume anything in its path—and the shadowy masters that controlled it.

I felt it then, rising quickly through my body. The same kind of tingling feeling that came before a panic attack, making my fingers and toes numb. My skin slipped, feeling too big and too tight at the same time.

The creature wiggled free, and it was just as horrifying as I remembered. But my inner demon burst free as well—and I was the stuff of nightmares.

Chapter 21

Fletcher POV

Fletcher couldn’t take his eyes off the lone female figure, standing on the road, in front of a goddamn angel with wings as large and long as a semi.

His Vallie.

He’d known she was brave, but he had never taken her for stupid.

Fletcher’s converse pounded against the asphalt, and he didn’t even check to see if the rest of his Grim were following—at that moment, all he cared about was her.

Aside from the angel flapping around like an insane supervillain, the devouring beasts were also a big problem.

Not much could kill a Reaper. In fact, it was nigh on impossible, but Fletcher was willing to bet his shiny Egyptian Mew pokemon card that whatever was coming up from those pits could kill a Reaper in such a way that they never came back.

He felt it first, a pulse that raced from his toes to his chest. The same kind of flutter and ball-grabbing possessiveness that he felt when he looked at Vallie but magnified to the point of madness.

It wasn’t their Grim bond. It was something else. Something powerful.

He saw the others slow down, with Jamal tripping over his feet as he placed his hand over his chest.