Page 23 of Frosty and the Reaper

“That’s fear,” he corrected dryly.

She laughed. “Okay, fair enough. I know I’m being silly. I have an active imagination, and I’m getting myself worked up over nothing. Just ignore me.”

“Never.” Leaning down, he pressed his lips against her temple.

Over the past few days, their relationship had grown by leaps and bounds. While they did little besides make love, eat, and sleep wrapped around one another, the rest of their precious time together was spent talking, laughing, and sharing secrets. He knew she was still a little worried about the generational differences between them, but the rest of Kami’s concerns didn’t seem to be posing a problem.

While they had been otherwise occupied, Mali and Rufus had been busy using a scrying mirror to collect the informationZander needed about his enemies. He had been fairly disappointed to learn that most of the people who had been involved in the curse were already dead, but the ones who were still alive wouldn’t be for much longer.

Six powerful supernaturals had been needed for the spell to break the seal. The apex alpha jaguar shifter, the fairy, the witch, and the fae prince who had participated in the ritual were all dead. The shifter, witch, and fae prince had died instantly, their bodies burned to ash by the intense backlash of the curse.

The fairy was lucky enough to survive, but that didn’t mean he escaped unscathed. The powerful spell had drained his magic, leaving him nothing more than an empty husk. He thought being the queen’s cousin would keep him safe, but he was very wrong about that. Once the Fairy Queen discovered what he’d done, she executed him.

Zander had to admire fairy justice for being swift and impartial.

The last two supernaturals who had participated in the ritual were a reaper named Amon, and Somni, the God of Slumber. Although those supernaturals were powerful in their own rights, they had merely been greedy pawns used by Famine, the main architect of the plan.

According to the reports, Amon and Somni were doing a pretty good job at laying low. After their plan had failed, Amon had disappeared. Since then, there had only been a few sightings of him. Some people thought he was dead, while others claimed he had decided to move to the Human Realm to live as one of them.

It was more difficult to get accurate information from the Celestial Realm. There were rumors that the God of Slumber had fallen asleep for centuries before any of his fellow celestials had even noticed he wasn’t around. Zander suspected that was simply an excuse for him hiding somewhere.

Both of those bastards were living on borrowed time, but Zander was going to rectify that very soon.

If the ritual had worked the way it was meant to, all six of the supernaturals would have died when the seal was broken. Obviously, they hadn’t been told that part of the plan. Since four of the six had died, their blood sacrifice had been enough to trap Zander and the other reapers in a magical slumber for centuries.

Zander was relieved that he and the other reapers had been able to complete the transfer of the seal to the In Between before he had succumbed to the curse. He was also grateful no one else had figured out another way to break the seals while he’d been gone.

Not a lot of people knew about what had happened back then. Hellfire, most people didn’t even know the seals existed, which was probably for the best. Kami had mentioned that even the story of the missing reapers had faded with time, becoming little more than a myth amongst the older supernaturals. Zander understood that some secrets were better left buried, especially when the consequences of exposure could put countless lives at risk.

From the information Mali and Rufus had gathered, there had been no sign of Death or Famine in all the time Zander had been away. That made him highly suspicious. Two Horsemen couldn’t just disappear without a trace.

He would find them. No matter what, he wouldn’t rest until he figured out what had happened to them. Even after all this time, he wasn’t sure what to think about Death’s disappearance. At this point, he could be a victim or a perpetrator. That wasn’t clear yet. However, Famine was guilty. There was absolutely no doubt about that.

And when Zander found him, there would be a reckoning.

Since word had spread about his return, Mali and Rufus had already started receiving tons of invitations to events,congratulations on his mating, and requests for audiences. He’d told them to ignore everything for now. The only things he cared about were spending time with Kami, tracking down and dealing with his enemies, and making sure the seals were secure.

But first, he needed to meet his mate’s family.

While Kami was worried that Jackie, Micah, and Crispin would have a difficult time accepting him into the family, he wasn’t the least bit concerned. Even if they didn’t approve, if they loved Kami, they would learn to tolerate him.

“I want to show you something before we go.”

Zander held a hand out to her and waited. He had planned to wait to share all of the island’s secrets with her, but it seemed like she could use a distraction. If she wasn’t ready to return to the Fae Realm yet, he wasn’t going to push her. There was no rush.

“We have to go higher up into the mountain. Would you like to try shifting into smoke?”

Grinning, she slipped her hand into his and bounced on the toes of her boots a little in excitement. “Can I really?”

“We won’t know until we try it.”

The last few days, Zander had been helping her adapt to her new god powers. Not so much instructing but simply guiding her whenever the opportunity arose. As an ancient reaper, he had a wealth of knowledge to share with her. It would have been faster for her to just search his memories for anything she wanted to learn, but there were countless battles and bloody scenes in his head he wasn’t sure she was ready to see yet.

When it came to using magic, she was usually a fast learner. She only needed to be shown once before she understood how to do something. While she used to be dependent on her fae magic before they bonded, now there was no distinction between her fae and god powers. After their magical exchange, his magic had altered hers.

Now, Kami was a true god.

Although she wasn’t as powerful as Zander, the infusion of his source magic had supercharged her. Not only did that make her stronger than other gods, it allowed her to pass through his protection wards unscathed.