Page 10 of Reaper’s Ruin (Reaper’s Ruin Trilogy #1)

I struggled to process his words. Veil Lords being the ones that bounced around in my head the most. But instead of hounding him with questions, I tried to stay focused on the plan. “What other option?”

“I could pull you into the Shadowveil with me. I think from in here, you could travel through the shadows with me.”

“You think?”

His lips pulled down. “Like I said, this has never happened before. I can’t know for certain. But we could try.”

The way he said it made it clear this wasn’t something he suggested lightly.

“The Shadowveil?” I repeated nervously. “That dark place where Reapers live?”

He nodded.

“Is it... dangerous?”

“For you? With me?” He shook his head. “No other reaper is tuned to your frequency. They wouldn’t even know you’re there, and if we move out quickly, I doubt the Veil Lords will sense you.”

“Veil Lords? You’ve mentioned them twice now. Are they... dangerous?”

“They are the Gods of the Shadowveil. And yes, they are dangerous. I don’t think they would take kindly to my actions right now, but I believe you deserve your chance to move on. And this is our best bet at getting you answers before they discover I’ve allowed a soul to survive.”

I bit my lip, considering my options. Which weren’t many.

Stay here, unable to interact with anyone but Rhyker, walking for weeks to find this sorceress and hoping more Reapers didn’t come?

Or trust this terrifying, beautiful Reaper to take me into his shadow realm and hope these Veil Lords didn’t notice me?

“Okay,” I said before I could overthink it. “Let’s do it.”

Something like surprise crossed his face, as if he hadn’t expected me to agree so readily.

“You’re sure?”

“No,” I admitted with a shaky laugh. “I’m not sure of anything anymore. But what choice do I have?”

He stepped closer, and I had to tilt my head back to maintain eye contact. This close, I could see faint flecks of silver in his gray eyes, like stars in a stormy sky, but the veil between us still muted his features.

“I’ll need to hold onto you,” he said, his voice dropping lower. “To pull you through to my side.”

“Oh.” The word came out breathier than I intended. “Okay.”

“You need to go into the shadows so I can reach through.”

I bit my lip then nodded, looking around until I saw a dark shadow in the alley between two houses. He followed along beside me from his side of the veil, and then when I got into the shadow, I turned to him.

“Okay. Now what?”

He hesitated, then reached out slowly, as if giving me time to pull away. But instead of his hand passing through the veil immediately, he paused, his fingers hovering at the barrier between us. A frown crossed his features.

“Close your eyes,” he murmured, his voice carrying an edge of something I couldn’t quite identify.

“Why?”

“Just... trust me. Close them.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, fear enveloping every inch of me. In the darkness behind my eyelids, I heard something—a sound like fabric tearing, or perhaps wind through a canyon. The air around me shifted, suddenly colder.

Then his hand closed around my wrist.

My breath caught. I could feel him. Actually feel the sensation of his fingers against my skin, the strength in his grip. After so many hours of passing through everything I tried to touch, the contact was almost overwhelming .

“You’re real,” I whispered, keeping my eyes closed as instructed but hyperaware of every point of contact between us.

He didn’t respond immediately, but his grip tightened almost imperceptibly.

“Keep your eyes closed. Ready?”

I nodded, though I wasn’t ready at all. How could anyone be ready for something like this?

There was a sharp tug, then a strange shifting sensation, like the world tilting sideways for a moment, and then the sounds of the marketplace muffled, as if someone had thrown a heavy blanket over everything.

The air changed too—cooler, with a faint electric charge that made the tiny hairs on my arms stand up.

“You can look now,” Rhyker said.

I opened my eyes, and my world tilted all over again.

First, there was Rhyker. Without the misty veil separating us, I could see him clearly for the first time, and the sight stole my breath.

If I’d thought him beautiful before, it was nothing compared to this unobstructed view.

His features were impossibly perfect—sharp cheekbones that could cut glass, a strong jaw darkened with just the right amount of stubble, full lips that pinched tight as he stared at me with those eyes.

Those eyes ... god, his eyes. Before, they’d been striking. Now, they were more like a force, pulling me under, daring me to drown. Otherworldly with those storm-gray irises almost seeming to swirl with shadows, like watching clouds gather before lightning strikes.

He wasn’t just handsome—he was breathtaking. Dangerous. Deadly. Terrifying. Death incarnate, and somehow that made him all the more mesmerizing.

Catching myself staring, I quickly looked around at our surroundings.

We were still in the marketplace, but everything had changed.

The vibrant colors were gone, replaced by muted shades of gray and blue.

The stalls, the goods, the people—they were all still there, but looked like faded photographs, their edges blurred and insubstantial.

It was like someone had drained all the life and color from the world, leaving behind only shadows and whispers.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, turning in a slow circle. “It’s like... it’s like those old movies before technicolor. Everything’s just...” I gestured helplessly, not sure how to describe it.

“I don’t know what technicolor is,” Rhyker said, “but this is the Shadowveil. It mirrors the realms of the living but exists between them.”

“It’s like a photo negative of reality,” I said, still trying to process what I was seeing.

Everything looked drained of life.

Just like me.

“So this is where you live? This gray, in-between place?”

“It’s home,” he said simply, though something in his tone suggested it was anything but.

I looked around nervously. “You said other Reapers live here too? Will they see me?”

“No,” he assured me. “There are no other Reapers around us now. They are at the Umbral Keep or off on their own missions.”

“So we’re safe here.”

“For now.”

“And here is a mirror world of there? And Reapers can’t touch me in that world unless it’s through a dark shadow, but now that I’m in the Shadowveil with you, you can touch me?” My cheeks warming as I thought about his skin on mine when he’d taken my hand.

“Yes,” he said simply. Something shifted in his expression, his eyes darkening slightly as he looked down at me.

I suddenly became intensely aware of how close we were, of the solid strength of him in front of me.

Of how undeniably, impossibly beautiful he was up close—that face, masculine and powerful yet somehow beautiful, framed by his black hair falling in waves around it.

He looked like a painting in a museum of an avenging angel I would have stood in front of and stared at for hours.

This was a Reaper. This was the being sent to erase me from existence.

And yet I couldn’t stop staring at him like a star struck teenager at a boy band concert.

I was definitely losing it.

I stepped back hastily, putting some distance between us. He remained rigid, though I thought I saw something flicker in his eyes before his expression shuttered again.

“So, what now?” I asked, desperate to fill the awkward silence.

He didn’t answer with words. Instead, strange shadows began pulsing beneath his skin, gathering until they moved like ink rolling through his veins, darkening as it traveled through him.

He rolled his shoulders, and suddenly—impossibly—massive wings unfurled from his back.

They weren’t physical wings, not like a bird’s or even like the angel wings I’d imagined as a kid.

These were made of pure shadow, misty and translucent at the edges but densely black near his body.

They shifted and moved like living smoke, beautiful and terrifying all at once.

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. I just stared, utterly transfixed by the sight before me.

Those wings arched high above his shoulders, spanning at least twelve feet across, their edges rippling and dissolving into wisps of darkness like ink in water.

They were terrifying and magnificent and so impossibly beautiful I couldn’t look away.

“Those are...” I couldn’t even find the words.

His eyes caught mine, and for a moment—just the briefest flicker—I saw something unexpected there. A vulnerability, quickly masked. As if he’d momentarily forgotten to hide whatever it was he always kept concealed beneath that cold exterior.

“They allow me to travel through the Shadowveil,” he explained, his voice lower than before, rougher somehow. “I can cut through to anywhere shadows exist. This is how I sliced through to pull you into the Shadowveil.”

“And that’s how you kept finding me,” I realized. “You were following me through shadows.”

He nodded. “We need to go. The longer we linger here, the greater the chance the Veil Lords may sense something unusual.”

He extended his hand to me. “Come.”

The simple word, sharp and powerful, caused my breath to hitch. I hesitated only a moment before placing my hand in his. His fingers closed around mine, warm and solid and real. This small point of contact sent a shiver up my arm that had nothing to do with fear.

“I’ll need to hold you,” he said, his voice dropping even lower. “Tightly.”

Before I could process what was happening, he pulled me against him, one arm wrapping securely around my waist, the other hand pressing between my shoulder blades.

My body collided with his, the solid wall of his chest firm against me.

Instinctively, I slid my arms around him, my hands splaying across the broad expanse of his back.

The intimate position sent a rush of heat through me that had no business existing in the afterlife. I could feel every hard plane of his body, every breath he took, every flinch of his muscles in response to my touch.

I dared to look up at him and found his eyes locked on mine, something fierce and unreadable burning in their depths.

For a moment, neither of us moved. Neither of us breathed.

There was just this strange, electric connection humming between us, as if the shadows themselves were charged with lightning.

“Are you sure this is safe?” I finally managed out.

He held my gaze, answering with one simple word in that deep, booming voice.

“No.”

Then his wings swept forward, enveloping us both in darkness so complete it felt like falling into the void.

I gasped, a potent blend of fear and exhilaration rising inside me as I clung tighter to him.

To this man. This Reaper. To the most dangerous, beautiful being I’d ever encountered.

A creature sent to erase me from existence.

Now the only hope I had of finding my mother in the afterlife.

And yet, as his wings closed around us, I found myself trusting him despite everything. Because in a world where I was nothing—where I couldn’t be seen or heard or touched—he had seen me. He had heard me. He had touched me. He could help me.

And right now, that was all that mattered.

With a sound like tearing silk, his wings sliced through the shadows, and we vanished from the marketplace.