Page 12 of Reaper’s Ruin (Reaper’s Ruin Trilogy #1)

“And not just that,” Soraya jumped in. “But I was jumping all over the place. Like disappearing and reappearing every time something scared me.” She glanced at me. “Like the Reapers trying to get me. I would just ‘poof’ away. I even ended up back at my house in the Mortal Realm for a time.”

Selyse furrowed her brow. “But that’s... impossible.”

Soraya nodded. “That’s what he says too, but apparently it is possible because I’m doing it.

But I don’t know how. One minute I’m here, the next I’m back in the Mortal Realm, then somewhere else in Faelora.

I can’t control it. Hell, for all I know I’m going to poof away at any second.

” She furrowed her brow then smiled. “Hey! I just realized this is the longest stretch I’ve gone without it happening.

Maybe because I’m not as scared anymore?

Without you hunting me, I can stop and settle? ”

Selyse looked at me, judgement flooding her eyes. “You were hunting her?”

“I was sent to reap her,” I quickly said.

“As you know, it is the duty of all Reapers to remove stuck spirits from your world, so they don’t cause problems for the living.

We keep the balance between the living and the dead.

But when I finally caught up with her, I discovered she hasn’t had time to find peace.

She only just realized she was dead. My duty is to reap the souls who won’t move on.

She hasn’t had the chance yet, and now I’m trying to help her figure out how to get her door, so I don’t have to—”

I let the words I didn’t finish saying hang there, hating the fear that bloomed in Soraya’s eyes at the thought.

Selyse’s expression softened slightly. “I see.” She moved to a chair by the hearth, sitting down. “And you want me to... what? Help her find her door?”

“If possible,” I said. “She deserves her chance. I’ve never experienced anything like this in all of my centuries, and I can’t say I have any idea how to proceed.

With your knowledge of the living and the dead, we hoped you may have some insight.

Or, I guess it was your mother I thought may have some insight. ”

Selyse let out a long breath. “Honestly? You’re right.

She probably would have. She had vastly more experience with this stuff than me.

She passed suddenly, and I didn’t get a chance to learn everything I was supposed to know.

So, I’m sorry to say I don’t have any ideas how to summon a door or help her move on. ”

Soraya stepped closer to the sorceress, her composure suddenly cracking.

“Please,” she said, her voice breaking. “I need to find my door. I need to find my mother—she was murdered too. She wasn’t just my mother.

She was my best friend. My everything.” Tears welled in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks.

“We were killed together, and now I don’t know where she is.

If she found her door and moved on without me. ..”

Her voice dissolved into a sob, her shoulders shaking. “I can’t—I can’t just cease to exist. If he has to reap me because I can’t find my peace, I’ll never see her again. I’ll just be... nothing.” She looked up at Selyse, raw desperation in her eyes. “Please. I’d do anything to see my mom again.”

Something shifted in Selyse’s expression—a flash of deep understanding, of shared pain. She reached out instinctively, though her hand passed through Soraya’s arm.

“I understand,” she said softly. “More than you know.” She was quiet for a moment, then nodded as if coming to a decision. “I don’t have an answer for you, though I wish I did. But I’ll help you in any way I can.”

Soraya’s tears slowed. “You will?”

“Yes,” she said definitively. “A daughter should have the chance to find her mother again.”

Soraya wiped away her tears, composing herself. “But you don’t know anything about how I got here or why I was pulled from the Mortal Realm?”

Selyse shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I do not. I’ve never heard of anything like it. But no matter where you are or why you’re here, there is always one common thread in how all souls find their doors. They must know peace. And I can sense your soul is in turmoil and not at peace.”

“How can I be at peace?” she sniffled, those heart-wrenching tears starting up again, but she swallowed them down. “I was murdered. In my living room. By some random dude with a dagger. How can I possibly be at peace about that? I was so young! And he killed my mom!”

“You need to find peace with your death and hers to move on.”

“But how?”

“Every soul is different,” Selyse said. “I know that my mother occasionally helped souls she’d encounter find peace before the Reapers came. Most got there eventually, but some had unfinished business. They either needed me to relay information to a loved one, or needed justice for their death.”

“But she helped them move on?” I said, intrigued.

Her eyes filled with a soft sorrow. “Some of them, but others never did.”

She looked at me, and I knew she meant they met their fate with my kind.

Possibly even by my own hand.

Soraya’s voice lifted with panic. “But how am I supposed to find my door? I’m stuck in a strange world I know nothing about. I have only fragments of memories about my death, and I have no idea how to find my peace. Do I need to find out who killed me to move on? Is that what it is?”

“Your instinct is likely correct,” Selyse said. “If that is the first thing that came into your head about what could be stopping you from getting your door, then figuring out why you died or who killed you is the most logical path to finding peace.”

“But how the hell am I supposed to find this person? I’m in an entirely different realm!”

“Tell me what you remember,” Selyse said, then we sat back and listened to Soraya recount her whole, gut-wrenching death and what followed.

“The dagger,” I said, my interest homing in on that clue. “You called it a strange dagger. Do you not have ornate daggers in the Mortal Realm? ”

Soraya shook her head. “No. I mean, we have knives and things, but I’ve never seen anything like that dagger other than in like a fantasy movie. It was really strange looking.”

“What did it look like?” Selyse asked.

“It wasn’t normal. It had these... symbols etched into the blade. They almost seemed to glow.” She traced a pattern in the air with her finger. “Curved lines, like this. And there were crystals embedded in the hilt—blue ones.”

Selyse and I exchanged a glance.

“That sounds like fae craftsmanship,” Selyse said slowly.

“Fae?” Soraya’s eyes widened. “Are you saying a fae killed us? But why would anyone from this world cross into mine to murder a nursing student and her mom? We’re nobody.”

“We don’t know that’s what happened for certain,” I cautioned. “But the description matches weapons I’ve seen in Faelora.”

“So, our best guess is that my killer was fae? Is that why I ended up in Faelora? Like he took my soul with him? Is that a thing?”

Selyse and I exchanged glances.

“It’s... possible?” she said, though unconvincingly.

“I’ve never heard of anything like it, but it certainly makes the most sense at the moment.

Realm travel is rare and completely forbidden, but if a realm walker traveled into the Mortal Realm and killed you, perhaps your soul moved through a tear he left behind in the veil between realms.”

I nodded. “It sounds mad, but it makes the most sense so far. There’s no other way to explain how a mortal made their way to Faelora.”

“Okay, so I got killed by some fae asshole who accidentally sucked me through the realm with him? Is that our best lead?”

Selyse and I exchanged a look again, then she nodded. “It’s the most logical explanation at this point. ”

“So, if that’s true, and it’s a fae who killed me, how am I going to find him to get the answers I need to find peace?

It’s not like I can go play Sherlock Holmes and sleuth him out when I’m stuck here in this stupid ghost body.

” Frustration crept into Soraya’s voice.

“I can’t talk to anyone. I can’t touch anything.

I’m watching the world go by without being able to interact with any of it.

” She gestured helplessly. “What am I supposed to do? Float around hoping for answers to magically appear?”

“There may be a way,” Selyse said, a spark of an idea twinkling in her eyes. “My mother—” She paused, swallowing hard. “My mother left notes about a spell. For granting physical form to spirits.”

She stood and walked to an old, wooden trunk against the wall. The old hinges creaked as she opened it, then she withdrew an ancient-looking book from within. With a soft blow of air, dust particles scattered before she opened it.

We watched, Soraya’s eyes wide and full of hope as Selyse flipped through pages.

“Here,” she said finally. “A binding of essence. It can grant physical form to a soul temporarily.”

“Physical form?” Soraya echoed, hope brightening her voice. “I could touch things? People could see me?”

“Theoretically, yes,” Selyse said, studying the pages with a frown of concentration. “You would appear as a living being, able to interact with the physical world. Both of you.”

“Both of us?” I stepped forward, tension coiling through me. “You want to bind me to the living realm as well?”

Selyse looked up, her gold-green eyes steady.

“She will need help if she is to have any chance of finding peace. Of seeing her mother again.” She closed the book, cradling it against her chest. “She’s from the Mortal Realm.

She knows nothing of Faelora, its dangers, its customs. I would offer to go myself, but I cannot leave my forest for long.

My power drains rapidly beyond these constraints, and I am bound here until I master what my mother never had time to teach me. ”

“I am already breaking more rules than I can fathom by not reaping her already. You would ask me to defy the Veil Lords more?” I said quietly. “To abandon the Shadowveil? My duty as a Reaper?”