Page 16 of Reaper’s Ruin (Reaper’s Ruin Trilogy #1)
“I think about my own mother sometimes,” Selyse admitted quietly.
“I know I’ll see her again. I believe that with certainty in my soul.
I just wonder whether she’ll be proud of what I’ve become without her guidance.
I’m... struggling to take up her mantel.
She was incredible, and I’m nowhere near the sorceress she was. ”
“I’m sure she is,” I said, squeezing her hand. “You’re amazing. Even right now, I bet she’s smiling down on you proud you’re using your gifts to help someone in need.”
She smiled, blinking back her own tears. “So, we both have mothers to make proud, don’t we? You by finding your peace, me by living my purpose.”
I nodded, feeling a strange kinship with this young sorceress from another realm. Both of us daughters. Both of us missing our mothers. Both of us trying to find our way.
Emotions were still raw and painful inside me, yet I was now also filled with something other than horror and agony over my untimely death. I was filled with hope that a beautiful afterlife awaited me. One where I’d see my mother again.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “For giving me hope. ”
“Hope is a powerful thing, and as long as you keep it, I know you will find your way,” she replied, standing and offering me her hand. “And now, we should get back before your Reaper decides to tear apart my forest looking for you.”
“He’s not my Reaper,” I said automatically, but then laughed awkwardly, that familiar heat rising in my cheeks.
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun on this journey you’re on.
You have a rare opportunity to live a little, and I think you should take advantage of it while you’re in this form.
Enjoy Faelora a little. Or whatever else you’d like to enjoy.
” She gave me a knowing look, her lips curving into a smirk, then with her chirping companion still resting on her shoulder, together, we walked back through the forest, the dress swishing pleasantly around my legs with each step.
When we returned to the cottage, Rhyker was pacing at the edge of the clearing, tension evident in every line of his powerful frame. He stopped abruptly when he caught sight of us, his expression shifting from what looked suspiciously like worry to carefully controlled neutrality.
“You were gone too long,” he said gruffly, his deep voice rumbling through the clearing. “I was about to come looking for you.”
“We’re fine,” I assured him. “Just... girl talk.”
His eyes moved to me then, and the intensity of his gaze made my breath catch.
He took in the forest-green dress, his eyes lingering on the way the fabric clung to my waist before drifting up to the neckline that revealed more than I typically showed.
Something flashed in those gray eyes—hot and quick like lightning—before he mastered it and looked away.
But not before I saw the muscle in his jaw tighten, the slight flare of his nostrils as he drew a deeper breath .
“Better,” he said, his voice rougher than before. “But there’s still one problem.” He tapped beside his own eye, clearly trying to maintain a businesslike demeanor. “Fae eyes shimmer. Yours don’t.”
“He’s right,” Selyse agreed. “Anyone looking closely would notice immediately that neither of you are fae.”
“Can you do something about that too?” I asked.
She nodded, already moving to her shelves of supplies. “A simple glamour should suffice.”
She worked quickly, mixing various powders and liquids in a small bowl. When she was satisfied, she dipped her fingers into the mixture—a shimmering silver paste—and approached me.
“Hold still,” she instructed.
Her fingers were cool against my skin as she traced a pattern around my eyes. I felt a strange tingling sensation that spread across my face, then faded.
“There,” she said, stepping back to examine her work. She handed me a small, polished stone that served as a mirror.
I gasped. My eyes, normally a simple blue, now seemed to glow from within, tiny flecks of silver and gold catching the light as I moved. The effect was subtle but unmistakable—inhuman in the most beautiful way.
“Now you,” she said to Rhyker, who submitted to the process with obvious reluctance.
When she finished with him, I couldn’t help but stare again. The silver-gray of his eyes now shimmered with an inner light that made him look even more otherworldly than before. Combined with his imposing height and the dangerous grace with which he moved, he was utterly breathtaking.
He caught me looking again and held my gaze this time. I couldn’t read his expression, but something in those newly shimmering eyes made my heart beat faster .
“Now you’ll blend in, at least at first glance,” Selyse said, seemingly oblivious to the tension suddenly crackling between us. Or at least she didn’t bring attention to it this time.
She moved to a small chest near her bed, withdrawing a pouch that clinked with the sound of coins. “You’ll need money,” she said, handing it to Rhyker. “It’s not much, but it should be enough to get you started.”
“You’ve done more than enough,” I said. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Find your peace. Find your mother,” she replied simply. “That’s thanks enough.”
A promise I desperately hoped I could keep.
I moved forward, pulling her into a hug. She returned in, then we broke apart and I smiled at her.
Rhyker moved closer to me, then with a nod to Selyse, he said. “We do appreciate your help. But we should be getting to the Dark Market soon. Soraya, come closer and I’ll take us through the Shadowveil again.” But suddenly, his face tightened, pinching as his dark brows together. “What the fuck?”
I tipped my head, unsure what had just happened, but Selyse answered my question when she said, “Are you trying to use your Reaper powers to get back to the Shadowveil to travel?”
He nodded, pulling up his sleeve to look at his forearm where his scythe tattoo had been. The skin was smooth, unmarked. In that moment, I saw recognition dawn in his eyes, followed by something close to horror.
“I’m mortal now,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically vulnerable. “I can’t access my wings or my powers.”
He looked down at his hands, turning them over as if seeing them for the first time. These weren’t the hands of a Reaper anymore—just the hands of a man .
Selyse slowly shook her head. “No. You are mortal with all the constraints that come with your human body.”
Rhyker looked stunned. Though he appeared to just be standing there, I could see tiny movements—the flex of his shoulders, the tension in his back—as he tried repeatedly to summon wings that wouldn’t come.
“Are you okay?” I asked softly, unsure how upset he was by his new mortal constraints.
“Fine,” he answered sharply, but his clenched jaw and the muscles ticking in his cheek told a different story.
I wanted to reach out, to touch his arm, to offer some comfort—but the thunderous expression on his face kept me at a distance.
After a moment, he seemed to gather himself, straightening to his full, imposing height. “We’ll manage,” he said, his voice once again controlled and hard. But I’d seen that brief flash of vulnerability, that moment of loss.
Selyse watched him with knowing eyes. “The physical form has its own advantages,” she said diplomatically. “And its own challenges.”
He looked between us, those intense eyes finally locking with hers. “How do we get to the Dark Market? It’s halfway across Faelora.”
“Don’t worry. We can use the same portal tree I pulled you through from the Shadowveil. I’ll open you a portal to get to a tree near the Dark Market, and after that, you’ll rely on regular transportation like your own two feet or some horses if you can find them.”
Rhyker just grunted beneath his breath, and Selyse and I shared a glance.
“Come on. Let’s get you two going. Your forms are supposed to be permanent until I switch you back, but like I said, it’s my first time doing the spell and I’m not as strong as my mother. There is always the possibility it could wear off. The sooner you help Soraya find her door, the better.”
She then led us back outside to the ancient oak behind her cottage. Placing her hands against the bark, she began to murmur in that strange language again. The symbols that had appeared during our transition reappeared, glowing more brightly this time.
“This will take you to another Gateway Tree a couple miles outside the Dark Market,” she explained. “It’s as close as I can send you. From there, you’ll need to walk.”
“Thank you, Selyse,” Rhyker said, his deep voice surprisingly gentle. “For everything.”
She nodded, a slight smile curving her lips. “Good luck. And be careful. Faelora can be a dangerous place. Look out for each other.”
With that ominous warning, she stepped back, the symbols on the tree pulsing brighter.
A vertical line of golden light appeared down the center of the trunk, widening until it formed an opening large enough to step through.
Beyond it, I could see another forest, darker and less inviting than the one we stood in.
“Hold hands so you don’t get separated,” Selyse said.
Rhyker and I exchanged a look, and I glanced down at his large hand. Slowly, it opened, and I looked into those soft, shimmering grey eyes as I slipped mine inside of it, his fingers warm and solid around mine.
“Stay close to me,” he said, a command not a request. “No matter what.”
I nodded, suddenly nervous about what awaited us. But as I looked up into his shimmering silver eyes, I felt a strange certainty that as long as he was with me, I would be safe.
Together, we stepped through the glowing portal and into the unknown.