Page 66 of Reaper’s Ruin (Reaper’s Ruin Trilogy #1)

Darkness consumed us, cold and vast and endless.

I clung to Rhyker, my arms locked around his neck, my face buried against his chest as we fell through shadows. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t feel anything but Rhyker’s solid form against mine and the Veilwings that enveloped us both.

Then, without warning, we crashed back into reality.

The world around us came into focus, still cloudy and faded from behind the Shadowveil.

I recognized our surroundings immediately—the dense, lush forest of the Sylvan Court.

Selyse’s cottage stood nearby, its thatched roof glowing a diluted amber in the fading light of sunset.

Rhyker had brought us to the one place he believed we might find help.

The realization that we’d actually escaped—that we were alive, or whatever passed for alive in our spectral forms—crashed over me in waves. My body began to shake as delayed fear and relief collided within me.

“We made it,” I gasped, my voice breaking. “We actually made it.”

Rhyker’s arms tightened around me as I collapsed against him, sobs tearing from my throat. All the terror, all the close calls, all the moments I’d been certain we were about to be erased from existence—it all poured out of me in a flood I couldn’t control .

“You’re safe,” he murmured against my hair, his deep voice resonating through my body, the vibrations thrumming through my core. “I’ve got you. I won’t let them hurt you. Never again.”

I pulled back just enough to look at him, to drink in the sight of his face—that beautiful, fierce face I’d thought I might never see again. His storm-gray eyes blazed with determination and something I’d never felt in my life and certainly didn’t expect to find in my afterlife.

Love. Pure, unguarded, absolute.

“I love you,” he said, the words no longer halting or uncertain but spoken with the weight of absolute truth. “I love you, Soraya. More than I ever thought possible.”

Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks as I pressed my forehead to his. “I love you too. So much.”

He captured my lips in a kiss that tasted of desperation and gratitude and wonder. I melted into him, needing this connection, this proof that we were both still here, still together despite everything.

When we broke apart, I saw his wings were still partially manifested, rippling shadows extending from his back before gradually dissolving. I’d never seen anything so terrifying or so beautiful—the raw power of Death unleashed not to destroy, but to protect.

To save me.

“What happens now?” I asked, the momentary relief giving way to a creeping dread. “Won’t they find us?”

His expression darkened. “Yes. That’s why we’re here. The Veil Lords won’t stop hunting us. The Shadow Watchers will be dispatched first, then the Reapers—likely the Enforcers. Maybe even the Sentinels. The Veil Lords won’t stop until they’ve found us. We need help. ”

As if summoned by his words, the cottage door burst open.

Selyse stood framed in the doorway, her slight form tense with alarm.

Even from this distance, even with the misty veil separating us from her world, I could see the worry etched across her face.

She looked around, searching the emptiness looking right past us.

Then, she squinted her eyes, focusing again until her eyes locked onto us and her face lit up with recognition.

“Soraya! Rhyker!”

“Selyse!” I grabbed Rhyker’s hand and dragged him toward her.

“I felt the disturbance,” she called, hurrying to meet us. “Something terrible has happened in the Shadowveil. I sensed it—a fracture, a rebellion...” Her eyes widened as she took in our disheveled appearance. “You were there, weren’t you?”

Rhyker’s arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me into his body.

“We need your help,” he said without even so much as a greeting. “The Veil Lords sent Reapers for Soraya. We escaped the Umbral Keep, but they’ll be coming for us. Now... like, right now. Shadow Watchers first, then worse.”

Selyse’s face paled. “You escaped the Umbral Keep? That’s... that’s supposed to be impossible.”

“So is falling in love with the soul you were meant to reap,” he said.

Her eyes passed between us, recognition dawning in them with her growing smile.

I shrugged, giving a sheepish grin. “Yep. Yet here we are.”

Something softened in Selyse’s eyes as she looked between us. “Well, I’d say this was unexpected but...”

Her voice trailed off as she gave us a little wink.

“Can you help us? I fear the Reapers could appear at any time.” Rhyker glanced around us and my stomach clenched with the ominous feeling that at any second Reapers could materialize .

“I can shield you temporarily, but we’ll need a more permanent solution.”

She raised her hands, murmuring in that strange language I’d heard her use before.

The air around us shimmered, like heat rising from sun-baked stone.

“A protection spell,” she explained. “It won’t hold them back for long, but it will give us time.

Quick. To the tree. We need to pull you to this side of the veil.

Reapers can’t harm you if you’re in mortal form.

And I studied the original spell while you were gone.

I think I can make it fairly permanent now. ”

Fear and excitement collided inside me like waves crashing against rock as we approached the ancient oak. Selyse pressed her palm against the trunk, murmuring incantations that made symbols appear and fade, flickering like fireflies on a warm, summer night.

Selyse worked with frantic speed, her fingers tracing patterns in the air that left trails of golden light.

I kept looking back into the darkening forest, imagining shadows moving.

But instead, I saw Rhyker standing beside me like a fortress made of love and death and raw power.

Death itself stood beside me, loving me, shielding me. What could be more powerful than that?

“It’s ready,” Selyse called, stepping back from the tree. “Hurry! Just like last time!”

We repeated the same steps that had brought us to the land of the living last time, and then, hands entwined together, we stepped through.

Light engulfed us, warm and golden and alive. The sensation was disorienting—a rush of energy that seemed to fill every part of me, growing stronger and more intense with each second.

Then came the weight—the delicious, grounding weight of flesh and bone and blood. Gravity pulled at me, reminding me what it meant to be solid, to be real .

I gasped, my eyes flying open as I felt my heart—my actual heart—begin to beat. Air filled my lungs, sweet and crisp and wonderful. I could feel the solid earth beneath my feet, the gentle breeze against my skin.

I was alive. Not truly, perhaps, but close enough.

Rhyker opened his eyes, wonder transforming his features as he looked down at his hands, at his body. Then his gaze found mine, and the joy I saw there made me want to weep.

“Thank you,” he breathed, turning to Selyse, who stood swaying slightly from the effort of the spell. “This gift... I have no words.”

She smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Happy to help. Now, hold still while I do a spell of cloaking. It will prevent them from tracking you in this form. Essentially, you’ll be invisible to anyone in the Shadowveil.”

She closed her eyes, those ancient words spilling from her mouth as she waved her hands over us. Trails of warm, sparkling light twisted around us like threads, glowing then fading as she finished.

“There. You’re as good as invisible as long as you don’t step foot into the Shadowveil. The moment you do, they’ll know and be able to track you again.”

“I don’t ever want to go back there,” I breathed, memories of that terrible place causing me to shudder.

“Now, tell me what happened. And be quick because they will likely track you here, and we want you long gone before they do so they can’t follow you.”

We took a seat on the logs around her fire pit, and I spilled out the wild tale about our time in Faelora. The Storm court. My true father. My killer. Princess Ravenna’s role in it all. The Shadowveil. And then... the light that I still couldn’t process that had exploded out of me .

Selyse’s eyes widened as I finished my tale. “Soulflame,” she breathed as if the word itself may start her mouth on fire.

“What is Soulflame?” I looked at her and Rhyker, but saw no recognition of it in his eyes.

“It’s... well it’s...” she started then blew out a puff of air.

“There’s a theory. One most people think is just legend.

It’s not just light. It’s the first light.

The thing that came before breath, before magic, before death.

It’s what the gods used to ignite creation.

It’s what burns in the core of stars, and in the hearts of the oldest creatures who no longer walk this world. ”

Pip came scurrying out of the bushes and scrambled up my arm, resting on my head. I gave him a scratch. “Pip! Hi, buddy. It’s good to see you again.”

He chirped at me, purring at my scratches, then my attention turned back to Selyse. “So, what does that mean for what happened to me?”

“When a soul moves on, that light of creation returns to the source. But you never moved on. You died—but your light didn’t. It waited. Usually, that light would fade the longer you were here and didn’t go through your door. But for you... it grew.”

Her eyes moved to Rhyker and a smile crossed her face. “Because you didn’t give up. You kept loving. You kept hoping. You fell in love . After death. Do you know what kind of miracle that is?”