Page 89 of The Reaper's Vice

I’m in a new kind of hell. One I can’t escape from.

42

ORION

“NOTHING BUT TIME”

Three hours,thirty seven minutes, forty three seconds ago.

Seraphina told me she hated me. I’m going to get her back.

Two hours, fifty five minutes, twenty four seconds ago.

I stumbled through my cabin door, my head pounding from the painful silence. Despair grips my chest.

One hour, thirty two minutes, four seconds ago.

I’ve been staring at a wall. My chest hurts.Everythinghurts, and I’m angry.

Twenty two minutes, twenty seconds ago.

She’s not coming back. I know that now.

Five minutes, thirty five seconds ago.

I realize I’m a monster. She’s better off without me, but I don’t want to live without her.

Two minutes, twelve seconds ago.

I look around the room. I look inside myself. I realize I can’t.

One second ago.

The front door creaks open. My heart explodes.

Seraphina.

She came home.

43

ORION

“THE DOVE FLIES HOME”

I’m still sittingon the floor of the living room when she appears.

Like a ghost or a hallucination, Seraphina Valez stands in the open doorway, her chest heaving and cheeks wet with tears. Her eyes—her beautiful, golden pools—are rimmed with red and swollen, shoving wave after wave of moisture past her lids and down her face.

My heart stops in my chest, and I blink, waiting for her to disappear again.

But that doesn’t happen.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” she whispers, her body shuddering with the strength she holds in her cries. “I didn’t… I don’t?—”

Before she gets the rest of it out, I’m up and across the room, pulling her so violently into my arms, I’m sure I’ll break her. I run my palms over her back, her arms, her face—touching every inch of her, trying to convince myself she’s really, truly here.

“Seraphina.” I press my lips to the top of her head. Her shoulders shake with heaving sobs, and I just hold her closer, humming soothing notes and caressing her until the worst of the pain leaves her.

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