Page 74 of Dante's Circle Reborn

She was a banshee, one who screamed of death. He wondered if she would scream for hers.

He nodded and then put the location into his mind before he transported to where she stood. He hung back in the shadows, invisible to the naked eye—something reapers could do—and he waited. Eva held a basket of flowers in her hand, picking wild ones from a large hill in the banshee realm.

Banshees mostly lived within the human realm, though they had a small realm where they could hide amongst their own. However, they needed to scream for death or it hurt them, so they traveled to the other realms often, doing what their souls desired. They screamed for death; though they were not the cause of it.

For if you heard a banshee scream, death was sure to come.

These were Eva’s last moments. He watched her, wondering what would happen to the others once they noticed she was gone, her soul ripped from her because of his duties.

“Okay, just a few more flowers and then I’ll have enough for the picnic,” Eva said to herself, smiling. “Little girls love flowers for their picnics, so I am being the best Auntie Eva ever.”

A smile twitched on Ashen’s lips, but he stayed where he was. She talked to herself and seemed to be a good aunt. He hated that he was going to have a part in her end.

And then she stiffened, all humor and happiness draining from her eyes as she looked to where he stood in the shadows.

Her mouth opened, and she sang. Not screamed, but sang. The song, however, wasn’t one he knew, nor one he wanted to hear again.

It ripped into his ears, his soul—or at least whatever soul he had left. It felt like talons shredding him, the high-pitched song one of beauty, death, horror, and, yes, of life.

She sang, the basket of flowers falling to her feet before she followed it, dropping to her knees as she pulled at her hair and screamed and screamed and screamed.

Was this because of her death, or someone else’s?

Ashen took a step forward and emerged from the shadows. He looked at her then and froze.

His heart pulsated, and something tugged inside of him. He knew exactly what it was. Her mouth closed, and she stopped screaming, her eyes widening as she looked at him.

“Mate,” she whispered, the same time that he growled.

Mate.

Flashes of a bear, a family, a fire, a dragon in the air as others screamed. Flashes of someone who had loved him, a brother, a family, a life.

It all bombarded him in a moment. He could hear the echo of the banshee’s song again, and he dropped to his knees next to her.

And then there was nothing. Just darkness and death.

ChapterTwo

Eva knelt on the grass and looked down at the man who was going to kill her.

A reaper.

The paranormals in the other realms might not know who they were, or perhaps they were only the bogeymen of the stories that they told children or ones who were doing bad things. But Eva knew who they were. All the banshees did.

After all, her kind knew when death was coming. So, of course, they knew who death was behind the mask.

However, in all of her time in this realm and on Earth, she had never thought the man who would one day be her mate would also be a reaper.

She swallowed hard, trying to understand exactly what was happening.

He looked…sad. Even unconscious as he was. She didn’t know why she had never thought about what a reaper might look like. He was big and built, though he looked as if he could stand to have a few more pounds on his bones. It looked as if he were tired, as if he couldn’t sleep.

There were dark circles under his eyes, and his cheeks were sunken in.

She felt sorry for him, wanted to make sure he was okay. Only she didn’t have answers for how to do that. It wasn’t her place to save a reaper, even if he was her mate.

He wore a long, black cloak, the cowl that had once been covering his face pulled back now as he lay passed out before her.

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