Page 88 of Dante's Circle Reborn

He couldn’t remember.

“Torrent, how is this possible?” The man looked over his shoulder and growled at his mate. “You knew this, didn’t you?”

The dragon, it must be Dante, walked forward and nodded, his hands outstretched, palms up. “Levi found him today. And I told him to bring him here. I didn’t know if he was actually going to come, however. That’s why I didn’t mention it right away. Although, if they hadn’t shown up within the next five minutes, I was going to tell you, and we would have hunted him down.”

The dragon looked at Ashen then, his black-and-blue hair over his shoulders, a fang peeking out of his smile.

Ashen was really lucky that he’d shown up because he did not want to be on the bad side of a dragon.

“You…you came. It’s you,” Jace gasped as he turned back to Ashen.

Jace. His name was Jace. Ashen’s brother, well…Torrent’s brother, was Jace.

Flashes of bear cubs and honey, a family and warmth, all filled him. He staggered, and Eva put her hands on his chest.

“Breathe, Ashen. You can do this. It’s okay.”

“Why are you calling him Ashen?” Jace asked, his voice deadly. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s my name,” Ashen said honestly. He looked up at Jace, his brother, and let out a long breath. “I’m not the man you knew. I don’t remember much. Don’t blame the dragon for holding back. I think he wanted you to see me first. For I am a ghost. A memory. A wisp of being.”

“You are not, damn it,” Eva said from beside him, and he looked over.

“I’m not?”

“No, you are Ashen. You are whoever you need to be. Whoever you want. And if they have a problem with that, they can go through me.”

His banshee raised her chin and looked at the rest of the people in the bar, an angelic warrior, a demon, a brownie, a pixie, a leprechaun, a lion, and even a phoenix. So many of their kind all in one room, working together as one. They were friends.

Were they Torrent’s friends?

Perhaps.

Were they Ashen’s friends?

No, not yet. He didn’t even know himself yet, but he couldn’t wait to figure out exactly who the rest were.

“Okay…okay,” Jace whispered, holding onto Dante’s arms. “How is this possible?”

Ashen let out a breath. “I died. Because of the fates or the reapers, I don’t know. Maybe it was an accident. I might not ever know, but I died. And then I woke up again, in this new body.” He looked down at himself and frowned. “Or, a body similar to this.”

“Your skin is a little tanner than it was before, your hair a little blonder than when I first met you. Your eyes are the same, though.”

He looked down at Eva and smiled. “I think I’m finding myself, so I’m changing. Just like the bear inside me.”

Jace’s eyes went gold. “Your bear? You can shift?”

Ashen closed his eyes. “Maybe? I don’t know. I’m a reaper.”

“What’s a reaper?” someone asked.

“It’s a long story,” he said, and then he spoke of the reapers and the choices and how he’d met Eva. The others nodded, and he felt like maybe they understood. Couples and triads looked at each other as if they got exactly what he and Eva had already gone through in their short time together. And perhaps that was true. He wasn’t quite sure, but he couldn’t take too much more at the moment, so he wasn’t going to think about it.

Not yet. He couldn’t remember everybody’s name, and he wasn’t even sure he had known everybody when he was alive.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” Jace said, his voice a rasp. “Can I...can I hug you?” Jace asked, his face pink.

“If you’d like,” Ashen said, his body stiff.

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