Page 22 of Reaper's Ruin
He didn’t answer with words. Instead, strange shadows began pulsing beneath his skin, gathering until they moved like ink rolling through his veins, darkening as it traveled through him. He rolled his shoulders, and suddenly—impossibly—massive wings unfurled from his back. They weren’t physical wings, not like a bird’s or even like the angel wings I’d imagined as a kid. These were made of pure shadow, misty and translucent at the edges but densely black near his body. They shifted and moved like living smoke, beautiful and terrifying all at once.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. I just stared, utterly transfixed by the sight before me. Those wings arched high above his shoulders, spanning at least twelve feet across, their edges rippling and dissolving into wisps of darkness like ink in water. They were terrifying and magnificent and so impossibly beautiful I couldn’t look away.
“Those are...” I couldn’t even find the words.
His eyes caught mine, and for a moment—just the briefest flicker—I saw something unexpected there. A vulnerability,quickly masked. As if he’d momentarily forgotten to hide whatever it was he always kept concealed beneath that cold exterior.
“They allow me to travel through the Shadowveil,” he explained, his voice lower than before, rougher somehow. “I can cut through to anywhere shadows exist. This is how I sliced through to pull you into the Shadowveil.”
“And that’s how you kept finding me,” I realized. “You were following me through shadows.”
He nodded. “We need to go. The longer we linger here, the greater the chance the Veil Lords may sense something unusual.”
He extended his hand to me. “Come.”
The simple word, sharp and powerful, caused my breath to hitch. I hesitated only a moment before placing my hand in his. His fingers closed around mine, warm and solid and real. This small point of contact sent a shiver up my arm that had nothing to do with fear.
“I’ll need to hold you,” he said, his voice dropping even lower. “Tightly.”
Before I could process what was happening, he pulled me against him, one arm wrapping securely around my waist, the other hand pressing between my shoulder blades. My body collided with his, the solid wall of his chest firm against me. Instinctively, I slid my arms around him, my hands splaying across the broad expanse of his back.
The intimate position sent a rush of heat through me that had no business existing in the afterlife. I could feel every hard plane of his body, every breath he took, every flinch of his muscles in response to my touch.
I dared to look up at him and found his eyes locked on mine, something fierce and unreadable burning in their depths. For a moment, neither of us moved. Neither of us breathed. There wasjust this strange, electric connection humming between us, as if the shadows themselves were charged with lightning.
“Are you sure this is safe?” I finally managed out.
He held my gaze, answering with one simple word in that deep, booming voice.
“No.”
Then his wings swept forward, enveloping us both in darkness so complete it felt like falling into the void. I gasped, a potent blend of fear and exhilaration rising inside me as I clung tighter to him. To this man. This Reaper. To the most dangerous, beautiful being I’d ever encountered. A creature sent to erase me from existence. Now the only hope I had of finding my mother in the afterlife.
And yet, as his wings closed around us, I found myself trusting him despite everything. Because in a world where I was nothing—where I couldn’t be seen or heard or touched—he had seen me. He had heard me. He had touched me. He could help me.
And right now, that was all that mattered.
With a sound like tearing silk, his wings sliced through the shadows, and we vanished from the marketplace.
CHAPTER FIVE
Rhyker
I had forgotten what it felt like to hold another being.
Centuries of isolation, of touch being nothing more than a distant memory, had made me forget the simple weight of another person in my arms. The warmth. The solidity.
Soraya was pressed against me, her slender arms wrapped around my waist, her face buried against my chest as my wings sliced through the shadows of the Shadowveil. I could feel the softness of her hair beneath my chin, the gentle curves of her body against mine.
I should have been focused solely on our destination. On my duty. On maintaining the precise control needed to navigate the Shadowveil.
Instead, I was distracted by sensations I’d thought long dead. By a strange, unfamiliar ache in my chest. By the realization that I didn’t want to let her go.
The journey through shadow took only moments, but it felt like an eternity—each second bringing fresh awareness of her presence, her trust, her vulnerability. When we emerged in the muted twilight of the Sylvan forest, I held her a moment longer than necessary, relishing the simple satisfaction of human contact, before loosening my grip.
She stepped back, her blue eyes wide, cheeks flushed. “That was... intense.”
I nodded stiffly, trying to regain my composure. “We’re here.”
