Page 31 of Reaper's Ruin
I froze, afraid to disturb him. “Uh...”
“Don’t be scared. He likes you,” Selyse laughed. “Says your hair makes a good nest.”
I couldn’t help but giggle as his tiny paws started rearranging my hair. “This is way too cool. Can I pet him?”
Selyse paused, and after a moment, she answered, “He’d love that.”
I realized she’d been communicating with him, and blew out an amazed breath before reaching up to gently touch the creature’s soft fur. “We definitely don’t have anything like this back home.”
After a moment of petting the cute little guy, he scurried down my body and back up to land on Selyse’s shoulder.
“Come on. We’re close,” she said, then continued walking until we reached a small, clear pool fed by a stream. The water was impossibly blue, almost glowing in the warm sunlight.
“You can bathe here,” Selyse said. “The water is clean and warm. I’ll keep watch.” She glanced back toward the path we’d followed. “Make sure our Reaper friend didn’t follow along to sneak a peek, unless, of course, you wouldn’t mind.”
I felt heat rise to my cheeks. “What? I... of course I wouldn’t want him seeing me...”
“But you wouldn’t mind seeing him take a dip” she said with a knowing smile.
“What? No! Of course not. He’s... he’s aReaper!Like, literally death!”
“One of my many gifts is sensing energies, and yours warms considerably when you look at him.”
I looked away, embarrassed. Apparently there was no denying it to the woman who could see my feelings as if I had a neon sign announcing my attraction. “Well, I just... I mean, he’s... you know.”
“Terrifying? Dangerous? But also impossibly attractive?” she suggested, her smile widening. “I have eyes too. You’d have to be blind not to appreciate the obvious attractiveness of him, Reaper or not. And you’re definitely not blind.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, the tension breaking. “Okay, fine. He’s good-looking in a ‘could-snap-me-in-half’ kind of way. But he’s literally like death. There’s no chance of anything going on there. And besides, there’s no time for romance of any kind right now, not that I would with a, you know, Reaper. My focus needs to be on—”
“Finding your mother,” she finished for me.
Her mention of my mother sobered me. “I can’t be separated from her for eternity. Or get erased and never see her again. We were best friends, you know? Like Lorelai and Rory close.”
“Who?”
“Oh, sorry—characters from a TV show back home. A mother and daughter who were super close, more like best friends than parent and child. That was me and my mom.” I smiled warmly, memories flooding back. “She had me young—only twenty. And my dad was never in the picture, so it was just the two of us against the world.”
“My mother and I were the same,” Selyse said softly, her expression growing distant. “Just the two of us here. I never knew my father either.”
“She taught you everything about being a sorceress?”
Selyse nodded, absently stroking Pip. “She tried. But she died before she could teach me everything I needed to know. I’ve been learning on my own since then, using her notes, her books.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, recognizing the grief in her eyes. It mirrored my own.
“Me too,” she replied simply. “Now, come. Get cleaned up, and then we’ll get you in some proper clothes.”
I waited until she turned away before slipping out of my bloodstained pajamas and stepping into the pool. The water was perfectly warm and silky against my skin. I ducked beneath the surface, letting it wash away the blood and dirt, the physical remnants of my death.
When I stepped out of the water, Selyse respectfully kept her back turned, gesturing to a smooth rock where she’d laid out a soft cloth and a folded bundle of fabric.
“There are clothes for you there,” she said. “I hope they fit.”
I dried myself quickly with the cloth, then examined what she’d left me. The dress was a deep forest green, with intricate embroidery along the edges in silver thread that caught the light as I unfolded it. It looked like something from a fantasy movie—or perhaps a Renaissance Fair back home.
I slipped it over my head, surprised by how light the fabric felt against my skin. It flowed like water, settling around my body in a way that modern fabrics never did. The bodice had a series of crisscrossing ties across the front that confused me at first—so different from the simple zippers and buttons I was used to. After some fumbling, I managed to secure them, pulling the dress snug against my frame.
“Need help?” Selyse asked, still keeping her distance.
