Page 93 of Heartless
“How can you tell me that?” I demanded. “How can Inottake his life?”
He has not yet reached his end. Stay your hand.
I lowered the gun, turning to face the god at my side who was asking the impossible of me.
“You promised to protect her,” I said. “Andhealmost took her life! Where were you then, huh?”
Shewasprotected. Her life was salvaged. The human Shadow’s life must continue alongside hers.
I crouched down, lowering my face to the dog’s level.“I don’t care. I willnotobey. His lifeismine to take.” I returned to standing, spinning with my shooting arm outstretched toward Shadow’s jail cell, to find a man blocking my shot.
He was a flash before my eyes, barely even an image, more of a hazy outline. I caught no details, just a murky silhouette before my gun was wrenched from my hand and tossed toward the door.
I pulled my hand back to my chest with a shout, the cramping painful and immediate. I was decently strong and always carried a good grip on my gun, but this thing broke my hold like I was a newborn.
This is my command,Hades bellowed, his voice like scraping metal in my head and clanging over every bar in the room.You willnotreap. His life. Is Not. Yours. To take.
“Fuck you!” I yelled in the dog’s face. He was completely impassive. Not even his ears went back. “I have fucking obeyed you, let me have thisone!”
I went for the jail doors, deciding I’d strangle Shadow if I couldn’t shoot him. Something hit me from the side with the force of a linebacker, and I went sprawling across the concrete floor.
Your human body will wear out if you continue this, Reaper. But I rule the dead and I am eternal. My word is law. Shadow’s life will not be reaped until it is time.
“What about Mari’s?” I hissed. “The next time he attacks her, will we get there in time? Huh? Or are you just gonna keep playing fast and loose with our lives?”
As long as Freyja, Horus, and I walk alongside you, those nearest to you will only die when their time comes.
“Swear to me,” I said. “Promise me no one I love will have another brush with death. Especially not her. Swear it, fucking god!”
I owe you nothing beyond what I’ve said, human. You know the protection I offer. And youwillcarry out this command, and every one after, until our time together is finished.
The dog walked up to where I still sat on the floor, his presence almost unbearably heavy. More than a dog, more than a man, but an odd feeling like the whole pressure of the atmosphere sat on my chest.
Swear tomenow, my reaper.His teeth bared, a low warning growl pulling from his throat.Youwillobey. Shadow’s life is not yours to take.
“I…I will.” The suffocating pressure on my chest eased just a little. “And…I will spare Shadow’s life.”
Hades backed away, his presence no longer closing in on me.Return to Mariposa now. She is feeling much better.
I climbed to my feet, shakily picking up my gun and returning it to my holster. Not bothering to look back at Shadow, I felt dazed as I left the building. Sweaty, feverish, and nauseous.Did that just fucking happen? A god intervening on me taking a life?
Hades was all dopey and smiling at my side again. He licked at my hand but I yanked it away, the thought of touching him just too fucking weird in that moment. I mounted my bike slowly, turning it on and guiding it back out to the road when I started to feel more normal.
Once I was a good distance away from the jail, the hospital looming into view, the wheels started turning in my head again.
I couldn’t kill Shadow.
Which meant I had to do something else.
Twenty-Eight
SHADOW
Disappointment didn’t cover a fraction of what I felt.
Hades wouldn’t allow me to die, and if I ventured a guess, that included by my own hand. So I’d be forced to live, and for what?
They could keep me here in this jail cell and that would work for me. Mariposa would never see me, and I’d reacquaint myself with a lifeless existence in a cage. That seemed like a fitting punishment.
