Page 56 of Deathless
It’s working. Her awareness is rousing, Astarte said.I can sense her, but we need more. She needs to fight harder.
“Rori, we need you to fight harder.” I hovered over that pissed off, snarling face with the soulless black eyes. “You need to kick this rotten cunt to the curb right now.”
“Toss her out on her ugly ass,” Santos chimed in. “You’re strong enough. She wouldn’t have chosen you for a vessel if you weren’t a fucking badass. Show this bitch how strong you really are.”
Rori’s head threw back and let out an animalistic cry of fury.
Fuck.For the first time, Astarte sounded truly worried.I can feel her fighting, but she’s not getting the upper hand. What little control she has is slipping. I’m sorry, Torrance, but she’s almost gone.
A new kind of desperation overtook me now. A sense of such utter helplessness, knowing that what little I had left to give wasn’t enough. And still, I’d offer it up anyway, because it was all I had left.
Give me one of my hands,I said to Astarte.
That isn’t a good idea. Strong as you are, it’s not enough to—
Just give me one of my fucking hands! Let me touch her before I lose her, for fuck’s sake.
There was a moment of hesitation before I felt control return to the palm and fingers of my right hand. I used that hand to cup Rori’s cheek. Her face turned toward me with surprising ease, those soulless eyes somehow amused in their lack of expression. Leaning down, I touched my forehead and nose to hers as Santos had earlier.
“Listen, Rori.” My throat was impossibly tight with a choking knot. I was all but saying goodbye to her and had to get the words out.
“Listen, you need to come back.” My thumb stroked over her cheekbone, still so warm like she was very much alive. “You need to come back not because you’re strong and we need to save the world or some shit, but because I—” I swallowed, but the knot wouldn’t loosen. So I forced the words out. “Because I’m too weak to go on without you.” Something about saying it out loud made the floodgates open, and the rest came pouring out.
“I need you to come back because I can’t fucking handle you leaving me, okay? Not you. You swore you wouldn’t. You asked me to trust you, and I did. You said you loved me, that you’d never leave. So don’t become a fucking liar, Rori. Don’t you dare fucking leave me like they did.”
Nothing else registered as I closed my eyes, unable to look into that face that was no longer hers. “I love you too much to let you go.”
18
RORI
Ayoung man sat next to me. He was handsome with russet brown hair, green eyes, and a cheeky, dimpled smile. Some of his features, like the shape of his nose and chin, reminded me of my father Reaper.
“Hey, kiddo,” he said quietly.
“Uncle Daren?” I tried to look around but couldn’t get a sense of where I was. I wasn’t even sure I had a head to turn. “Am I dreaming?”
“In a sense.”
“Am I…dead?”
“No. It would feel like a mercy if you were, but it’s not your time to die yet. Hades told me himself.”
He was speaking words that I recognized but had trouble making sense of. I tried to lift my hands to see them, to stand up, to look around and observe my surroundings again. But the more I tried, the more it seemed like I didn’t have a body.
“Where am I?” Panic frayed my voice, even though I couldn’t physically feel any anxiety. “If I’m not dead, how can I see you so clearly?”
“It’s alright, Rori. Just listen carefully.” My uncle’s face was solemn as he spoke to me. I’d never met him before, he’d died before I was born. But ever since Reaper told me about his younger brother, I’d felt an inexplicable bond to this man. Another father figure whose spirit guided me through dreams.
“You’re not in control of your body right now,” Uncle Daren told me calmly. “Someone else has taken over, so you’ve retreated to a safe place.” He gave me a lopsided smile. “Turns out, that’s with me.”
His words began to make sense, and I nodded as the memories returned. “I always did feel safe with you. When I had nightmares as a little kid, you told me to come find you so the monsters wouldn’t get me.”
“That’s right.” My uncle smiled. “I figured, if I couldn’t be around to protect my nieces and nephews in the physical world, I’d protect you in your dreams.”
“Well, a real-life monster did get me.” I tried to run my hands through my hair but felt nothing. It was trippy not having a body. “So, is this it for me? You and me, hanging out in Dreamworld?”
“No, Rori.” Uncle Daren’s smile disappeared, his stoic expression reminding me of my father again. “Your story is not over. But you have to fight your way back, harder than anyone ever has. It will hurt. You will be confused and disoriented, but if there’s one person on earth badass and stubborn enough to fight off a god’s possession, it’s you.”
