Page 116 of Reaper Unhinged
What was happening? Where was I? I was at a bus stop… I needed to catch a bus.
I turned back to the bench to find it occupied by a guy. He looked young, maybe mid-twenties, but his eyes looked out of place in such a youthful face. They were too knowing. Too shrewd.
“You waiting for the bus?” I smiled tentatively at him before sitting back down as far away from him as possible.
“No,” he said.
“Friends?”
“No. You?” He canted his head. “Where are you headed?”
“Me? I’m…” My mind was blank, and maybe that should have bothered me, but it didn’t. “I…don’t know. I guess I’ll find out.”
A tugging sensation lit up my chest again, momentarily stealing my breath.
“Someone wants you back real bad,” the guy said.
“Huh?”
He studied me for a long beat. “I could keep you. In fact, I might.”
Keep me? “Look, you’re lovely and all, but you’re a little young for me.”
“Am I?” He sucked his bottom lip into his mouth. “How old are you?”
“Me? I’m…” Panic bloomed in my stomach. How oldwasI?
“Pretty girl like you must have a pretty name.”
“I…” What was my name?
I looked up to find him sitting right beside me, his eyes all pupil as he locked onto mine.
“Yes… Yes, I think I’ll keep you,” he said.
My hand tingled, and when I looked down, there was a ticket clutched in it.
* * *
Cora
“Again! Do it again!” Vi orders.
“I am. I am,” Missy says. “It’s not working.”
The room is in an uproar. Mal, Uri, and Bastian have Azazel pinned. He’s a fucking beast trying to tear his way to Fee, which confirms one awful thing.
She’s dying.
She’s fucking dying.
“I had her,” Missy says. “I had her, and then she flatlined again. Why is she flatlining?”
She sounds genuinely confused.
Grayson is on his knees by Fee’s head, his mouth moving silently. Is he fucking praying? Hunter stands by the fireplace staring, just fucking staring as if he’s frozen in time.
No. We need to do something. An idea forms in my mind. A fucked-up, crazy plan. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t even know if it’s possible, and I have no clue if I’ll be able to make it back if I succeed.
