4
ADDIE
Askull-splitting scream woke me. I shot upright. My chest heaved like I’d been running in my sleep. A face filled my vision. Her skin was ghostly pale, and her mouth yawned wide to reveal a void that tried to suck me in.
I jerked back and threw my arms over my face.
“He killed me.” Her voice warped oddly, like it was trying to break out of a force that was holding it back. “The white wolf killed me. He hunted me like an animal.”
“Not my wolf,” I said without thinking.
The ghost moaned. The sound steadily turned into a wail. I grimaced when the pain raced across my skull.
Power brimmed inside me. I wasn’t just any Reaper. This fountain of unlimited arcana gave me the ability to command this situation. Inspired by my friend, I pulled that arcana into my throat and wove it into my voice.
“Leave,” I commanded.
At first, I feared it wouldn’t work. This ghost defied everything I thought I knew about the dead. She wasn’t as she should be, and that left me uncertain. However, she flinched and scuttled back from my bed. Her movements were jerky. It was like looking at frozen frames of a movie.
Then she vanished.
I let out a breath right before a shadow passed over me. A scream escaped me when the shadow rushed forward. Terrified, I threw myself off the opposite side of the bed. I hit the ground with a hard thud, but the thump of my heart shook me more than the impact.
“Addie? Are you alright?”
Maddox’s concerned voice reached me. I pressed my head to the edge of the mattress and laughed at myself as the adrenaline faded. He climbed over the bed and extended a hand down towards me. I didn’t take it at first. Embarrassment kept me hiding where he couldn’t see my face.
Maddox sighed and patted my head. The touch helped my heart settle back into a normal pace. He didn’t say anything in the dark. I appreciated his presence. After what happened, I didn’t want to be alone. Maddox couldn’t see the ghosts, but he made me feel safer all the same.
“I saw her again,” I said into the bedsheets.
Maddox started to ask who, then paused mid-sentence. “Ah, her. The ghost.”
“There’s something wrong with her. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s my job to make this right. I can feel it, even if I don’t want the responsibility.”
A soft growl filled the room. For a heartbeat, I thought Maddox was upset with me for wanting to run from my responsibility. Then he lifted me from the floor and hauled me into his lap where he could hold me close. With his arms around me, I buried my face into his chest.
“I’ll be here the whole way,” he said into my hair. “I’m sorry for pulling you into this.”
Gripping his shirt like a lifeline, I said, “It’s okay. You didn’t know. Fate planned this for us. It put all the pieces together so that I would end up here to do its bidding.”
“Fate?” Maddox didn’t sound so happy about that idea. “Is fate really out there, pulling strings? If so, then why do so many people get shorter strings than others? Why does fate hurt so many people?”
I didn’t have an easy answer for him. Fate tried to screw with us all. It seemed like a cruel force, but it also offered boons such as mates. There was a delicate balance in the universe that I should have respected. However, I wanted to fight kicking and screaming against this force handing me such shitty cards.
“If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to try defying fate,” I said into his shirt.
He made a grumbling sound.
“I’m not joking.” I pulled back so I could look up at him. “Vi managed to defy fate. She gave it what it wanted only to yank it back at the last second. If she can do it, then maybe we can, too.”
Maddox lifted a brow in question. “Isn’t that yourantichristfriend?”
“I mean…yeah, but I don’t know what that has to do with anything.”
After a moment, his laughter filled the room. “I guess if anyone can defy fate, it would be her. Us, though? I’m not so sure.”
Selfishly, I wanted to defy fate if only so that I could stay in Maddox’s arms forever. Here, I was safe. And—perhaps more importantly—he was safe from me. I couldn’t kill him by accident. My arcana wouldn’t suck him dry.