RAFFERTY
“Ember? Ember, wake up.” My chest constricts as I stroke my fingers over her freckled cheek. She’s so damn pale, far too pale.
“I’m so sorry, Raffe,” Ridley says from behind me. His tone tells me that he senses what I do—Ember doesn’t have long. Not with how slow her heart is beating. How hot her body is.
“She’s not gone,” I snap as I prop a hip on her bed. “There has to be a way to help her.” Snaking a hand beneath her neck, I lift her head. It falls back, limp, and the fissures in my soul grow larger.
“Rafferty, I presume?”
My attention shifts from the dying woman to a dark-haired man who just appeared in the corner of the room. Ridley whirls on him, too, both of us ready to attack should it come to that. “Who are you?” I demand even as I try to sense what he is. He’s not fae, not vampire—so what—
“What are you?” Ridley demands.
“My name is Sullivan. I’m a reaper.”
“You can’t have her,” I snarl.
“I’m not here to take her—yet. She was an assignment, but things have gotten complicated.”
“Complicated as in I’ll feed you your balls if you touch her.” I don’t know much about reapers, just rumors of their missions. They take souls into the afterlife, helping them pass to what lies beyond because, unlike most supernaturals, they cannot do it alone.
The reaper glares at me. “I’m the only reason she wasn’t raped in the gardens,” he snaps. “I stepped in when you failed to protect her.”
“Conary,” I growl. “He—”
“Is dead. Thanks to me. He damn near had Ember before I got to them.”
My anger deflates, leaving behind the heavy weight of my failures. Sullivan is right, I vowed to protect her, and I failed. “Thank you,” I reply.
“Yeah. You can send me a card later. Listen, she told me of the bond between her and some fae named Taranus—your brother? She also told me she came here because you wouldn’t kill her when she asked.”
“Why would she tell all of this to you?” Ridley questions.
“We’re friends.”
“A human woman friends with a reaper?” Ridley crosses his arms. “Seems far-fetched.”
“Ember is no ordinary human,” the man replies. “Or can you not feel it?”
“What do you mean she’s not human?” I ask, trying to sense what he does. But all I get is a human heartbeat—granted, it’s faster than most.
“I’m not entirely sure, yet, but I’m trying to figure it out. And I need more time.”
The bedroom door opens, and an older man steps in. His eyes widen, but within moments, he’s recovered. He dematerializes, reappearing on the other side of Ember’s bed as he unsheathes a blade from his back and points it at me. “Let her go, fae.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Ridley demands.
“Someone you don’t want to fuck with,” he snarls back.
I extend my senses out once more. The man is supernatural—that was apparent when he dematerialized. But he’s not anything I’ve ever seen. Helookshuman. Of course, he could be glamoured. “What are you?” I ask.
“Rafferty?”
All of our eyes shift to the human woman in my arms. “Ember?” I choke her name out when her eyes narrow on my face.
“What—I’m still dreaming.”
“No. This is real.” I stroke her face with my hand, trying to bring her the rest of the way out of her sleep. “I’m here. I vowed you would not die alone, remember?”