Tears flood my eyes and I can’t hold back the torrent as they release. A garbled cry escapes my lips, but I can’t find the words. Nothing I say will make any of this right.
Wade leaves his dad behind, moving quickly to my side. “Don’t cry, Autumn. Don’t—” he whispers, trying to console me.
“I couldn’t save you. I couldn’t…” My voice catches at the back of my throat and I press my fingertips to my mouth. My gaze drops to the floor because looking at him now makes my heart feel like it’s going to shatter into a million pieces. He’s here—but not.
“Shhhh… It’s okay. It’s not your fault,” he says, reaching out and placing his hands on either side of me. No longer warm, his touch is like a cool breeze, making the hairs on my arm stand on end. “Maybe this was just…”
I look up, large tears dropping my from my lower lids and onto my cheeks. “Don’t you dare say it.”
“Fate.” The word tumbles out before he has the chance to take it back.
My face crumples and my shoulders cave. Wade pulls me into him, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pressing me to his chest. The intense chill ripples through me, but I lean into it, wishing it would just wash me away.
“I’m still here,” he whispers, running his hand over the back of my head.
“No, you’re not. You’ll leave me. The way your dad left you. I’ll be all alone—”
“No, you won’t. You’ll have our child,” he says, pulling back and staring me straight in the eye. His right hand floats down, pressing against my abdomen.
My breath catches. He knows about the pregnancy.
“It’s not the same,” I whimper, wiping back the tears as they spill across my cheeks.
He sighs heavily. “I know. I know it’s not. But it’s the best I can do.”
“I don’t want to live in a world without you in it. It’s not fair,” I say, my chin quivering and every fiber of my being screaming in agony.
Wade’s father approaches us, lifting his left hand to place it on Wade’s shoulder. “We need to go. I know you don’t want to, but your initiation must begin to solidify your role as an Angel of Death,” he says softly.
“I don’t want to leave her. Not like this,” Wade says, tears clouding his own eyes.
“When that is over, you can come back for longer periods of time,” his father offers. “But for now, we must get your initiation underway or your soul will be swept up into the realm of the dead. Let’s try and avoid that, okay?”
Wade nods faintly. “All right.” He turns back to me, placing his hands on either side of my face and making me look directly into his silver eyes. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise you.”
“But it isn’t forever—” I sob.
His lower lip tugs downward, making his chin compress. “It’s always forever.”
With that, his lips crush down on mine, sending a chill through me that reaches all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes. I reach up, entwining my fingers in his hair, only half aware of the fact that it’s not his real hair—or his real body I’m kissing.
After a moment, he pulls back, resting his forehead against mine. “I know this isn’t what we wanted. But it’s the only way forward.”
“I know,” I mutter, closing my eyes to fight back the emotions threatening to devour me whole.
But no matter what I try, my world is spinning seriously out of control.
Wade moves abruptly, kissing me on the cheek and turning back around to face his dad. “All right. I guess I’m ready as I’ll ever be.” He gives my hand one last squeeze as he steps away from me.
“Sorry, dear. But you’re not going to get off quite so easily,” a woman’s voice says.
Materializing out of the shadows in the room, an older woman clad in a dark woolen cloak appears just to the left of Wade. Before we have time to react, she reveals an enormous pair of shears from under her cloak. Then, within seconds, she severs the silver cord of light binding Wade to his father.
“No—” the Angel of Death cries out, lunging forward.
But it’s too late. The silver string and the strong aura that flowed around the two of them dissipates, leaving Wade in a hazy gray cloud.
Aisa twists around, squaring off with Wade’s father. “How dare you try to defy us? You know his role in all of this, just as well as I. You will not be allowed to circumvent it.”
Without warning, Wade’s soul is thrust back into his body. For the briefest of moments, euphoria takes me over as he sits up, clutching at his chest and coughing life back into his lungs.
However, the mark on his chest detonates in a flurry of red and gold flames until there’s not a single trace left of it. Then the inky black lines that had spun themselves outward from the mark on his chest erupt, consuming every square inch of his skin. His silver eyes darken until even the whites are crowded out by the darkness.
“What the hell?” I screech, rushing into the room.
Before I can reach him, both his father and I are thrust backward as Aisa raises a single hand in our direction. I fight against whatever energetic hold she has on us, but it’s no use.
Aisa’s smile widens into a lopsided smirk, and without even looking at Wade, she says, “It’s time to ride, Horseman. You have work to do.”
My heart skips a beat, lodging itself firmly in my throat.
Horseman?
As in…one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
Oh, my god. This can’t be happening.
Chapter 23
Fail-safe
As if everything that happens next is up to free will, Aisa chuckles to herself and vanishes in the same swirl of sparks that Lachesis did.
Her laughter rings in my ears as Wade’s dad and I
