Another sound echoed through the open space, and in the center of the area where the men stood, the air shimmered with green like some sort of force field. Darkness moved beyond it, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
A large, sprawling staircase sat between the arena and me. Past that, the crowd of onlookers stood, their backs to me. Even though I didn’t have any idea how I could reach the men—or even if I did, what I could do to help—I took off down the stairs.
The shimmering brightened, then disappeared as it had before, revealing what creature Lucifer had chosen for their final fight.
Silence fell, the crowd seeming to take a simultaneous breath and step backward. Anything that forced that from a group of immortals was not a good thing.
In the center, between the men and the crowd, was a shadowed being that made my blood freeze. It was something I’d seen before, something I’d lived my whole life hearing about.
The thing Lucifer had picked for them to fight, the thing they somehow had to kill despite it being impossible, was a reaper.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The reaper didn’t move at first, floating there, clothed in black fabric. I understood the whole grim reaper myth, now. Clearly people who repeated the myth had caught a glimpse a reaper and twisted the facts.
I pushed myself faster, somehow managing to not miss a step or go tumbling down the stones despite the lack of a guardrail.
Reapers were almost indestructible. They weren’t really alive or dead, not tied to the living or the dead realms, so they couldn’t be harmed by either beings.
That meant Lucifer had placed before the men something they had no chance of actually defeating. He’d set them up to die, because once the round started, there was no forfeit.
Lucifer did nothing without cause, though. I’d learned that if nothing else, so what was he trying for?
I shoved past the tightly packed bodies of people who saw this entire thing as a spectacle, just entertainment for them.
It was so much more to me.
Any other time, I’d have been hesitant about barreling into countless hell creatures and immortals, but right then I had bigger issues at hand.
Past the gathered people sat the chairs for the VIPs, Lucifer at the center, the one to his side, my chair, empty.
When I tried to pass him, he caught my wrist to pull me to a stop. It reminded me that he was not human, as his strength seemed to make a mockery of even Kase. It was like a statue holding me back.
“You’re going to get them killed,” I snapped.
“I am doing nothing.”
“You know they can’t hurt a reaper.”
“They’ve seemed fairly capable up until this point. Perhaps they’ll surprise us all.”
I couldn’t pull my gaze from the arena, from where the men had spread out to flank the reaper.
It moved, side to side, as if examining the situation. Then again, reapers had no enemies, no reason for fear.
It floated toward the crowd, not at any sort of speed as if worried. However, when it hit the boundary where a line of rocks sat, it bounced backward.
“You trapped it in there with them?”
He nodded. “It isn’t an easy task, but it is possible.”
“I thought they were untouchable…”
“By normal means, yes. There are a few ways to restrict their movements, at least for a while.” He released my wrist. “Of course, doing so has the unfortunate side effect of agitating the reaper.”
I turned back toward the arena to find, sure enough, the reaper shifting in quicker motions, side to side, before heading toward the ravine. It bounced off a wall there, too.
My head pounded, a sharp ache as if I’d heard some horrible screeching even though it didn’t seem real, even though no one else flinched.
“That’s what it sounds like,” Lucifer said. “Most people can’t hear it, have no idea what a reaper actually sounds like, but you can, can’t you?”
I didn’t answer—I doubted he really wanted me to. Besides, I couldn’t explain it. I could hear it but I couldn’t. It was an odd sensation, where the pain told me I sensed the sound even if I couldn’t identify it.
Each time the reaper bounced off a wall, my headache increased as if it screamed louder.
It moved toward Grant, who lifted his hands in front of him. The quick motion that normally would have thrown back anything that neared him had no effect. At the last moment, just before it struck him, Kase rushed forward, yanking him clear.
The reaper hit Kase instead, and while it was not entirely corporeal, it still interacted with him. He pulled back, as if seared by the contact.
“If the reaper had touched Grant, it would have been able to sever his soul from his body. Lucky for you all, Kase doesn’t have a soul in the same way. Not that the reaper won’t be able to kill him eventually.”
“What do you want?” I forced myself to look away from the arena, to look directly at Lucifer. “You always want something. You put them in a no-win situation for a reason, so what do you want from me?”
He curled his lips into a satisfied grin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play game with me. Just tell me.”
“You said you would do anything for them. Well, now is the time. I don’t lie, and I am telling you that unless you do something, that reaper will kill all four of the men you claim to care so much about.”
“What am I supposed to do against that?”
He sat back and crossed one ankle over his other knee, as if the entire thing didn’t matter to him.
My head ached from that sound and from the mental gymnastics I had to perform to try and work out what I needed to do.
In the arena, Kase
