skin startled me.
Malleus shrieked from the pain and nearly dropped his scythe. He was quick to put it in his other hand, as the other had been rendered limp and useless, hanging from his shoulder. “You bitch!” he snarled.
Kelara smirked. “That’ll teach you to strike a fellow Reaper over something so petty and insignificant. Now, leave the girl and her father be. They have five minutes. Don’t waste this precious time for them.”
Malleus cursed under his breath but didn’t get involved again. Instead, he stood begrudgingly back, glowering at us. Excited and relieved, I rushed toward the casing, my life-chain jingling merrily. “Honey, are you okay? Oh, I wish your mother could see you now.”
“I’m fine, Dad. Just lingering here, like the others, from what I’m told,” Grace replied, carefully moving around her crystal casing to reach me. The life-chain protruding from her chest had only five links left glowing now, the others black and grimly signaling her impending death. It tore me apart to see her like this, but it was better than not seeing her at all, so I sucked it up and smiled, so my baby wouldn’t feel scared anymore.
“What has he told you so far?” I asked, nodding at Malleus.
“Not much. I didn’t know I could see you, for example,” she replied. “I knew the others were like me. And he said I’m dying. Everything else I picked up from Lawrence, from Mom, from Aunt Rose and Grandpa Derek and Grandma Sofia… It’s not looking good for us, is it?”
I shook my head slowly. “For now, no. But I haven’t lost hope yet, and neither should you, honey.”
“Dad. I hurt you. I made you sick like me,” she remembered, her eyes wide with horror.
“It wasn’t your fault. That cut-and-spell trick that the Hermessi cultists did, it’s… it’s damn tricky,” I said, in a bid to comfort her.
“I’m so sorry,” she replied.
I wondered if I could feel her, in this spirit state of ours. Two physical bodies could touch, so why wouldn’t two spiritual forms touch, too? It didn’t take long for me to remember my previous experience as a ghost. I hadn’t been able to feel anything then. However, something was different here. I wasn’t entirely dead. My soul was still tethered to my body. Maybe the conditions were different this time. Maybe I could feel something in this state. Before I could try it, Grace closed the distance between us and hugged me. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Dad,” she mumbled, hiding her face in my chest.
I stilled, overwhelmed by the tactile sensations. Yes, I could feel her, like one felt the sun on his face, or the warmth of a fire crackling in the fireplace on a cold winter night. I could feel my daughter’s spirit in my arms, and I was beside myself. She giggled with delight, realizing this, as well.
“That’s not a good idea,” Kelara cut in, arms crossed and frowning at us.
“I told you!” Malleus hissed at her, but she ignored him, fixated on Grace and me.
But my daughter and I… we didn’t care. We could hold each other, and we could feel it. I couldn’t ask for anything more right now.
A peculiar brightness expanded between us, and I sensed a white-hot rush blazing through me. It seemed… right. Grace and I looked down, curiously, and jumped back with surprise when we saw the source of that light. A black link on each of our life-chains had begun to glow again, first white and pure, then golden amber, like the others.
“Whoa…” Kelara managed, taking the interjection right out of my mouth on this one.
“Whoa, indeed,” I mumbled, staring at my rejuvenated chain link. “I… Is this supposed to happen?”
Grace shrugged, looking at me with wide, ecstatic blue eyes. “I don’t know…”
The blackness that had covered the two links was shed like ashes, dark gray flakes settling on the marbled floor. Kelara and Malleus were both stunned.
“I’ve never heard of this happening anywhere else,” Malleus replied, his voice now soft, equally baffled. “Then again, no two fae spirits in the sanctuaries have touched before.”
“And neither of us was a Reaper during the first ritual to remember such an incident, either. Our elder colleagues didn’t mention it,” Kelara added.
“So, in short, no one knew or thought this might happen,” I concluded. “Do you know what this means?”
“We can slow the Hermessi’s influence,” Grace said, a broad smile forming on her sweet and darling face. I couldn’t even find the words that could accurately describe