the happiness bursting through me like wildfire. “One chain link… maybe more… maybe one at a time.”
An unknown male voice interjected, somewhere to my right. “Okay, that’s weird,” he said, and both Grace and I turned to see who’d spoken.
It was another Reaper, judging by his eyes and his suit, but he was likely in charge of another fae in this place. I wasn’t sure what to make of his presence, or why he’d chosen to reveal himself.
“Who are you?” I asked. He just stared at my life-chain.
“Seeley, what in the world—” Malleus replied, but the new Reaper cut him off.
“Shut up for a second. This is amazing.”
“I agree,” Kelara said. “Would the others react the same, if they could see each other? Or is this solely a proprietary feature of the Novaks? They’ve defied the norms of nature and physics before, after all.”
She meant my resurrection, along with Lucas’s, among other past adventures. But it was a good question to ask. “We could try,” I said.
“I admit, I’m curious,” Seeley replied.
“We wouldn’t be allowed,” Malleus interjected, like soggy rain on a perfectly good parade. I hated his guts by now. “We’d be interfering in the natural order of things. Kelara interfered now by allowing Ben to see Grace. It’s not right. Death won’t like it.”
“How do you know?” I shot back, understandably irritated.
“Because I represent her, like all my colleagues here. And whether Seeley and Kelara want to admit it or not, the rules don’t lie. We’re not allowed to interfere and help you evade death, okay? It’s forbidden, and the punishments are, I’m told, quite severe. Now, please, Seeley, go mind your fae and leave us alone.”
Seeley scoffed, running a hand through his thick black hair. “None of this is natural, if you ask me, starting with what the Hermessi are doing to these people.”
“Even so, we were summoned here to do our jobs, not help them,” Malleus replied tersely.
“He’s right, Seeley.” Kelara sighed, her shoulders dropping. I was losing her, too, dammit. Grace and I exchanged worried looks, as we both realized what was coming next. “Your five minutes are up,” Kelara announced, and the urgency rammed into me like a battering ram.
“No, no, wait, I need to—”
“Dad!” Grace’s voice faded as she disappeared, along with a sullen Malleus and a pissed-off Seeley. I breathed out, my shoulders dropping and my core aching. I couldn’t see Grace anymore. And there was so much we’d yet to talk about, including this life-chain development. It was so important, yet the Reapers worried more about their rules than about doing the right thing.
“I’m sorry, Ben,” Kelara said to me. It sounded genuine, but it didn’t do anything to comfort me. “It’s the rules. I can’t break them further than this. Malleus will likely file a complaint about what I just did, anyway.”
“Screw your rules,” I growled. “I’m back to square one, unable to see my daughter or my granddaughters or any other fae in this place. On top of that, I now know of a way to slow down the Hermessi’s influence and stop it from killing us… and you… you won’t do anything because of your precious friggin’ rules. You’re cowards.”
“Don’t say anything you’ll regret,” Kelara warned me, but it was too late. I was too angry.
“You are! You’re all cowards, sticklers, adhering to rules with no regard for life. You’re just mindless drones, punching in that Reaper card to rack up dead people and cart them off into the next world, without any consideration for the fact that, instead of helping the Hermessi kill them with your inaction, you could help me… us! Shame on you!”
I took deep breaths, trying to control myself. Kelara did have a point there—I was still here, with her, and I sure as hell didn’t want to alienate her. I had an angle now, and despite my rage and crippling helplessness, I could still work it.
However, for that I needed Kelara’s support. Glancing at my wife, the longing to hold her again trumped my despair once more. Solutions began to form in the back of my head, possible options for how to proceed.
I could try to get Kelara to rebel again. Maybe she could let me speak to other Reapers, like that Seeley fella, instead of Malleus. If we succeeded in making all the fae here visible to one another, we could try touching and seeing if what had happened between Grace and me could be done again. Slowing the Hermessi’s influence down