Then there's the political shit that comes with it. The dealing with coordinating with the Angels, the portal usage, the soul soup pot lickers, the everything. And now I'm a fucking politician, not a Reaper. I don't want this.”
He leaned his head onto mine and swayed slightly. “I know. Anything I can do?”
I shook my head. As much as I would prefer to give him a guide to fixing things, there wasn't one. I would be stuck dealing with the inner workings of the Ministries until we cleared Earth. Afterwards, I could only hope they released me. Even more, I hoped I survived it. The King's last words hadn't been to chastise me. No, they held a darker undercurrent that Kian wouldn't have caught.
The pressure built in my chest, suffocating me as I twisted my fingers in Kian's cloak. I desired something to drink, something to make me forget to care, but I still had the Angel to handle. And Master Akai had said he would come over soon. No, I needed to stay sharp.
But as the pain around my ribcage intensified, my mouth watered, and the phantom taste of an Ethereal played on my tongue.
Kian rubbed my back and asked, “If I can't do anything, tell me what you can do.”
I heard his words, but they didn't make much sense, even as I turned them over. “You mean, right now? Or the entire thing? The end goal is to retrieve all the Earthen souls and provide the Angels with a list of those in need of insertion. Surely some of the hollow beings will have children before long. I just don't—”
“Shhh. No, what can you do right now, right here? You managed to find the planet, not get caught for a bunch of things, break us out of the dungeons, and rally an entire city against the King. And most of that was done without planning.” Kian pulled away and lifted my chin, so I looked at him.
“That's not the same at all. This will require strategy and an abundance of it. I'm not the right Reaper for this job. My political skills aren't overly strong, and I have little tolerance for most of, well, everyone. I'm excellent at flinging chaos, not corralling it.”
“That's not true. Well, not completely. Besides, I'm sure you can pull others in to take care of the things that you can't get to. Corin could handle the politics. Axton is great at scheduling. So, what do you need to do before we leave this little moment and deal with the rest?” His eyes searched mine, and my vision of him became a bit blurry. “If you want to cry, I won't tell the others.”
“What?” I let go of his cloak and waved my hand around. “This is just allergies.”
Kian blinked a few times and stared into space until finally recalling what that word meant. “Reapers don't have allergies,” he said dryly.
“Well, I do.” I didn't, but the excuse seemed to work for Earth's souls. “How about a distraction? A quick one, mind you. We're keeping the others waiting, and I do not want to tell Master Akai why we were late.”
He shuddered at the mention of my adoptive father before a sly grin crept over his lips. “I do believe I can handle that. As long as your allergies aren't catching, of course.”
My fingers twisted in his cloak once again for a different reason entirely. The first time had been an attempt to ground myself in him, but now I wanted to lose myself, if only for a moment.
Chapter Five
Kian and I switched forms, and after ensuring that Shadow rejoined us, we caught up with the rest of the group before they made it home. When we popped back into existence out of nowhere in front of them, Grace jumped and clutched her chest.
“I apologize. We didn't mean to startle you,” I said.
“Oh, no,” she nearly whispered. “I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting you.”
Her head ducked down again as she spoke, and my eyes narrowed. Hidden within my hood, I watched her as much as I could during the rest of our walk. If her actions were her true demeanor, I felt terrible for her. The emotions she polluted the air with seemed to correlate with her behavior, but those could be trained as well.
I hated that my suspicions always ran so high, but my upbringing proved that everything had layers. It also didn't help that she was born an Angel. That sounded horrible,