get taken away from me. I protect what’s mine. Is that clear?” I nodded, and he settled me against his shoulder. “Jeremiah is still just flesh and blood. He may be strong, but he’s mortal. He tried to take you and already sealed his own death for that.”
A few moments passed in silence. I never wanted to leave that place, that feeling: the absolute safety and comfort of his arms around me. The knowledge that he would fight for me, that he was prepared to take on anything for me, made my heart ache.
There were words my brain wanted to say but my tongue refused to form. Words like, “I want to take your deal,” that really just meant “I want you to have my soul” because he’d already gone against the deal he’d offered. The price for his protection wasn’t paid, but here he was. Even when the danger was greatest.
I really hated planning for the future, I hated thinking of big, scary decisions, but this? This didn’t feel so scary anymore. It felt right. It felt like safety. It felt like opening a door to the greatest adventure I’d ever take.
I wanted to say it.
There was something else I wanted to say too, words that set me on fire and settled me at once, words that terrified me. Three simple words that rang true in my heart but balked before they could leave my mouth.
But I could be brave.
“Leon —”
The house creaked, and he tensed. The ground shook, the beams overhead groaning and the lights flickering. Cheesecake scrambled out of the kitchen, bolting upstairs to hide under the bed, his tail puffed up.
The shaking stopped. Only the flickering lights remained.
“Earthquake?” My voice sounded too loud in the silence that followed. Leon shook his head, staring at the light above. It flickered faster, faster, the electricity audibly crackling until —
The bulb burst, raining glass onto the floor, plunging the house into darkness. Leon got up slowly, his eyes bright in the dark. I could hear him sniffing, every exhale creating a cloud in the rapidly chilling air.
Goosebumps went up my arms. The temperature had dropped so low, so rapidly, that I was shivering. Leon’s arm was still around me, my only heat as I watched the window panes frost over.
“What the hell is happening?” I whispered. “Leon, what —”
A cry, a howl, filled the night. It carried through the forest, a scream from the darkest depths of oblivion, both too bestial and too human. It wasn’t the cry of an Eld, or the snarl of a Gollum. This sounded...bigger.
“A Reaper,” Leon murmured. “He summoned a goddamn Reaper.”
There was another cry, and I had to cover my ears as my stomach lurched at the sound. It was so unnatural, so viciously primal and alien. A sound like that shouldn’t exist on earth, it shouldn’t be heard by human ears. But there wouldn’t be a single person in Abelaum who didn’t hear it. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t even attempting to hide.
“You need to get out of here.” Leon was handing me my keys. I hadn’t even realized he’d moved to get them. “Get the cat. Start driving. Don’t fucking stop. Not for anything. Get as far away from here as you can.”
I stared at the keys in my shaking hand. Leon was at the door, staring off into the trees. The yard’s motion light flickered on as three deer ran across the yard, followed closely by a possum with her babies clinging to her back. Squirrels scurried over the deck and away, and crows were cawing overhead.
The animals were fleeing.
I dashed upstairs, and dragged Cheesecake out from under the bed. I barely managed to get the terrified cat into his harness before I dashed back downstairs. Leon was still exactly where I’d left him, shirtless as he stood on the deck, his claws out and his back tense.
“Leon, I’m ready, let’s go.”
He turned back to me, and something on his face made my heart plummet like a stone. “Give me five minutes to make sure it’s distracted. Then start driving.”
I gulped, shaking my head. “No. No, you’re coming with me.”
“Five minutes, Raelynn. You need to do as I say.” His face was grim, the cocky determination I was so used to seeing there utterly gone. I felt sick. I was so cold.
“Then you’ll catch up with me,” I said firmly. “I’ll start driving first, and you’ll catch up with me. Right?”
He turned, walking back inside. His bare feet left