"You could stop them by just killing them."
"I cannot do that unless they actually succeed in this plan, simply because there is nothing concrete connecting them to the portal’s unauthorized opening."
"You may not have proof, but you know they’ve made keys and you know my father was involved. I thought that would have been enough, given that life as we know it hangs in the balance."
He shook his head. "It is not within the rules."
"Whose rules?"
"The rules we must live by."
I glanced over my shoulder. "And who made the rules?"
He shrugged—a small movement that was oddly elegant. "I do not know and I do not care. I just obey."
"Because a world without rules is a world in chaos."
"And that chaos is called earth," he commented.
I swung around in surprise. "Did you just try to be funny?"
"Reapers are many things, but we are never funny."
But that twinkle was stronger in his eyes, and I felt an answering smile tugging at my lips. "You lie, reaper."
"I never lie."
"You might not tell outright lies," I said, walking around the desk to the wall safe, "but you certainly don’t always tell the absolute truth."