"Why do you think I can, Risa?"
"Goddamn it," I said, my voice rising again. "If I knew, I wouldn't be asking!"
"Wouldn't you?" he said, bitterness edging his tones.
Leaving me none the wiser. But then, nothing was ever easy, nothing was ever straight, when it came to my reaper.
"No more, Azriel. I just—" I shrugged. "I can't. I won't."
He made a short, sharp motion with his hand. "So be it, then."
He winked out of sight, and I closed my eyes against the instinctive need to call him back and tell him I didn't mean it, that it was just anger and fear talking.
But I didn't.
Because it wasn't. Not entirely.
One thing, he said, his mind voice cool and distant as it flowed through my thoughts. Rephael.
What?
It is my name. If you ever need me, for whatever reason, say it. Wherever I am, whatever I am doing, I will hear.
And with that, he was gone, leaving me wondering if I'd just made the biggest goddamn mistake of my entire life.
Fuck it, no!
I would stand on my own feet and get on with whatever life I had left. I would sort out the mess that was the keys and Hunter and the Raziq the best I could, and I would goddamn survive in the process.