RAFE POV
I hang up the phone and immediately want to throw it through the wall.
Stupid. Calling her was stupid. Now she knows for certain it's me.
But watching her walk into that apartment—seeing the message I left, the photo I took, the three-day deadline—something cracked inside my chest. Something that's been frozen for 847 years.
Fear.
Not for myself. For her.
I'm standing on the roof of her apartment building, hidden in shadows, watching through her window as she argues with Detective Chen. She's pacing like a caged animal, hands flying as she talks. Even from here, I can see the fire in her eyes.
She's not running.
Of course she's not running. Isla Monroe doesn't run from monsters. She hunts them.
Even when the monster is me.
"You're getting attached."
I spin around. Lucien stands at the edge of the roof, dressed in expensive black, his 600-year-old eyes glowing gold in the darkness. My mentor. My warning. My death sentence if I'm not careful.
"I'm doing my job," I say coldly.
"Your job is killing the guilty. Not playing detective. Not making phone calls." He steps closer, and the air goes freezing. "Not developing feelings for a human woman who's hunting you."
"I don't have feelings. I haven't had feelings since 1177."
"Liar." Lucien's smile is cruel. "I can smell it on you. Hope. Fear. Desire. You reek of humanity, Rafe. It's disgusting."
My hands curl into fists. "She's close to discovering what we are. I'm managing the situation."
"By breaking into her home? Leaving love notes?" He laughs, sharp and mocking. "You gave her three days. Why? You could kill her tonight. Make it look like an accident. Problem solved."
"She's innocent."
"She's a threat."
"She's OFF LIMITS!" The words explode out of me before I can stop them.
Silence falls over the roof. Lucien stares at me with something like pity.
"Oh, Rafe," he says softly. "You really are that stupid. After everything that happened with Catherine—"
"Don't." My voice drops to a growl. "Don't say her name."
Catherine. The woman I loved 400 years ago. The woman who died screaming while villagers burned her alive for witchcraft because someone saw me with her. Because loving me marked her for death.
I swore I'd never care about a human again.
I swore I'd stay alone forever.
But then Isla Monroe walked into that conference room with her stubborn jaw and haunted eyes, and every promise I made myself shattered like glass.
"Three days," Lucien says. "Then I'm fixing your mistake. The human dies, and you remember what you are. A Reaper. Not a man."
He vanishes into smoke, leaving me alone on the roof with my dying heart.
I should leave New York. Disappear. Let Lucien think I've moved on to another city, another hunt.
But I can't.
Because down in that apartment, Isla Monroe is strapping on her gun and getting ready to hunt me. And when she finds me—not if, when—she'll try to arrest me.
Or kill me.
Either way, she'll get herself killed in the process.
I won't let that happen.
I materialize in the alley behind the precinct just as Isla's car pulls up. It's 2 AM. She should be home, sleeping, processing the trauma of having her apartment invaded.
Instead, she's here. Working. Hunting.
Stubborn woman.
I step out of the shadows as she walks toward the back entrance.
"We need to talk."
She whirls around, gun drawn, pointing directly at my chest. Her hands don't shake. God, she's magnificent.
"Don't move," she says. "I will shoot you."
"No, you won't." I take a step closer. "Because you want answers more than you want me dead."
"You broke into my home. You threatened me. You're the Reaper." Her voice cracks on the last word. "Why? Why are you doing this?"
"Because 847 years ago, I died screaming for justice that never came. And Death made me a deal—become a Reaper, hunt the guilty, balance the scales. I've killed thousands, Isla. Thousands of monsters who escaped human law."
"You're insane."
"I'm honest." I spread my arms wide. "Shoot me if you want. The bullets will pass through. I'm already dead. Have been for eight centuries."
Her finger tightens on the trigger. For one moment, I think she'll actually do it.
Then she lowers the gun.
"Prove it," she whispers. "Prove you're what you say you are."
I let my human disguise fall away.
My eyes flood black. My skin goes pale and cold. Silver light glows from my hands—the same light that carves the R into guilty flesh. The air around me drops twenty degrees.
Isla stumbles backward, hitting the brick wall. Her gun clatters to the ground.
"Oh my God," she breathes. "You're real. You're actually real."
"Yes." I pull the humanity back, forcing my eyes to silver, my skin to normal. "And you're in danger because you know it."
"From you?"
"From Lucien. My mentor. He thinks you're a problem that needs to be eliminated." I step closer, slower this time. "I told him I'd handle it. That I'd scare you off the case. That's why I broke in, left the message. I was trying to save your life."
"By threatening to kill me?"
"By making you think I would." My voice goes rough. "But you didn't scare. You never scare. You just keep hunting, keep pushing, keep getting closer to the truth. And now Lucien's given me three days to make you stop or he'll kill you himself."
She's staring at me like she's seeing me for the first time. "Why do you care if I die?"
That's the question, isn't it? The one I've been avoiding since the moment our hands touched.
"Because your soul is locked," I say quietly. "In 847 years, you're the only person I've never been able to read. I don't know if you're innocent or guilty. I don't know your secrets. I don't know anything about you except that you're brilliant and stubborn and completely insane for hunting a supernatural killer."
"That's not an answer."
"Because when I touched Maya's photo in your drawer, I felt something I haven't felt in centuries," I say, the confession tearing out of me. "Guilt. Your sister was murdered by Marcus Vane. Judge Pierce let him walk free. I killed Pierce for what he did, Isla. I killed him for Maya. For you. And I'd do it again."
Tears stream down her face. "You avenged my sister?"
"I avenged all his victims. But yes. I did it for her. And now I'm trying to protect you from becoming the next victim of my world."
She's crying openly now, and it breaks something inside me. I want to reach for her. Want to hold her. Want to promise I'll keep her safe forever.
But I'm a monster. Monsters don't get happy endings.
"Three days," I say, backing away. "Stay away from the investigation. Stay away from me. Let me handle Lucien."
"And if I don't?"
I meet her eyes one last time. "Then we both die. Because I won't let him touch you. Even if it means fighting my own kind."
I dissolve into shadow, leaving her alone in the alley.
But I stay close. Hidden. Watching.
Because I'm starting to realize something terrible.
I don't just care about Isla Monroe.
I think I'm falling in love with her.
And that's the most dangerous thing I've ever done.
I return to my mansion and find it's not empty.
Lucien sits in my study, holding Maya's photograph—the one I stole from Isla's apartment.
"Interesting," he says, studying the picture. "The detective's sister. The one killed by Marcus Vane ten years ago." His gold eyes lift to mine. "Tell me, Rafe. Why does the Reaper have a photo of a dead girl in his pocket?"
My blood runs cold.
"You're tracking Vane, aren't you?" Lucien's smile is poisonous. "Hunting him for her. Avenging her sister like a lovesick fool."
"I'm hunting him because he's guilty—"
"You're hunting him because you're in love!" Lucien throws the photo at my feet. "I warned you. I gave you three days. But you've already chosen her over duty."
He stands, and the room fills with dark power.
"So I'm making this simple," Lucien says. "Tomorrow night, I'm going to kill Marcus Vane myself. And I'm going to leave his body where your detective will find it. Then I'm going to watch what she does when she realizes her monster boyfriend murdered someone for her."
"Don't—"
"Will she turn you in? Arrest you? Or will she thank you?" His laugh is cruel. "Either way, she'll be exposed as an accomplice. Her career dies. Her life dies. And you'll finally understand why Reapers don't fall in love."
He vanishes, leaving me alone with Maya's photograph and a choice that will destroy everything.
Protect Isla's innocence by letting Vane live.
Or avenge Maya and make Isla complicit in murder.
I have until tomorrow night to decide.
And I already know which one I'm going to choose.
Because I'd burn the world for Isla Monroe.
Even if it means she'll hate me forever.