RAFE POV
Lucien's fist goes through my chest.
Not into it. Through it.
Because I'm made of shadow and death, and physical attacks mean nothing unless they're from another Reaper. Then they mean everything.
Pain explodes through my body—the kind that makes you remember what dying felt like. I stumble back, reforming my chest, gasping even though I don't need to breathe.
"Pathetic," Lucien snarls. He drops Detective Chen's unconscious body on the floor. Blood pours from the man's neck wound, but he's breathing. Barely. "You let her run. You chose the human over duty."
"I chose protecting an innocent over murdering one!" I shape my hands into silver blades, the Reaper weapon that can actually hurt him. "You were going to kill her!"
"I WAS GOING TO TEACH YOU A LESSON!" Lucien's eyes blaze gold. The penthouse windows shatter from the force of his rage. "847 years, Rafe. 847 years of hunting together. And you throw it away for a human woman with pretty eyes?"
"She's more than that—"
"She's NOTHING!" He lunges at me with inhuman speed.
I barely dodge. His claws rake across my arm, tearing through shadow and substance. More pain. More memories of dying.
We crash through walls, through furniture, our battle tearing the penthouse apart. Somewhere in the chaos, I hear sirens. Police coming. Backup.
They can't see this. Can't see what we really are.
"You want to be human again?" Lucien laughs, landing a kick to my ribs that sends me flying into the kitchen. "You think love will save you? I watched Catherine burn, remember? I watched you BEG the villagers to take you instead. Love made you weak then. It's making you weak now."
Catherine. My beautiful Catherine who died because of me.
The memory gives me strength. Rage. Purpose.
I won't let Isla end like Catherine.
I surge forward, blades slashing. Lucien blocks but I'm faster than he expects. My blade cuts across his face, drawing black blood—Reaper blood that burns like acid.
He screams.
"The difference between Catherine and Isla," I growl, pressing my attack, "is that Isla can fight. She doesn't need me to save her. She needs me to buy her time."
"Time for what?"
"To figure out how to kill you."
Lucien's eyes widen. Then he laughs, bitter and cold. "You told her? About the legend? About becoming human?"
"I told her everything."
"Then you've killed her yourself. The Council will never allow it. They'll hunt her down the moment they know she has that knowledge." He grabs my throat, lifting me off the ground. "You've signed her death warrant, you fool."
The Council. The ancient Reapers who govern our kind. The ones who make Lucien look merciful.
No. No, I didn't think—
Lucien sees my horror and smiles. "Oh, this is perfect. You tried to save her and damned her instead. How poetic."
He throws me through the balcony door. I land on the concrete, shadow-body cracking and reforming. Through the pain, I see Detective Chen crawling toward his phone, leaving a trail of blood.
Calling for backup. Good man.
Lucien stalks onto the balcony. "Here's what happens next. I kill you. Then I hunt down your detective and make it slow. Then I tell the Council she knows our secrets, and they erase her entire existence. Family, friends, memories—all gone. Like she never existed."
"Unless?" There's always an unless with Lucien.
"Unless you kill her yourself. Tonight. Prove you're still a Reaper. Still loyal." His smile is poisonous. "Choose duty over love. Make it quick and merciful. I'll tell the Council she died in an accident. They'll never know she learned our secrets."
My dead heart shatters.
Kill Isla. Or watch her and everyone she loves die slowly.
"You're insane," I whisper.
"I'm trying to save you!" Lucien's voice cracks with something that might be genuine pain. "You were like a son to me, Rafe. I taught you everything. Watched you survive 847 years of loneliness. I won't watch you destroy yourself for a human who'll be dust in sixty years!"
"She's worth destroying myself for."
"Then you're already lost." Lucien's eyes go cold. "You have until midnight. Kill her or I do it for you. And I promise, my way will hurt more."
He vanishes into smoke, leaving me broken on the balcony.
Detective Chen manages to hit his radio before passing out. I hear the crackle: "Officer down! Officer down at Vane's penthouse!"
I have maybe three minutes before this place swarms with cops.
I should run. Hide. Plan.
Instead, I kneel beside Chen and press my hand to his throat wound. It's deep. Fatal. He'll bleed out in minutes.
I could save him. Use my power to stop the bleeding. But it'll cost me—every time we use power to heal instead of kill, it drains us. Makes us weaker.
I do it anyway.
Silver light flows from my hand into his wound. The flesh knits together, slow and painful. Chen gasps, eyes flying open.
"What... what are you..."
"A monster trying very hard to be good," I say. "Tell Isla I'm sorry. Tell her she has until midnight to run as far as she can."
"Run from what?"
"From me."
I dissolve into shadow just as the first police cars screech to a halt outside.
I find Isla three blocks away, collapsed in an alley, sobbing into her hands.
She doesn't hear me approach. Doesn't sense me until I speak.
"James is alive."
Her head snaps up. Tears streak her face. "What?"
"I healed him. He'll be fine." I crouch down in front of her. "But we have a bigger problem."
"Bigger than an 847-year-old monster trying to kill us?"
"Yes. The Council." I explain quickly—the ancient Reapers, their laws, their punishment for humans who learn our secrets. "By telling you about the legend, about becoming human... I've made you a target. They'll erase you, Isla. Your entire existence."
She goes pale. "How do we stop them?"
"We don't. They're unstoppable." I take her hands. They're shaking. "But there's one way to save you. One way the Council won't touch you."
"How?"
"We complete the legend. Tonight. Before midnight." I meet her eyes. "If I become human through true love, the Council loses jurisdiction. I'm no longer a Reaper to punish. You're no longer a human who knows too much. We're just... us."
"How do we complete it?"
"Three steps. First, I have to confess my love freely and without coercion. Second, you have to accept that love knowing everything I am. Third..." I swallow hard. "I have to give up my immortality willingly. Let go of 847 years of power and become mortal again."
"And if it doesn't work?"
"Then Lucien kills us both at midnight and the Council erases you anyway." I squeeze her hands. "But if it works, Isla... if it works, I get to be human. To age. To die someday. To spend whatever time I have left actually living instead of just existing."
She's staring at me like I've lost my mind. Maybe I have.
"You're asking me to fall in love with you in six hours," she says slowly. "To save both our lives."
"I'm asking you to let me love you. That's all. The rest..." I brush a tear from her cheek. "The rest is your choice."
For a long moment, she just stares at me.
Then she says the last thing I expect.
"I need to see her."
"See who?"
"Maya. Her grave." Isla stands, brushing off her jeans. "If I'm going to make a choice this insane, I need to talk to my sister first. Need to ask her if this is justice or madness."
My chest tightens. "Okay. I'll take you."
"And Rafe?" She looks at me with those impossible green eyes. "If I say yes to this... if I let you become human... you need to promise me something."
"Anything."
"Promise me you'll never kill again. Not as a Reaper. Not as a human. Not even in self-defense." Her voice shakes. "Promise me that if you become mortal, you stay mortal. No more blood. No more death."
It's the one promise I don't know if I can keep.
Because at midnight, Lucien is coming.
And to protect Isla, I might have to kill one more time.
"I promise," I lie.
She sees through it immediately.
"Liar," she whispers. But she takes my hand anyway. "Let's go talk to my dead sister about falling in love with a monster. Because my life wasn't crazy enough already."
We walk toward the cemetery together.
Neither of us mentions that we're walking toward our probable deaths.
Or that in six hours, everything ends.
One way or another.