“We figured you were a reaper,” Eva said dryly, her hand on Ashen’s elbow. She needed to touch him, needed to make sure he knew he wasn’t alone.
“No, Reaper. My title and my name. It’s not very original, I know, but I am millennia-old. It’s what happens when you are one of the first.”
“Oh.”
“You’re special,” Reaper said to Ashen.
“Really?” Ashen asked, his voice a growl.
“Already able to partially shift. And I know your memories are coming back. That makes me think the man who sent me out for you was wrong.”
Eva’s eyes widened.
“Torrent died protecting his brother’s mate. Protecting my mate. It was during the first war of the dragons, the one of the lightning-struck. He wasn’t destined to die then?”
Reaper looked between them, and Eva sucked in a breath, unable to do anything.
“I do not know. And as one who has held fate in his hands, who has been to the loom itself, that worries me. There has been a shift, not merely that of the lightning-struck, but of something more. I will have to figure out exactly what that means.”
“So, I died for no reason?” Ashen growled out.
“Perhaps. Or maybe the reason was to protect those you loved, to come back to safeguard another.”
Ashen looked at Eva, and her hand squeezed his arm even harder.
“She was not meant to die,” Reaper began, and she started, looking at him.
“Excuse me?”
“The other reaper, the one you so easily killed—something you’re not supposed to do by the way—was the one who found your name in fate. He was the one who gave me your name at first, Ashen, when you were Torrent. He lied. For reasons unknown. Perhaps he wanted to be fate itself, wanted that power. We may never know, but I will find out.”
Ashen began to laugh, but there was no humor in it.
“I died for that man’s amusement? And I almost killed my mate, an innocent, for nothing. I won’t kill her. I won’t kill for you at all. I want no part of this.”
Reaper nodded. “Understandable. However, you will always be a reaper. You will always have those powers.”
“I refuse to reap.”
There was a finality in his tone that Eva agreed with. After everything that had just occurred, she didn’t blame him.
“We can discuss that in a hundred years or so,” Reaper said calmly as if he hadn’t just passed a century between them in terms of what Ashen needed to do.
“What does that mean?” Eva asked.
“It means, I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Death, an inconvenience?” she asked incredulously.
“When you’ve been touched by as much death as I have, sometimes, it’s nearly just. I am sorry for what happened, but I am glad that you found your mate. We will give you a century, Ashen, for you to find your path. If you choose to come back to us, we would be grateful. After all, there is a spot open in our Collective, and with the fate of the worlds resting on our shoulders, the loom needs to be read.”
And with that, the ten shrouded figures disappeared, leaving the three of them standing there slack-jawed and wide-eyed.
“Well, that doesn’t happen every day,” Levi said, tapping his fingers on the wood next to him. “Or maybe it does in my case. Being mated to a lightning-struck seems to change everything.”
Eva looked over at Levi, blinked, then turned back to Ashen. “What now?”
Ashen shook his head and then leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. “Now, I suppose, we figure out exactly who I am.”
She looked up at him and knew that this was the beginning. The start of everything that she had ever hoped for. She wanted to find out what would happen with him, what would happen with them.
And without the reapers on her tail, she would finally have time to do that.
Chapter 5
Ashen looked up at the sign for the old bar that reminded him of an Irish pub and frowned.
“Dante’s Circle?”
“It’s his bar. Dante. And his circle of friends. Plus, I think he enjoyed the Divine Comedy.”
Ashen looked down at Eva. “Are you my Virgil?”
“Through Hell and Purgatory, though I could be your Beatrice through Paradiso.”
“I will have to reread those books. It’s been a few decades since I read it,” Ashen said with a frown. “Why can I remember things like that, but can’t remember the faces of my family?”
“Maybe because those things aren’t as important?”
“Maybe.” He swallowed hard, his chest constricting. “Will you still call me Ashen? Until I remember?”
Eva reached up and slid her arms around him. “I’ll call you whatever you need me to. And then we can find that path where we find each other.”
“Thank you,” he whispered and then leaned down, taking her lips with his.
The bear and the reaper inside him wanted to take her right then, to claim her as his mate and then figure out the rest later. But he held himself back. Because Eva needed it, and he wanted to figure out who they were before he put them on another trail of fate.
“Are you ready?” Levi asked, his voice low beside them.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Ashen said as he pulled away from Eva, but kept his hand clasped with hers.
“What did you tell them?”
“I told my mate who I was bringing with me. Because I don’t keep secrets from her. And I told Dante because you can’t keep secrets from a dragon.” He sighed. “He wasn’t happy because he’s mated to someone close to you, at least the old you. And he wanted to tell him right away. I’m not sure what Dante decided. If we were any later, I know for sure he would have already told him, but I don’t know about now.”
Ashen sighed, unsure of anything at the moment.
“I also told the others that I had someone they needed to meet, but I didn’t warn them. I didn’t feel I had the right. They’re probably going to hurt me for that choice, but I felt like you deserved that moment.”
Ashen swallowed hard. “I’m not the man I once was,” he whispered.
“None of us are,” Levi said sagely, and Eva squeezed Ashen’s hand.
“You don’t need to be that man.” He looked down at his mate and nodded.
Let’s go,” Ashen said softly, wondering if he was strong enough for this.
He felt like he had just woken up from a dream, one that brought death and destruction.
He had a hundred years to find out who he was before he had to go back to his duties as a reaper. If he wanted to be a reaper at all.
In the interim, he would figure out exactly what he was with Eva. But he already knew that. The loom of fate had already been woven long ago where that was concerned. She was his mate, and she had sung her song for him. There was no going back. He could already feel the bond beginning to take form between them, her song the catalyst. That was why he had passed out initially.
They would need to cement the bonds, but that would come. When they were ready. First, though, he had to face this task. One he couldn’t remember.
They walked inside, and there were groups of paranormals all around, each talking to one another and laughing. There was a gorgon behind the bar, secretly making out with who he assumed was her mate, a jaguar with a scar on his face.