He took a moment to catch his breath. “You shouldn’t be down here. It’s too dangerous. You should have left me. Do you have any idea what these things could do to yo—”
I touched the side of his face to shut him up and smiled. “Like I said before, I don’t take orders from humans.”
He grabbed for my hand. “I love you, Anaya. I’m sorry if that freaks you out, but I do. And I don’t want to die without saying it.”
His voice was drowned out by coughs. “Shhh…” I smoothed his hair back over his forehead and lifted his head into my lap. I pressed my lips to his and lent him some of my heat. When I pulled away he shook his head.
“I’m not going to make it back up there.”
“Yes, you are.” I sat up and nodded to Easton. “Help me with him. You are not going to die in this place.”
Easton slipped his arm under Cash, but once he was up Cash waved him off, determined to stand on his own. Stubborn. He braced his palms on his knees and looked around. “There were two souls…we brought them here. We need to take them back. And Noah…”
“No way,” Easton spoke up. “I’ll hunt down your two souls and get them to where they need to be, but I’m not risking my ass for the other one. He can rot down there for all I care.”
On the other side of the cliff, Noah’s screams had gone silent. I couldn’t bear to look, so I just shook my head. “It’s over for him. And we need to get you back if you want a chance to say your good-byes.
I want to do this right. I don’t want you to have regrets in this.”
He nodded, face grim. “You’re right. I…I need to see Em. At least one more time.”
I bit my lip and held my hand out, ready to lead him to his end. To his next beginning. Cash reached out, and then his eyes widened.
“Like you said, pal,” a ragged voice said from below us. “If I’m going down, you’re going down with me.”
Cash let out a small grunt of surprise and then he was falling back, Noah’s pale hand wrapped around his ankle as he crawled up over the cliff’s edge.
“Cash!” That scream lasted only a moment, but it felt like an eternity. Shock and horror registered across his face as his arms pinwheeled and his feet came out from under him. In an instant Easton appeared beside me, scythe drawn. He leaped after Cash, out over the edge, and I grabbed on to
Easton’s ankle to stop him from going over, too. Cash groaned, body caught midfall, as Easton’s scythe pierced his chest. He gave one hard tug and Cash’s soul ripped free from his body falling over the edge, taking a screaming Noah with it.
Refusing to think about what had just happened, I crawled back, pulling Easton with me. Once we were up, Easton stood and stumbled back, scythe hanging at his side in his white knuckled fist.
“Anaya…I-I.”
He didn’t finish. I was too shocked to feel the pain, but I knew it was there. Cash’s soul slowly climbed to his feet in front of us, dazed, shimmering with a thousand facets of light. Shaking, he raised his hands and stared at his palms.
“I’m sorry,” Easton whispered. “There wasn’t…it was the only way.”
I nodded and swallowed the lump of unwelcome pain in my throat. I knew that. “Cash?”
He looked up and met my gaze. I couldn’t tell what he was feeling. He looked…numb.
“I…I’m dead.” He looked over his shoulder at the sea of shadow demons feasting on his former flesh and Noah’s soul. “I’m really dead. This is real.”
I stepped forward, and as I’d done for so many others, took his hand and said, “This is the only the beginning.”
Chapter 33
Cash
For the first time, I didn’t feel sick after the disorienting process of Anaya pulling me over to the other side. In fact, I didn’t feel anything. I was dead. I looked down at my hands again, shimmering like a freaking Christmas tree, and swallowed. This had to be a dream. No…a nightmare. I’d wake up any minute, Emma kicking my ass to get me out of her bed before her mom woke up and found me.
Then we’d go eat pancakes and I’d spend the day sketching and playing Guitar Hero while Em tried to make me study for some lame calculus test. Life would be normal again. Death would be something we wouldn’t have to think about for another sixty years or so.
“Cash?” Anaya’s voice was soft and sweet, breaking apart the panic inside of me like glass. “Are you okay? Please, say something.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded and stared up at the big pewter gates in front of us. On the other side, souls milled around the entrance, stealing curious peeks at us. Probably wondering who the reapers were dropping off next. Anaya practically glowed in this place. Her big golden eyes held mine with so much worry that I wanted to grab hold of her and never let go. Pretend all of this wasn’t happening.
Easton and the hooded guard spoke in hushed voices for a moment and then the gates parted, allowing us entrance. I knew Anaya had prepared me for all of this. It’s not like I didn’t know what was going to happen, but son of a bitch…I was dead. How was I supposed to feel about this? How did they expect me to react? I didn’t know. All I felt was this strange buzz of electricity trying to break past the barrier of numbness sweeping through me. Nothing hurt anymore. I didn’t even feel like I needed to breathe.
Anaya grabbed my hand and pressed herself against my side, close enough to whisper against my ear. My whole body ignited and my hand instinctively wound around her waist. I glanced down at my jeans and thought, Nice to see you’re still with me, sir.
At least not everything was numb.
“You don’t have to do this,” she whispered low enough for only me to hear. “I’ll take you to be with your father. All you have to do is say the word.”
She kept her face pressed into my neck, her lips at my ear, as my fingers squeezed her hip. I waited for my heart to pound out of my chest with the weight of what she was asking me, but it didn’t.
Everything inside stayed silent. Hollow. She was offering me Heaven, but somehow it didn’t seem like it. Stuck in a place where she would never be, knowing that she would likely be punished with the unimaginable for putting me there…it sounded more like Hell. I shook my head and pressed my lips into her braids.
“No,” I said. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”
She smiled against my neck and her lips left the warm imprint of a kiss just below my ear.
Easton cleared his throat and fidgeted, looking uncomfortable. “Can we get this over with, and then can you two please get a room?”
I followed Anaya through the gates and grinned at Easton. “You know, you’d probably be able to get that stick out of your ass a whole lot easier if you found somebody and got a room yourself, East.”
He scowled at me as the gates swung closed behind him. “I’m not a direction. It’s Easton. And some of us have jobs to do. Contrary to what you’ve seen, the afterlife doesn’t revolve around getting laid.”
“Boys!” Anaya snapped her fingers at us. “Game faces. And you…” She stalked toward Easton and stopped at the toe of his boots. Towering over her as if she were a little girl, he groaned.
“What did I do now?”
Anaya reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. Easton froze, looking uncomfortable, then hesitantly hugged her back before breaking contact and stepping away.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “But you’re done. I’m not letting you go in there and get involved.
You’ve already risked too much.”
Anaya placed a kiss on Easton’s cheek and smiled. Easton looked a little flustered, and I wanted to punch him in the throat to wipe the look off his face. I didn’t, though. The smoking blade at his hip, the scary-looking scars on his arms, and the fact that he had saved my ass might have had a little to do with that.