Chapter Seventeen

Our Yuletide celebration had been a welcome reprieve to the worry that plagued us each passing day. Nadine and I had agreed to wait to make a final decision on our future until Christmas. December twenty-fifth arrived, and we weren't any closer to breaking the Reaper's Shadow curse for good. We had until the end of the day to solve this mystery, and at this point, it was going to take a miracle.

I'd become a mad man obsessed with obtaining the Mortana Wand. If we couldn't decipher visions from the Seer Wand, then I was certain the Mortana Wand was the answer to breaking the Reaper's Shadow curse. We had to locate the remains of all the Reaper's Shadows who came before Nadine, and remove the curse on their bones. All the other Reaper's Shadow women had to be dead by now, so surely a Wand with the power of death could track them down. It had to, because that Wand was our last hope.

To get it, I had to pass the Warlock's Trial. I still didn't know what that entailed, so I was researching as much as I could about the afterlife. Each supernatural society had a different way of crossing over. The Elementai were greeted by their ancestors to be welcomed into the Ancestral Lands, while the fae were escorted to the Great Hunting Grounds by their gods. Witches, of course, had reapers to lead them to Alora. Each method was so similar, yet the magic was entirely different.

I was poring over the books in the library Christmas morning when I heard the front door burst open. Heavy footsteps sprinted down the hall, and Grant burst in.

"Lucas," he called breathlessly, doubling over in the doorway.

I shot out of my chair. "Is someone hurt?"

"Executors," Grant said. "Two more of them."

I rushed out of the room and followed him down the hall as quickly as I could. I threw on my coat, but Grant had already raised alarm bells all throughout the house. Nadine and Talia had been in the kitchen making lunch, and they hurried to our side.

"What's going on?" Nadine demanded.

"I was patrolling the border," Grant explained. "There are two more bodies, just outside the wards."

"It might be soon enough we can still get some answers." Nadine reached for her coat, but I stopped her.

"You're not coming," I insisted.

Her jaw dropped. "The hell I am."

"Nad, we don't know if the killer's still hanging around," I pointed out. "You're pregnant with our children. It could be dangerous."

She yanked her coat off the hook anyway. "And what if you need me? I can't sit around for nine months doing nothing. Wherever you go, I go—until I can't anymore."

She wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Stay close," I told her.

Talia threw on her jacket, and the four of us hurried outside. A thin layer of snow crunched beneath our feet as Grant led us to where he'd found the bodies.

Two Executors lay in the forest, their corpses empty and forgotten, just like the last ones. An eerie feeling traveled down my spine as I approached them. An emptiness I couldn't quite explain permeated the whole mountainside, just as I felt before. Something about this was very wrong, though I couldn't put my finger on it. Cautiously, I approached the bodies and knelt beside the closest one.

"Be careful," Grant warned.

"It's okay," I promised.

I placed two fingers to the side of the closest Executor's neck. No pulse, though I didn't know what I was expecting. I could already feel the hollowness of their bodies with my magic. There was no life force to be found, not a remnant whatsoever…

And yet his body was still warm.

It hit me then what was so strange about all of this.

"I've never seen magic like this before," I remarked. "Usually when people die, I can feel death. These bodies are fresh, yet I feel nothing."

"Like something's blocking your magic?" Nadine asked.

I shook my head. "My magic is working just fine. When people die, I feel a void, like their body has become this empty shell and something's missing. Eventually, the feeling fades the longer someone's been dead, but this emptiness is different. It's like there was never anything there to begin with."

"So you're saying… the priestesses are sending soulless Executors to find us?" Talia asked slowly.

"I'm not sure what I'm saying," I admitted.

A breeze swept through the trees, and a chilling realization hit me. "These bodies are still warm. They must've died in the last hour. Guys, I haven't heard a voice all day."

The woods went silent as the others exchanged a terrified glance. If these Executors died just now, I would've heard their last thoughts. I didn't know what it meant, but there was certainly sinister magic behind this. Anxiety built inside of me. I shot a glance around the forest, but I saw nothing.

"The only explanation is that these men aren't part of the coven," Nadine theorized.

"Then why would they be in Executor uniform and holding wands?" I asked as I pulled a wand from the Executor's pocket.

A chaotic buzz riveted through me when I touched his wand, like there was magic inside of it that resonated with my own. I inspected the wand to find a small black crystal embedded into the end of it. The magic inside the crystal seemed to ring in my ears. It was so familiar, yet I didn't understand how he'd gotten his hands on it.

"How can that be?" I whispered.

"What is it?" Grant asked, shooting another glance around the forest.

I barely heard him as I searched the Executor for his Cast mark. I yanked up his sleeves and found nothing, then pulled on the collar of his shirt. Just beneath the fabric on his neck was a tree with twisted branches—the mark of a Mentalist.

So why was this Executor carrying a wand embedded with a crystal that held reaper magic? The only explanation was that the crystal in the wand accidentally retained the power of a Mortana who'd cast a death spell. My cheeks grew cold as all the blood drained from my face.

"Lucas, say something!" Nadine begged. "You're scaring me."

I leaned back on my heels. "I think I understand what happened here, and why I didn't hear their last thoughts. It's because I'm not the only one collecting them anymore."

The pang in my gut felt strange. For the longest time, I wanted nothing to do with my reaper power. I wanted someone else to take it, so I could absolve myself of all reaper duties. But over the years, this power had become a part of me. I'd learned to work with it, rather than against it, and I was getting really fucking good at it. To think there was another reaper out there taking over my job felt like a piece of me had just been stolen.

"I don't know how they did it, but a reaper killed these people," I said. "When he did, the crystal embedded in the Mentalist's wand absorbed a piece of the reaper's magic."

Nadine began walking in an arc around me, surveying the area for clues. She kept her eyes on the ground as she spoke. "So there's a new Reaper's Apprentice running around. Probably some kid who hasn't learned how to contain his power."

"How can we be sure it isn't a reaper that's already passed on?" Grant asked. "What if it's Edgar? He could be protecting us."

"It can't be, because Edgar can't leave behind footprints." Nadine pointed to the snow. There wasn't much of it yet—just a light dusting. The footprints were difficult to spot, and I was surprised she'd noticed them at all. "There are three sets of footprints here. Two sets are from the victims, which means the third is the killer's."

Nadine returned to where she'd been standing beside Grant and Talia. "We can make assumptions and come up with theories all day, but none of it's going to give us answers. Tal, we need you to look back and see what happened here."

Talia conjured the Seer Wand. "I'll try, but like I've said, the visions can be confusing."

Nadine placed a gentle hand on Talia's wrist. "Don't use the Seer Wand. You need a clear head for this."

Talia lowered the Wand to her side, realizing what Nadine was saying. "Okay, I'll see what I can get with psychometry."

Talia subconjured the Seer Wand and closed her eyes. Slowly, she began pacing from one tree to the next, running her fingers along the bark. I held my breath, waiting in anticipation for some sort of answer.

"I see the cloaked man again," Talia said softly, carefully stepping around the next tree. "He's definitely alive. Something startled him. He's creating a portal!"

I stood so fast I got dizzy. "Where'd he cast it?"

Talia's eyes shot open, and she pointed between two trees. "Right there."

I planted my feet right where she had pointed. I closed my eyes and searched for an energy signature, but I couldn't find it.

"What are you doing?" Grant asked.

"I'm seeing if I can find out where the fucker portaled to," I growled. "He must've left an energy signature behind, right?"

"We're not going to follow him!" Talia cried.

"What else are we going to do?" I demanded. "Wait for him to break through our wards? I want to talk to this guy and get some damn answers."

I spotted the wand I'd left beside the Executor, the one with the crystal on the end that held the reaper's magic.

"Maybe using a bit of his own power will help us find him." I grabbed the wand, then went to stand back between the trees.

Nadine came up beside me. "Let me help."

I hesitated a moment. I didn't want her to come with me if things got out of hand, but I wasn't sure I could pull off this spell without her.

"You aren't going without me," she stated firmly. She wasn't giving me a choice.

Reluctantly, I took her hand. Nadine's power poured into me, amplifying my own. The power from the crystal filled me up, and I felt something tickling at the center of my chest.

"I've got it—" I started to say, but a portal bloomed right where I was standing before I could finish. The ground fell out from under us, and Nadine and I were sucked through the portal.

We landed on solid ground in a forest nearly identical to the one we'd just left. A light dusting of snow covered the ground, and the air felt the same. It was like we'd only traveled a couple of miles away. The portal slammed shut behind us.

Nadine held tight to me and glanced around the forest. "Is this where he went?"

"It's got to be," I answered.

My eyes caught sight of a small clearing not far from us, with a structure rising in the center of it. It was hard to make out what it was at this distance.

I squeezed Nadine's hand. "Stay close."

We crept through the forest, staying low as we came closer to the clearing. The structure came into view, and I saw that it was a small cottage. It must've been here for a long time, because the forest had grown up on all sides of it, except for at the front of the building.

The clearing wasn't very big, just enough to house a long table, a small garden that had already been harvested for the year, and a burning fire pit with a cauldron over it. Vegetables were laid out over the table, like someone was in the middle of preparing for a meal.

"What is this place?" Nadine whispered.

I shook my head. "I have no idea."

The front door of the cottage swung open so hard it slammed against the side of the building. A figure cloaked in black stomped outside. I grabbed Nadine's shoulder, and we ducked behind a set of trees. I peered around the tree trunk and watched the mysterious cloaked figure move around the clearing. He picked up a few sticks from a nearby pile and snapped them apart violently, before adding them to the fire. He was obviously pissed about something.

I couldn't take my eyes off the mysterious man. Something inside of me drew me to him, like my magic resonated with his. I didn't know why, but I felt like I had to go to him. I barely knew what I was doing when I stood and stepped out from behind the tree.

"Lucas," Nadine hissed, but I hardly heard her. I had to speak to this man. Something deep within me told me he held the answers I so desperately searched for.

The man bent to put more wood in the fire. Without turning, he spoke. "You don't have to sneak up on me. I already know you're there, Lucas."

I stopped dead at the edge of the clearing. The voice wasn't anything like I expected.

The figure turned and stood, then pushed the hood of their cloak back. Shock riveted through me as I witnessed a woman standing before me. She wasn't a young, new reaper as we suspected. She had wrinkles across her skin, and her dark curls were beginning to gray. The woman had to be in her sixties, at least. She knew my name, but I didn't recognize her.

"You're a reaper," I said breathlessly.

"A Reaper's Apprentice, technically," she replied as she crossed the clearing to grab another log from a stack against the house. "I'd be hard-pressed to join the Reaper Order. How did you find me?"

"I followed your portal," I replied.

She paused for a beat, eyeing me. "Hmph… you're a more talented reaper than I gave you credit for."

Nadine stepped up beside me. "I wouldn't underestimate him."

The woman placed her log next to the fire but didn't throw it in. She brushed her hands off on her cloak. "Relax, Nadine. I'm not going to hurt either one of you. I am going to ask you both to leave, though. You shouldn't be here."

I stepped further into the clearing. "I'm not going anywhere until you give us answers. You're a fucking Reaper's Apprentice?"

She pulled up her sleeve to show the skull mark on the inside of her arm. "Something like that. It's hard to be an apprentice without a master."

I scoffed. "Tell me about it. How do you know our names?"

"Everyone knows your names," she replied calmly. "I may have left the coven long ago, but I've been watching you, Lucas."

"What the hell does that mean?" I demanded.

She shook her head and turned to the table. She grabbed a carrot and began snapping pieces off and tossing them into the cauldron, like she needed something to do with her hands. "Like I said, you shouldn't be here."

Nadine spoke boldly, ignoring her last statement. "You know our names. Perhaps you'd be kind enough to provide yours."

The woman whirled back toward us. "I will give you no such thing. You weren't supposed to find out I exist. Go home, before you start asking questions you don't want to know the answers to."

I planted my feet firmly in the dirt and crossed my arms. I wasn't going anywhere. "You killed those Executors in the woods."

She breathed a heavy sigh. "Yes. They were getting too close to discovering you. I had to do what was necessary to protect you."

"You left their bodies behind, like some sort of warning," I accused.

She smirked, like the notion was ridiculous. "No. I intended to get rid of them, but your friends showed up before I could."

"Why bother killing them at all?" I questioned.

She grabbed another carrot, but paused, as if contemplating how much to say. "I was meant to be your master, but the coven didn't want me. That doesn't mean I can't do my job to protect you."

"Protect me?" I balked. "If you are my master, then you should've been there for me!"

"I was!" she insisted. "How do you think you survived your skateboarding accident last year? My shield prevented deadly injuries. I didn't have to get directly involved to help you."

I couldn't believe it, but it made too much sense. I'd been skating boarding down the mountain when Nadine nearly hit me with her car, and I went careening off the road. I'd walked away without any major injuries. I'd blacked out, but the doctors said I didn't have a concussion. But if she wanted to help us, then why didn't she want us to know she existed? She'd left me alone, and that wasn't fair.

"That's a shit reason," I said. "I thought I was alone. You could've come to me and let me know you were there all along."

"So you could stop me from my work?" She turned back toward her stew and tossed a potato in, before stirring it. "I've watched you long enough to know that you would never approve of my methods. It would be futile to try teaching you."

I cocked an eyebrow. "And what method is that, exactly?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

She narrowed her eyes. "You don't know what I've been through. Being exiled from the coven changes a person beyond anything you can imagine."

"You must've done something bad to be exiled," I figured. "Perhaps that's what changed you."

"As if the coven needs a viable reason to start a witch hunt," she scoffed. "All it takes is one person who doesn't like you, or someone who thinks you broke the mold. I thought I could do good with my reaper powers, but according to the coven, women shouldn't be reapers. They shunned me like they shunned all the women before me."

I reeled back. "You weren't the first female reaper, then?"

"No. There have been many female reapers, but the coven saw reaping as a man's job," she sneered. "They saw the mark of a Mortana and believed me to be nothing more than a common necromancer. They wouldn't let me live in my truth, so I left."

"I've researched all the reapers," I countered. "There's one per generation. Each time one dies, another receives his power."

She cocked an eyebrow. "True, but more than one generation can live at the same time."

Holy shit. A beat passed before I spoke again. "So… what? There's a female reaper for every male reaper, and they've just been erased from history?"

"Yes," she replied. "You say that as if it's so unbelievable."

"We live in a society that regards women as powerful," I pointed out. "Why would they ever question your power?"

"The coven is a matriarchal society built on patriarchal influences," she shot back. "It wasn't always this way, but the coven has become nothing more than a patriarchy in lipstick. You're ruled by misogyny."

"That's not true. We still have priestesses—women still rule," I insisted.

"Being a woman does not absolve a person of misogynist acts," she responded. "It is precisely because women hold power in the coven that other women are being hanged. Anyone different who breaks the status quo is taken out, so the priestesses can stop people from getting new ideas. Women hold power, and the priestesses don't like when other women speak up. Just look at your traditions—Miriamic women still take their husband's last name."

"Tradition isn't necessarily a flaw," I said.

"It is when it's used to reduce a person's power," she replied. "Think of what it takes to become a reaper—the Warlock's Trial. It's sexist language."

She turned her back to me. The woman kept her eyes down as she began snapping green beans to add to the stew. I sensed deep pain within her. My heart twisted, and I felt for her. Maybe it was the connection we shared with our magic, or the fact that she'd been protecting me all this time. I didn't really know why I felt the way I did, but I had a deep desire to get through to her.

"I understand that you've been hurt, and that may have driven you to do things you regret," I started softly.

She let out a light chuckle. "I don't regret dealing with the people no one else will."

"You mean by killing them?" Nadine asked in an even tone.

Something flashed in the woman's eyes, and the truth hit me.

"No," I realized. "Worse."

The emptiness I felt in the woods made all too much sense now. It's why I hadn't heard the Executors' last thoughts—because there was nothing left for me to hear.

"She destroyed their souls," I said hollowly. My stomach lurched, and I abhorred the idea that I felt any connection with her at all. "No wonder you were banished from the coven. You don't deserve this power. You are evil!"

"Is it evil to end evil itself, no matter the unconventional methods?" she challenged. "I told you that you would not understand."

"How's this even possible?" Nadine asked.

The woman tossed her beans into the stew. "Reaper magic can go wrong—so badly that it destroys the very soul you're trying to help. The first soul I reaped, I screwed up. I destroyed the woman I was meant to cross over. The guilt nearly broke me, until I learned that I could harness such a power and use it for good."

"There's nothing good about destroying people's souls!" I protested.

"Don't act as if you haven't had to make a tough call before," the woman said. "Sometimes, standing on moral ground is not an option."

"At least when I've killed people, I've given them a chance to move on," I insisted. "The people you've killed cease to exist."

"A piece of themselves is destroyed—not the entirety of their soul," she argued. "I'm destroying this incarnation, not everything they originate from. Their energy will be recycled by the greater forces of the universe."

"You can't know that, and it's not your call to make," I sneered.

"Someone has to make the call!" she yelled. "You act as if these choices are black and white, but they aren't. There is no good and evil. There are simply things that help and those that harm. Sometimes, it's not a choice between one or the other, but merely the decision to accept that one cannot exist without the other."

"That's the voice of someone who's given up," I accused.

"Giving up is the last thing I've done!" she shouted. "Don't you think if I'd given up I'd be long gone? I'd be far away from the coven. My master wasn't there for me when I needed him. I wasn't just going to leave you."

"But you did!" I cried.

She placed her hands on her hips. "I didn't have to show my face to help you."

My hands balled into fists. "You could have helped more! I've been searching for answers on reapers since the day I got these powers, and there's been one right on my doorstep all along."

Her tone softened. "What good could come of that, Lucas? Now that you know who I am and what I can do, you'll only try to stop me from my work. You can't save my soul like you've tried to save so many others. I'll never become a part of the Reaper Order after what I've done. I'm not going to Alora. I'm just trying to do the best with my magic while I still have it. I'm not part of the coven anymore, but I still have this power, so I'm going to do something with it."

"That's not true," I argued. "You can still be redeemed."

She shrugged. "Maybe I don't want to. Tell me, Lucas. Do you really want to learn your powers from a woman whose greatest magic is that of destruction?"

My jaw clamped shut, and an answer refused to move past my lips. I didn't know what to say.

Apparently, that was answer enough, because she scoffed and turned back to her table, where she began peeling an onion. "The reaper men never listened to us women, anyway. Why would I think you'd be any different?"

"Maybe I am," I offered.

She simply shook her head but didn't answer. She kept her eyes down, and her hands shook as she tried frantically to pull the onion skin off. I noticed her eyes were watering, and I didn't think it was from the onion. After all she had done, it was obvious she still cared.

The sickness swelling in my gut eased. It made no sense, because after what this woman had just admitted to, I wanted nothing to do with her. But maybe there was more to her actions than I could understand. Whether I liked it or not, this woman and I shared a bond. She was meant to teach me, but maybe I was meant to teach her something, too.

I approached her and placed my hand on her shoulder. She stopped fidgeting, and her glistening eyes turned up to mine.

"Do you still hear their thoughts?" I asked in a near whisper.

Her voice cracked as she answered in a wavered tone. "Every day."

"Then you're still a part of this coven," I said. "The choices you've made in the past don't make you a bad person. You always have the power to make better choices in the moment. You cared enough to stay here on the outskirts of Octavia Falls, so that you could be there for me when the time came. The time is now. Nadine and I have to break the Reaper's Shadow curse, and I need to pass the Warlock's Trial. So… are you going to help me or not?"

She stared at me so long, I wasn't certain she was going to answer at all. Finally, she said, "Autumn. My name is Autumn Loren."

Nadine eyed her curiously. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Nina Loren, would you? She teaches Incantations, Moonology, and Astrology at Miriam College."

The corners of Autumn's lips twitched, like she was trying to hold back her emotions. "Nina Loren is my mother."

"Your mother is a very kind woman," Nadine remarked.

Autumn nodded. "Yes. She's the kindest."

Autumn contemplated us a moment longer, then said, "Come. There is something I want you to have."

She turned toward the cottage, and Nadine shot me a wary expression. I wasn't scared, though. Autumn had been protecting me all this time. I didn't think she would hurt us now. I took Nadine's hand, and we followed Autumn into the cottage. It was a small one-bedroom home, with a wood stove burning in the corner and a small kitchen open to the living room.

"Please, sit." Autumn gestured to the kitchen table.

Nadine and I sat beside each other. Autumn turned to a bookcase and pulled out an old leather-bound book.

"This book is called the Reaper Records," she said as she sat across from us. "I obtained it before Edgar died. It is meant to be passed down from one reaper to the next."

That's why there weren't any records to be found inside the coven, I realized. Because the records had been here with Autumn this whole time.

"I've been researching the reapers for years, validating and expanding on the records of all the women like me whose reaper powers were forgotten," Autumn said. "I have learned much about our powers along the way."

She placed the book on the table in front of me, and I flipped it open. Pages of handwritten notes detailed all the reapers who had ever lived, including information about their family lineage, their spouses and children—if they ever had them—and other significant details. She even had several pages dedicated to me.

Before I could read what she'd gathered on me, she flipped the pages to a passage near the end. "One of the most powerful lessons you will learn is right here on this page."

I stared down at a spell titled Anima Destructor. It detailed the process of how to use reaper energy to pull a soul out of a body. Autumn described it like wrapping a magical rope around someone's neck and yanking the noose tight. It sounded like hanging a soul—the metaphorical snap of their neck being the literal breaking of their spirit.

Disgust returned to my gut. "The title of this spell translates as Soul Destroyer. You really want to teach me how to destroy souls like you do?"

Autumn leaned back in her chair. "If you were truly scared of what I've done, you'd be long gone by now, back inside the safety of your wards. I don't scare either one of you. You're merely intrigued by me."

"You don't want to change, do you?" I asked.

"I've already made up my mind," she replied. "You can't stop me from doing what I need to do, but one day, you may understand."

"I understand that what you're doing is an abuse of your magic," I sneered. "Perhaps I should bring an end to it."

She narrowed her eyes. "You don't have it in you."

"Don't I?" I growled. "How many souls have you destroyed?"

"What do you care about a couple of Executors?" Autumn asked.

"They made bad choices, but they're still part of the coven." My answer faltered on my tongue. Why did I care about men who wanted nothing more than to see my family and me burn at the stake? Maybe because I believed they could still be saved, even if it wasn't in this lifetime.

"These situations are not so black and white," Autumn stated calmly.

"You keep saying that," I snarled. "How many more will suffer your wrath?"

I waved my hand through the air, and my magic curled around her neck. I felt the rope she talked about, and I squeezed, threatening to pull the noose at any moment. My magic curled around her neck several more times, squeezing so tightly I could feel the cold touch of death enter the room.

Autumn's spine straightened, but she didn't protest. It was like she wanted things to end this way. I didn't yank back just yet, but I could sense her soul edging out of her body ever so slightly. I felt it on the edge of destruction.

"Lucas," Nadine warned.

A smile spread across Autumn's face. "You and I are not so different, I see."

I felt the blood drain from my face, and I dropped my hand. My magic around her neck fell away. She didn't want to die. She only wanted to push me to see how far I'd go.

I leaned over the table and spoke firmly. "If you want to use this spell for good, then use it to end the priestesses."

"You think I haven't thought of that?" Autumn asked. "I'd have to get through layers of protection spells, let alone get close enough to do it. I've tried several times and can't get to them. Perhaps one day you'll get close enough to destroy them."

"I will never use this spell," I growled.

Autumn cocked an eyebrow. "What does it matter who does it? The result will be the same. Is it because you fear for your own soul, Lucas?"

My teeth clenched.

"Believe me, if you resist your power, there will come a day when the priestesses break you, and you will be begging to pull off this spell. You don't need to use it now, but take it with you." Autumn pushed the book closer to me.

I snatched it out of her hands. "The only thing I'm interested in seeing in this book is the genealogy records."

I flipped through the pages. "We went searching for the Reaper's Shadow women to break the curse, but there were more, weren't there? Only some of them were men—husbands of Reaper's Apprentices like you."

Autumn scoffed. "Us reaper women aren't stupid enough to take a husband. We know what the Reaper's Shadow curse entails."

"How dare you stand here and tell me that you were trying to protect me," I snarled. "If you were watching me so closely, then you should've known we never broke the Reaper's Shadow curse. You could've helped us, and you didn't."

"I cannot be expected to know all the details of your personal life," Autumn insisted. "As long as you are careful, you have nothing to worry about."

Nadine's hand instinctively went to her belly. "You haven't been watching very closely, have you?"

Autumn glanced between the two of us, and her eyes went wide when she saw the rings on our fingers. "I didn't know."

"You've been watching me this whole time, and you didn't know we'd gotten married?" I raged.

"It's hard to keep track of much when you've spent months hidden behind those wards!" Autumn shouted. "At least she's not having children."

Horror filled Nadine's eyes.

"Yes, we are," I snapped. "And soon. So which of the Reaper's Shadows have you been hiding?"

I flipped through the book and found that Autumn was telling the truth. The other reaper women had never gotten married. They understood the fate of the curse and didn't dare to mess with it.

My heart stopped when I landed upon Autumn's section. "The last remaining Reaper's Shadow is your spouse," I realized. "The other reaper women didn't marry, but you did, which makes your spouse the last Reaper's Shadow we need to break the curse for good. You chose not to send us clues, because it would've exposed you. You selfish witch!"

I shot out of my chair. "You don't care about protecting me, because if you did, you'd know how much losing my family would destroy me. You would've done anything to protect Nadine, too."

"I did what I had to do—what my magic bound me to do," Autumn insisted.

I took a step back. I could tell our magic was connected the second I saw her, but I didn't understand the extent of it until now. Autumn was destined to be my master, and as such, it was her job to keep me alive.

She'd done only the bare minimum.

"You never actually cared," I accused. "As my master, you're bound to keep me alive, and that's it."

"I helped in the ways I could," Autumn said. "I didn't want to, but I didn't have a choice, either."

I shoved the book under my arm and grabbed Nadine's hand. I'd heard enough, and I wanted nothing to do with Autumn ever. "Come on, Nad. We're going."

"Lucas, wait!" Nadine cried. She yanked her hand out of my grasp and whirled back toward Autumn. "Where is your Reaper's Shadow?"

Autumn's eyes glistened with guilt, but I refused to believe for a moment she felt sorry about any of this.

"Did you ever have kids?" Nadine snarled.

Autumn shook her head. "We couldn't."

"Then you know what it's like to live without them," Nadine said through gritted teeth. "Give me a chance to watch my sons grow up. Give me the chance you never had."

"The curse didn't take my wife," Autumn said in a broken tone. "It was a stroke, six years ago. Her grave is behind the house."

Nadine pushed past me and ran outside.

I glared at Autumn. "This book is the only reason you kept me alive, isn't it? So you had someone to pass your knowledge down to."

Autumn didn't answer, and that told me all I needed to know. Our connection be damned. She was not my master.

"Then I guess your job is done," I stated flatly. "Don't bother trying to save me anymore. No amount of saving me will save you."

I stomped out of the cottage and followed Nadine into the forest behind the clearing. Nadine stopped at a gravestone marked Summer Loren.

"Summer took her wife's last name," Nadine remarked as she knelt beside her grave.

As Nadine ran her fingers over Summer's grave, I flipped through the Reaper Records, just to be sure. "She's the last one. We broke the curse on all the others. Once you break this piece of the curse, it will be gone forever."

Tears welled in Nadine's eyes. "Finally."

Nadine placed her hand in the dirt over Summer's grave. Tendrils of magic worked their way up her arm. I held my breath and remained on high alert, so I could respond quickly if anything went wrong. I expected Nadine to pass out, or for the ground to break like it had in the cemetery the night Nadine broke the curse on the other women's bones.

Instead, a black cloud of magic materialized from Nadine's chest, and another drifted up from the grave. The clouds merged together, swirling into one. A gust of wind breezed through the clearing, and the magic dissipated.

It was like I was taking a breath of air for the first time in twenty-two years. A massive weight came off my shoulders, and the colors around us seemed to brighten. I couldn't explain it, but I felt like a completely new man.

Tears sprang to my eyes, and I fell to my knees beside my wife. "You broke the curse; I can feel it."

Nadine curled into my arms, weeping. "I feel it, too. Our babies are saved!"

I held Nadine close as our tears fell into the dirt. Relief didn't begin to describe our feelings. I thought for sure we were going to have to make an impossible decision tomorrow morning, but a miracle had happened, and we'd been spared from the greatest heartbreak of our lives. Autumn said she didn't know what was going on behind our wards, but by the Goddess, she'd been an answer to our prayers, whether she knew it or not.

We'd been faced with two dark choices, neither of which we wanted to make. Now, we didn't have to, but I couldn't help but think of what might've happened if we hadn't found Autumn today. Would I have become like her, if I'd been forced down one of these roads? Perhaps there was more to what she'd said than I realized.

"I think Autumn may be right about all these choices being gray areas," I admitted.

Nadine wiped her eyes. "Yes, except some shades of gray are darker than others. In the priestesses' case, it's pitch black."

I chuckled. "We've had to make a lot of hard decisions, and I'm still trying to get used to the idea that we can't save everyone. I don't want to become like Autumn, but what if we're left with no choice?"

"Maybe making a difficult call doesn't make us bad people," Nadine said. "Perhaps it's like Autumn said, that every decision harms and hurts. The thing is, even if we win, someone's going to lose. We just have to do what we believe is the right thing, to save as many innocent lives as possible."

"I want to do the right thing," I told her. "I'm not used to the idea of war. Other cultures like the fae are practically born with a sword in their hands. They don't question what they have to do out of duty or loyalty to their country. I wasn't taught what to do when the coven divides. In my house growing up, if there was ever a fight, I was taught to keep my head down and stay out of the way. I can't do that anymore."

I ran my hand over her stomach. "Now we've got these kids on the way, and we have to figure out all over again who we're going to be, because as parents, we're not going to be the same people we were as college students. The choices are only going to get harder to make."

"Then we'll make them together," Nadine promised.

I didn't know if Autumn was right or not. All I knew for certain was that Nadine had broken the curse once and for all, and because of that, our family would survive.

"Can breaking this curse really be as simple as it was?" I asked. "There was no earthquake, no struggle."

"I'm getting stronger," Nadine said. "And now that this curse is broken, we're stronger than ever. I know you're scared of what kind of dad you're going to be, but no matter what happens or how long it takes, we're in this together."

I smiled as I squeezed her hand. "Together."