Chapter 68

"Ican't tell you the last time I've seen your eyes shine so bright," Hollis said, opening his arms to Ezra. "There's joy here. At last."

I chanced a glance at Paesha. Her eyes were sad, but I wasn't sure if it was because of the goodbye to Hollis or because she was determined to get back to Quill, and leaving Ezra behind was going to hurt her and him all over again. The joy was fleeting. And she was the most loyal of us all to leave love behind temporarily for the protection of a child. A kindred spirit.

"Orin, my boy." Hollis pulled him into a hug next, then placed wrinkled hands on the side of his face to stare into his eyes. "So, it's true, then. The things they whisper."

Orin lifted a shoulder. "Must be."

"Then be honorable. Make hard decisions as carefully as you always have, and never let the music inside you fade."

"You've been like a father to me, Hollis," he answered, clearing his throat. "You know you're welcome to stay. I wouldn't take you for granted. I'd help you however I could."

Hollis's sad smile was like a vise to my heart. "I hope one day you'll forgive me for going, Orin. There's nothing in this realm that you need an old man for. I promise. Except the clothes, but even then, there's bound to be a tailor coming along." He reached up to his chest pocket and unclipped the watch hanging by a chain before placing it into Orin's trembling fingers. "Dahlia gave me this the day I arrived. She remembered how much I loved mine, even in her madness, and she'd been saving it for me."

"I can't accept this, Hol," Orin said, shaking his head.

But the old man simply closed Orin's fingers over the pocket watch and smiled once more. "It's of no use to me now."

"Maybe I'll find you in your next life and return it," he said.

"That would be fine, son. Just fine."

He came to me next, his outline blurry through tears I didn't shed. "No goodbyes, Old Man."

"No goodbyes," he promised, taking my hand. "Would you like to meet my wife?"

I pulled him close to my side. "I'd be absolutely offended if you refused me."

He chuckled. "That sounds like you. Shall we?"

Orin took my other side, but Paesha and Ezra opted to stay behind. The moment we passed the threshold of the blue light cast onto the grove, Hollis transformed, no longer the corporeal form of a man, but rather a spectral, save his old, withered hands. The euphoria I remembered from the last time I'd come kissed my skin, settling into my bones and leaving me with a kernel of longing, not unlike Quill's power. I kept an eye on Orin, though, worried his own nightmares would come back to haunt him, and if he lost control in a place like this, where Death had come to torture the poor Whispers, I wasn't sure he'd be able to fight the darkness. Or what that might do to those of us inside the grove.

The Whispers stayed away, leaving a wide berth. Climbing the small hill in the center of the grove, a beautiful spectral appeared beside us. Her long hair waving in a phantom wind, doe-eyed and smiling as she swirled around Hollis. She was young, only slightly older than me, and that truth became the very likely reason the old man had chosen this. He could have stayed here with her, living happily in this grove for eternity. But she hadn't gotten to live, not really, and there were likely miles of hard lessons learned between them.

"So, you see?" she asked, circling me.

"I think I do," I breathed, closing my eyes as she spun around me.

"Deyanira Sariah Faber, Princess of Perth, Death's Maiden, bonded wife of Death, and Queen of this court, it is my honor to introduce you to Yvette Louise Bennet, daughter of your great uncle, Atticus Hark."

I gasped, spinning to stare at Hollis. "My great uncle?"

He nodded. "We've truly always been family, Deyanira."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I wanted you to know I cared and accepted you without a familial bond. I loved you because of your moral compass and not your ties to my wife. But I did see her in your eyes sometimes."

"I got them from my father," I whispered, staring back at the woman once more, my… cousin. "If you so choose it, I have come to release your soul, Yvette. You will reincarnate back to Requiem, and your new life will be yours alone."

She swirled around Hollis, and they said together, "We choose it."

The curiosity of our conversation or the network of whispering gossip drew the others near, despite Orin's proximity. Still, he boomed, "Stay back if you wish to remain a Whisper in the grove. If you wish to reincarnate, come near."

We'd discussed the best approach since I couldn't make contact with their translucent forms. Landing on the wave of power I'd used in the pit, I let it ripple across the space like a drop in a bucket and waited, feeling the tiny slice in my heart as Hollis turned to ash, his soul circling Orin and me for the blink of a second before he and the others vanished.

Our steps were heavy. It was easier knowing he'd had the final choice, but still, the ache of missing him again was raw. Lost in our sadness once more, we were not prepared to walk out of the grove and be assaulted by Paesha's blood-curdling scream as she stared up at Ezra, hanging limp in the air, a massive glowing entity holding him suspended by his neck.

"Who the fuck is that?" I whispered.

Icy fingers walked down my spine as Ro stepped out from behind the blinding figure, her chin high, the cast of warm light warming her beautiful brown skin as she gripped the edges of her golden gown, bowed all the way to the ground in a graceful dip and said calmly, "Kneel before your highest god, the Supreme Sovereign, the Unerring Arbiter of Beginnings and Endings, and the Keeper of All Realms."