Page 117 of Dead Heat
Death didn’t answer.
“I thought I would be. I thought I would be fighting. Clinging to life with all of my might.”
“Your battles are over. There is nothing left to fight.”
“What about you? Others don’t try to stop you from taking them?”
A grinding laugh echoed around me.
“Those who try quickly find their actions most inconsequential. All things end.”
“Even you?”
“Even I, eventually.”
“What about those like me? Those who come back.”
“All things come to an end,” the entity repeated. “No matter how many times one wishes to attempt outrunning it. They find their way back to me. You are proof of this.”
“I guess I am,” I agreed. “If I go with you, will my magic still return to the Source?”
“The lifeforce given by my siblings has already returned, yet it would seem they saw fit to relinquish this portion to me.”
“Sibling? Do you mean that you and the Source came from the same place?”
“Yes. It is the same for all of our siblings.”
“How many are there?”
“Seven in all. Seven wonders, Enduring. They are among your kind, now. All but one, for I must remain here to greet my brethren as they return to the Ether.”
“What do they want with us?”
“To experience what it means to be human.”
My thoughts raced.
“Why?”
I turned, suddenly feeling the weight of someone’s gaze upon me, but Death no longer stood at my side. Instead, a man with crimson hair streaked with white drifted up from the mountain, searching the sky with a desperation that robbed the voice from my throat.
Cirian drifted higher, dark eyes scanning the horizon. He hadn’t spotted me yet, which gave me a moment to watch him from afar. Though it no longer beat in my chest, my heart swelled at his presence. Even if I were soon to be carried away byDeath, at least I would be able to tell him a proper goodbye. To say that I loved him, even in death.
To tell him that I wanted nothing more than my final moments to be beside him.
After all, what were the odds I’d be able to escape death a second time?
It would take a miracle.
Drifting up to the red-haired man, a smile spread across my face.
“You found me.”
