Page 117 of Reaper's Quest

He pressed his hand to the air before him as his gaze swung past me. “Where are you?”

I sucked in a breath. Was unseen magic at work? Had something struck him blind?

The muscles in my jaw tightened, and I took a tentative step toward him. “Right in front of you. Keep walking.”

“How can you be in front of me? There’s a wall blocking the path. I can’t move forward.”

I swallowed hard and spun in a circle, taking in the crowding darkness. No wall stood between us. The space appeared open and clear.

I marched to his side, stopping within inches of his face. In his proximity, the air around me cooled, if only marginally.

Winter jerked back, surprise rippling through all his features. His eyes widened?clear blue moons in a sea of shadow.

“You stepped right out of the wall.”

I should have found the shock in his expression concerning, but something about his unguarded reaction tickled me. In the short time I’d known him, I couldn’t recall having seen him emotionally exposed.

I patted the side of his face and smirked. “I’m right here, silly. And I didn’t walk through any walls.”

Our eyes met and?—

My expression fell flat. Then I yanked my hand back. I’d been foolish to touch him in such a personal way. For a brief moment, I had forgotten I was mad at him.

“There’s nothing here,” I said, turning toward the invisible wall he professed existed. “See?”

I shoved my hand forward, assuming my arm cut through the supposed wall. A cocoon of heat instantly encased my hand.

He gasped.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him forward. “Come on.”

Moving two steps with ease, we stretched our arms wide, and then his body jolted to a stop. His face flattened, as if smashed against a hard surface.

A knot formed in my chest. Something stood between us. Something unseen that I could step past, but he could not. And the air beyond that invisible barrier felt hotter, more suffocating.

He released my hand and backed up several steps. My entire body grew heavy as I returned to his side of the invisible barrier. This time, his coolness failed to soothe me. The fervor within me and my inner fire had been stoked, and it now fought to eclipse Winter’s rejuvenating current.

He nodded to a light alcove notched into the wall. I followed him several steps into the deeper shadows cloaking the space, and my foot scraped against something.

Thoughts of dead critters filled my imagination, causing me to shiver.

Winter stared at the path beyond. The path I could walk, but where he saw—and had hit—a wall.

“I’m sorry, Raven, but I won’t be going that way. And I don’t think you should either. Definitely not alone.”

He could have all the feelings he wanted to about the situation. They didn’t change the fact that I felt the urge, a center pull, to follow the sweltering path. I was something he would likely never understand, and I had a job to do. That job, that purpose, could be the reason for my ability to pass through something that held him back. My reaper blood clearly tugged me forward.

“I hear what you’re saying and understand your concern.” I bit my lip and steeled myself for his likely reaction to what I planned to say next. “But I really feel like that’s the direction I need to go.”

His eyes narrowed, and I held his gaze, unwilling to back down. He opened his mouth to respond.

Clicking and clacking bounced through the tunnel. Traveling toward us from an origin unseen.

I shuddered, and Winter clamped his mouth shut. Weboth stared in the direction of the sound. Toward the darkness of the tunnel where he couldn’t go.

Over a week, possibly two or more, had passed since I’d heard that click and clack, but I doubted I would ever forget the marriage of source and sound…or the terror that first visual had sliced through me.

“Are those…?” I didn’t know how to finish the question.