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Chapter 32

Anaya

I crawled across the ash and lay down next to Easton, reaching for Cash. Tears were drying on my face. My legs burned. Seeing him go over the edge like that…I’d thought I’d lost him. I never knew I could move so fast. His dark eyes connected with mine and he exhaled with what I could only imagine was relief. Every wave below him that crashed into the rocks sent a spray of shadows and flames up the side. The other shadow walker clung to a groove in the rocks below him, screaming as he shook a shadow from his leg.

“Grab on,” I said, holding back a relieved sob. He was alive. Cash nodded and swung his other arm up to clasp my hand. Easton and I both crawled back, pulling until Cash came up over the edge and collapsed. His breaths were weak and wheezy. His skin so pale it blended with the ash in his hair.

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.”