Inbetween

Chapter 29

Finn I couldn’t tell where the hell I’d landed. Shadows slithered over my vision. Hundreds of them. They screamed, writhed, twisted until I dropped to my knees and slapped my hands over my ears. My knees sank into dirt and ash and God only knows what. This was not the time for me to get dragged away.

Not when I didn’t know where Emma and I stood. I had to make her understand. I couldn’t just leave things this way.

Easton slapped me on the back. “Smells like home.”

I looked around. Flashes of shimmering light punched holes into the dark. Reapers. At least twenty of them. “Why are they here?”

“Too many,” Easton said. “Body count’s going to be over a hundred.”

He pointed over my shoulder. Flames stretched so high into the darkness, they could have touched the stars. A massive hunk of metal burned, bordered by fir trees and flames. Jet fuel fumes ate away at the fresh air. A charred wing jutted up from the wreckage, branded by a blue and red airline logo. A plane. A plane full of burning people. My body heaved. God, I wished I still had the ability to throw up. I took a step back and stumbled right into the heat of a memory.

Heat licked at my neck. Something stung near my elbow. I punched at the controls of the airplane.

Just a little farther…

“Finn?”

Smoke choked me. Something hot scorched the back of my neck, my shoulder. “Son of a bitch!” I slapped at the flames crawling down my sleeve. The plane shuddered just before-“Hey.” Easton knelt beside me, his brows drawn together, as he snapped his fingers in front of my face. “Snap out of it.”

He stood and held a hand out to me. I looked at it like it was a snake ready to strike. Groaning, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me up.

“Look, I know this is hard,” he said. One of Heaven’s reapers, a boy with blinding white hair and alabaster skin, walked past us with his arm around the trembling soul of a woman in a flower print dress. “You can do this. You’ve had to do it before, and as long as these stupid humans keep trying to fly, you’re going to have to do it again. So I need you to take this.”

Easton slowly pulled the scythe from my holster and folded my fingers around it. I felt numb. I couldn’t even feel the blade in my fist. I didn’t want to feel it. I wanted to run away from this.

“Hey.” Easton snapped his fingers again, bringing me back. “Stay with me.”

I nodded and swallowed. “Okay.”

Easton smiled. “Okay?”

“Yeah.” Not even close to okay, but the lie didn’t taste too bad in my mouth. It was better than admitting I was terrified to someone who faced Hell on a daily basis. Easton nodded, looked me over once, and turned away. “Hey, Easton?”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder.

“Are you still pissed at me?” I asked, wanting him to say no.

He rolled his eyes and twirled his scythe between his fingers like a baton. “Nah.” He paused, considering. “But for the record, I do still think you’re a dumbass.”

“Fair enough.” I didn’t think he heard. He was already gone, tearing the soul from some poor bastard’s chest.

I closed my eyes and put one foot in front of the other until the heat consumed me. I opened my eyes. Flames licked out, teased my chest, the toes of my shoes. Someone stepped up beside me.

“I’ve already had to take three kids,” Anaya said. She chewed on her bottom lip. “I don’t know how you do it.”

“I try not to think about it.”

“Then that’s what you need to do here.”

I glanced back to the plane. “I know.”

“You’re welcome, by the way,” she said. “Things will be so much easier now with all of the secrets out of the way.”

“You’re welcome?” I glared at her. “Do you understand how pissed off she is at me right now?”

“She’ll get over it. Trust me.” Anaya held out her hand to me. It was so small and slender compared to mine, her skin just a shade darker. “Come on,” she said. “We’ll do this together.”

I stared at the silver shimmer that swirled like smoke where our palms connected, and took a deep breath. I didn’t need it, but I wanted it. If after seventy years I couldn’t forget the feel of my flesh melting from my bones, I didn’t think I’d ever escape those memories. I squeezed Anaya’s hand and stepped into the flames.