“Later, Cora,” Kicker called out, and I waved without looking.
Kicker and I had been on the swim team together since freshman year, but we’d become closer the last few months. I wondered what she would say when she learned I didn’t plan to finish my senior year at Kayville High. She’d probably demand to know why and where I was headed, which I couldn’t tell her. She would never know I led a double life as a regular student during school and a medium for the dead whenever I could. Or how my friends and I saved the students from possession by evil souls during prom last weekend, or that our school had souls drifting through the walls and loitering on every floor and classroom. Sometimes I worried about the angry ones possessing students. After all, they were here because of me.
I grabbed my backpack and headed for the foyer, passing a few along the way. Did Raine ever worry about things the way I did, or did she just face one problem at a time and keep going? She’d just gotten married to her soul mate and was planning to finish her senior year at Mystic Academy, a private school for people with gifts like her. Witches and Immortals. I wanted to go with her, but I needed to deal with a few problems before I could commit.
First, my parents didn’t know I wanted to switch schools. Heck, I hadn’t told them I could see the dead. Second, Echo and I wanted to get married, and I still hadn’t told my parents our plans. Mom adored him, and Dad respected him, but my stomach churned with dread just imagining how they’d react to what I planned to tell them. Everything. Including what he was. I couldn’t do half-truths with my parents.
Students in the foyer stepped out of my way to let me pass. When their gazes went outside, I knew Echo was around. He had that effect on people. They tended to try to stay out of his line of vision while studying him on the sly. Some even tried to imitate his Grimnir style, but no one had the guts to ask me who he was. They just knew he was my boyfriend. The souls standing by the windows and staring outside knew he was a reaper, and I was the only one stopping him from reaping them.
I stepped outside and saw him by his SUV. He’d bought a car just so he could pick me up and drop me off at school. Classic rock vibrated the windows and pulsed through the air. From the lack of reaction from the other students, no one could hear the music except me, thanks to the dampening runes covering the black exterior.
Echo’s wolfish eyes stayed locked on me, so I knew he wasn’t really listening to the music. My stomach flip-flopped as I got closer, and my heart picked up speed. Even after dating him for almost a year, I still got flustered when he looked at me like I stole his breath away and he couldn’t wait to have me in his arms.
“Cora-mia,” he whispered and opened his arms.
I stopped and crossed my arms. “Stop being mean to Dev.”
He growled. “Now I can’t even get a hug because of him?”
“Oh, you’ll get your hug. I just want you to be nice to him. Turn off the music.”
“He talks too much, sings like a toad, and”—he pinned me with narrowed eyes—“I hate that he’s permanently a part of our lives.”
He sounded so frustrated my instinct to ease his dark mood kicked in. I closed the gap between us and kissed him. He let me initiate it, but took over, showing me he was in charge until he was all I breathed and tasted.
He lifted his head and smiled. “Want to open a portal, ditch the car, and go to our cottage?”
“Don’t you mean ditch Dev? No, hun. We can’t. He and I are going to the hospital.” After I talked to my parents. “Did the furniture arrive?”
“Every last piece you ordered. I spent the afternoon making the cottage perfect.”
He’d bought a house at the edge of town so we had a local place where we could entertain our friends.
“I want to see it, but I have a promise to keep.” I reached around him and lowered the volume of the radio. “Hey, Dev.”
“A rún mo chroí, how was school?” he answered through the car speakers.
He’d just called me a secret of his heart. Echo growled at the endearment, but I ignored him. As long as he kept reacting like that, Dev would keep flirting with me. They were like two dogs with a bone. Echo might be the love of my life, but he had to learn to share me. Dev was my charge, a soul searching for redemption, and I was his only hope.
“I can’t wait for the semester to be over. You okay in there, Dev?” I asked.
“Good. Do we still have a date?”
Echo stiffened beside me, and I sighed. I pulled him away to the hood of the car so Dev wouldn’t hear us.
“He’s supposed to help anchor the soul of a coma patient so the man can wake up and talk to his family. Remember Mr. Reeds from Moonbeam Terrace?”
“The old man who’d flirt with you or the captain?”
“The flirt. He had a heart attack and slipped into a coma. I need Dev to anchor his soul and give his family closure.”
“He doesn’t need you to anchor a soul,” Echo griped, then pulled me into his arms and rested his forehead on mine. A sigh escaped him. “He’s been doing this soul-cleansing thing on his own for weeks.”
“And struggling. But he doesn’t know who Mr. Reeds is.” I lowered my voice as I continued. “Dev cannot slip back, Echo. The longer he stays inside a person, the stronger the urge to take over completely. He needs me to draw him out if that happens, and nothing works on souls like my medium runes.” There was something off about Echo. He seemed restless. “You okay?”
“Couldn’t be better. The golden dragon is in Asgard, and things are back to normal in the hall.”
I frowned. He rarely discussed Helheim, the realm of the dead, or the goddess he served. “Golden dragon? As in a real golden dragon?”
“Yep. You should see him. He can be a real pain, and we’ve gone on some really amazing adventures the last few weeks, but”—he scowled—“he’s in Asgard now and things are back to normal. That’s a good thing.”
I reached up and stroked his cheek. His voice and his words didn’t match. “You miss him.”
“Hel’s Mist no. He’s a pain in my ass. The adventures were nice, but that was not who I am. I’m a reaper.”
He was so cute when he tried to act indifferent. “Are you sure you should be telling me this? You said you can’t share things that take place over there.”
“I know.” He pressed a kiss on my temple. “I hate not sharing everything with you.”
I hated it, too. I planned to marry him and had to accept that I’d only see him when he was on Earth. If something were to happen when he was in Hel, I wouldn’t know about it unless another reaper told me, and I wouldn’t be able to visit him.
“Do you think after we marry the goddess might be more accommodating? After all, you are her favorite reaper.”
He grinned. “We’ll see. She’s changed because of the dragon, so she might change her mind about reapers bringing their Immortal wives to Eljudnir. I plan to talk to her after we set a date, which means—”
“Telling my parents the truth.” Something I wasn’t looking forward to. I glanced at my watch. I needed to get home and get it done. “Are you driving or am I?”
“I am.” Grinning, he scooped me up and walked around to the front passenger seat. “That way you can distract me.”
I laughed and kissed his chin. Instead of closing the door, he tilted my chin and studied my face, his smile fading.
“If the goddess says yes, would you be willing to spend time there with me? My quarters are spacious, and you’d never have to see her.”
Panic coursed through me. The little I knew about Goddess Hel said she was not a nice person. She had the power and the authority to detain anyone who entered her realm, dead or alive. What if she insisted I stay there forever? Even Raine, who’d adored her father, was reluctant to visit Hel’s Hall to see him.