Strike two.“Is that still her fate?” I asked, hearing thewas .
Her beautiful face shifted, becoming confused. “No,” she said, and our steps slowed to a stop. “The seraphs sing that her future is muddied, and they don’t know why.”
A slow smile curved my lips up. “I do.” Pleased, I started for the front doors. I knew now what I was going to do—how I was going to reconcile working as head of a system I didn’t agree with until I found my body and returned to normal. “Just like understanding fear changed you, Susan saw death, and as a result, she learned how precious life is. It’s hard to make a choice when you can only see one way.”
From my left, Barnabas frowned. “You’re talking about me,” he said sullenly.
“No.” I glanced at the front offices, hoping no one was watching. “I don’t think so. Maybe?” I shrugged.
“I’m going to come with you, Nakita, but before you get your blade out and turn all scary, I want to talk to him.”
The dark reaper’s eyebrows went high. “Why?” she said, mirroring Barnabas’s confused expression.
“To see if I can’t change his fate,” I said.Duh…
Okay, so I was dead, my body was somewhere between now and the next, and I had two argumentative reapers guarding me from the very timekeeper I’d once trusted. Things weren’t all bad.
My dad didn’t have a clue I was dead, Josh was alive, and until I got my body back and got off this roller coaster, I not only could skip school with impunity, but it was my moral responsibility to do so.
We had reached the door, and I yanked it open. Sunlight spilled in, warming me as Josh caught the door and held it. “You’re going to skip?” he asked, and I grinned.
“Yup. Nakita and Barnabas can cover for me. For us. For a good girl, I certainly do some bad things.”
Josh laughed as he gestured for me to go first. “Breaking rules isn’t bad when what you’re doing is more important than the rule itself.”
I hesitated on the threshold, squinting in the sun. “You think it makes a difference?”
Josh nodded, and his smile made a quiver start in the pit of my being. “Yeah. I do.”
“Me too,” I said, and together, we walked out into the sun to save some good guy’s soul.