“Poor little girl,” Scissor Lady said. She reached out her hand, and in a jerk of perception, she was suddenly right in front of Layla, stroking her cheek. Except Layla wasn’t an adult; she was a child again. Lost and alone. “It’s safe here under my skirt.”
“I’ll pass, thanks,” Layla answered, stumbling back with revulsion. She shook her head to clear the illusion. To grow back up. Already her mind was going.
The naked woman had a grip on Abigail, while the fae man petted Zoe.
“So many things I want to try with you,” he said.
Abigail let up a wail. The naked woman pulled strands of light from Abigail’s skin, like ghostly marionette strings. “Feels good.”
“We get so few with both the body and soul intact,” Scissor Lady said.
“Get off my sister!” Zoe cried.
Layla dropped the useless scythe and lunged for the naked fae toying with Abigail. Tumbled her off and set the creature shrieking with laughter. Layla went to punch the fae in the face, but her wrist was captured by Scissor Lady, who effortlessly lifted her and dragged her some paces away. Layla’s kicking legs scored the earth, and her hands swatted the air to find the woman behind her. The effort was wasted.
“Now, pet,” Scissor Lady chided, “you belong to me, not her.”
Layla was nobody’s pet.
The naked woman straddled Abigail’s fallen body. Abigail moaned, turning her head to the side. Layla perceived a brief shift, a blurring of flesh and light, of disengagement between Abigail’s soul and body, the same that Layla had experienced in the grip of the ghost. Abigail’s body was expiring, yet her soul was still pinned between the naked woman’s legs.
Zoe was scrabbling on the ground, working for the scythe. The fae man stood back for a moment, making a show of admiring Zoe’s backside.
They’d all just have to hold out, endure, until Shadowman came. Kathleen had been an expert at enduring; surely the nugget of that skill was somewhere in Layla, as well.
“You’re supposed to be dead, too,” Scissor Lady murmured in Layla’s ear, as she looked on Abigail’s death.
“Not today,” Layla said through clenched teeth, jerking hard to free herself. Scissor Lady’s clamp on her hand was unperturbed.
The naked woman, still astride Abigail, arched her back and laughed at the sky.
Zoe’s grasp found the scythe. She stood, chest heaving, the weapon in her hands. “Get off my sister.”
A wind riffled through the trees. The naked fae looked over cheerfully. Ready to play.
A tremor started in the ground. Layla braced in Scissor Lady’s grasp, but Zoe didn’t seem to notice. Rage burned in her eyes. “I said, Get. Off. My. Sister!”
The darkness of the forest convulsed. The scythe gleamed. The tremor rose to a rolling earthquake, and even Scissor Lady drew back, though she dragged Layla with her. Shadow grew dense around Zoe as she bore down on the naked fae woman.
With each step, blackness filled Zoe’s gaze. Her expression was fixed in anger, tilting the structure of her features much like a fae’s. The force of her feeling leached into her skin, making it shine with an eerie glow.
Twilight was a place of emotion, dark and bright, both extremes on fire within Zoe. Here was the power of mortality. Layla knew she was witnessing a transformation.
Zoe sliced through the air with the huge weapon, and in the rainbow arc of its sweep, the scythe, too, changed to match its new wielder. When Zoe struck down the naked woman, cut the laugh from her face, the scythe was a part of her, mastered by rage and love. The fae gasped into a cloud of Shadow.
Zoe swung around to face the male fae, and in terror and confusion, Layla knew Zoe was the new face of Death. The first soul she’d shepherd would be her sister’s.
What about . . . ? “Shadowman!” Layla screamed.
“This way,” Scissor Lady said, dragging Layla into the trees. The last thing she saw was Zoe facing the male fae, Shadow crackling at her back.
“Zoe!”
But Scissor Lady put a hand over her mouth. “She’ll never find you. Would you want her to? She killed your man Death when she possessed his scythe.”
Killed? Shadowman? “That’s not possible.”
“His power was in his duty. He’s left it for too long, and now another has taken it over.” Scissor Lady tightened her grip. “He’s gone.”
“He’s immortal.” He’d told her so.
“Not anymore.” Scissor Lady’s mouth curled into a sneer. “Fool.”
Layla was hauled through the trees. She caught a glimpse of dark branches, a violet sky, a blazing streak of a star. Her heart clamored as her eyes filled with tears.
Shadowman?
She’d had her chance to save him. A second life to bring him back to Twilight. To steal a moment to love. She’d failed Heaven.
Much, much worse, she’d failed him.
Chapter 16
Decision made, Shadowman settled into a defensive wait. The angels prepared to strike, but they could not harm him. The gate would stand, no matter the cost.
kat-a-kat-a-kat-a-kat: So we’ll be friends, you and I.
Hardly.