Page 104 of Grim Tidings

Both of us. Yes. That’s it. My magic and hers, together. She carved herself open and let me inside, and I did the same without realizing. I push her hair away from her face, smiling faintly. She’s wrapped in shadow and light. Her cheeks are still wet from her tears, but the anguish is gone from her eyes. She looks—fuck—

“You’re glowing,” I mumble.

Her lips tilt up, and she presses her palm to the center of my chest. Right over the scars and the pulsing light they’re carved through.

“I’m not the one who is glowing,” she whispers. The corner of her mouth brushes against mine. “Is it too much?”

A laugh puffs out of me. “No.”

It’s not enough. I want more of it. I’ve had a taste, and now I’m ravenous. Because beneath the bite of it is Darcy, in her purest form. I can feel her there, hidden between the shadows. Her laugh. Her smile. Her damn braid swinging between her shoulder blades. Her knees tucked to her chest and her chin resting on top, those catlike eyes watching me move behind the bar.

Her magic is her. Thorns and all.

My wings rustle as I wrench open more of myself to let her in. Her magic didn’t need to be tamed. It just needed to be acknowledged. She’s been tucking it away, pretending to be something she’s not. All she needed was to feel safe enough to let it go.

She turns her face to rest her cheek against mine, letting her arms dangle over my shoulders. Her body is relaxed now. Soft and sweet.

“Feels good,” she murmurs.

I rub up and down her back. Our magic hovers in the space between us, flickering light and then dark and then light again. “What does?”

“Feeling you.” She nuzzles her nose under my ear and takes a deep breath. “Knowing you’re here.”

I hold her tighter, burying my face in her neck. How long has Darcy been alone, forced to the very edges? How long has she been forced to experience life in increments? I think of her list again, and for the first time I see it for what it is. Not a collection of silly things, but—proof of her humanity. The tiny corner of her heart she’s tried to keep protected.

She’s been so lonely, I think, still caught in the hazy intoxication of our magic.

I’ve been lonely, too.

I slowly let go of the tether I have on her magic and it slips away. It sinks back into Darcy, curling around her in ribbons before disappearing entirely.

The house goes silent. The lights flicker back on.

And I think, maybe, I’ve gone and fallen in love with a Reaper.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Darcy

I wake up to sunlight warming my face, a heavy arm slung over my hip and a leg tossed over both of mine. I am cradled carefully in the shelter of Gabriel, his body burning like a furnace behind mine.

“You awake?” he slurs as I wiggle in his hold, stretching the one part of my body that has managed to escape his python-like grip.

I yawn, my jaw cracking. “Mmph,” I answer.

He snickers, a warm puff of air against the back of my neck. “Are you conscious?” he amends.

“Barely.”

I feel like I’ve been pulled apart like taffy, sore down to my bones. I don’t know if it’s an aftereffect of my magic or his, but either way, I’m hurting.

Gabriel loosens his arm just enough for me to turn, lifting so I can flop on my back, half of my hair in my face. He cups my rib cage as I settle, his thumb dancing over each individual bone like he’s trying to catalog the shape of me to memory. He gives me a slow, sleepy smile, his curls a wild halo on the top of his head. With the sunlight streaming in through the window and painting everything gold, he looks every inch the Guardian he is.

“Feel like shit,” he mumbles before letting his eyes slip shut again. I trace the brand-new purple and blue circles under his left eye, frowning.

“Yeah, I bet. I poured a bunch of death magic into you.”

His lips twitch into a frown. “Don’t do that.”