Page 37 of Reaper’s Curse

“No.” Young me pushed my arms through the bars, folding them together on the inside, within caged me’s grasp…should I lurch fast and far enough.

Which, given my current state, I likely couldn’t. Still, the action of my younger version was both brave and reckless.

Boy me sighed. “I don’t know how to fix that.”

“I might be able to help with that.”

My boy version was young, and several years would pass before child me could be of any real help to me, but young Chace―young me―was wise and brave. And, as it so happened, here. A better choice than the only other being I’d witnessed enter the room during my stay, the elder reaper and aforementioned father.

“Help how?” Younger me’s face appeared wide open with wonder, curiosity, and mild trepidation.

“My vessel won’t last much longer,” I said.

Young me’s face clouded with confusion.

“My body,” I clarified, and my younger version nodded. Caged me coughed, and droplets of blood splattered down my shirt. “I will soon require a new vessel to hold my essence. And by soon, I mean quite soon.”

“You don’t—” Young me bit down on my question, but he didn’t need to vocalize it for imprisoned me to understand.

The colors swimming around boy me communicated everything.

“I will not return to the Underworld until I am summoned or my job is done.” My breath became ragged. My heart labored.

How long could I force this body to hold on? Endure?

My younger version’s lips tipped into another frown. “Isn’t death a summons?”

“I am not of your kind, and I am not governed by the same rules,” I replied. “This realm is where I will remain until⁠—”

An attack of coughs overwhelmed me. I wiped the resulting bloody residue away with my shirtsleeve.

“You want me to help you,” young me said, and caged me nodded. “You want me to be that vessel thing?”

Again, I nodded.

“But I’m dying. I wouldn’t be helping for long.”

“With my assistance, you need not be dying in the same manner. I can give you extra time before your spirit departs. Time to make peace with your parents. And when you do go, if you are amenable, I would continue to use your vessel to finish what must be done.”

“What must be done?”

Prisoner me tried to grin, in hopes of creating the sense of adventure any child might seek, but with the burn of my eyes, I knew the expression fell flat. “I must save a goddess.”

“A goddess?” Young me’s eyes burst wide. “Yes,” younger me said, quick and breathless. “I’ll help you. You’ll help me. And together we’ll help her.”

Let’s hope it all works so easily.

“Then together, we shall live the adventure.” For as long as the boy’s soul prevails. Caged me wheezed, and the remnants of my strength drained. “But I’m fading, so if we are to do this, then I sense we need to do this now.”

Young me wrapped my small hands around the bars. “And if we don’t…before you die?”

The kid didn’t need to speak the complete sentence for dying me to understand the question.

I huffed a sad and barely audible laugh. “Then I guess my essence will drift until a suitable host is found.”

My boy eyes grew wider. “That. That can’t be good.” After a drawn-out moment, young me glanced at the door across the room, as if checking for my parents, then swung back to imprisoned and dying me. “Okay. I’m in. Let’s do this.”

Caged me closed my eyes in prayer and resignation and then expelled my last breath from my dying husk. The body slumped to the floor, lifeless and unmoving…even as my inner essence floated through the air and slipped beneath the skin of young Chace Badden…the new me.