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Chapter 34

Anaya

A light swirled behind me, pulling on me like a rip current, glinting from the silver gleam in

Balthazar’s eyes. I knew that light. I’d seen it thousands of times. But it had never been for me. Not once. I knelt down beside Cash and ran my palms over his eyelids, his lips…my palms rested against his chest and I left them there. It slowly rose with a breath, then fell flat again. I pressed my face to his heart and a faint beat thumped against my cheek. I gasped, my fingers searching and touching all the places that showed signs of life.

“Oh my God…” I looked up at Balthazar. “Is he alive?”

“Not exactly.” He waved in two angels and signaled for me to step away. They smiled with delight and wonder, and they lifted an unconscious Cash into their arms and carted him out of Balthazar’s office.

Panic ignited in my chest watching him go. I reached out, but curled my fingers back into my palm and stepped away when I saw the look Balthazar was giving me.

“Where are they taking him?”

“To a safe place,” he said. “He is regenerating. He’ll need a little time to rest.”

I clutched my hands against my stomach to calm the nervous feeling churning there. “Regenerate?”

He nodded and sank back down into his seat, nonchalantly flipping through a stack of gold papers.

“Yes. He’ll need certain abilities that you don’t have to do what I’m asking of him. Things only a soul with his power would be capable of.”

Unable to ignore it, I glanced over my shoulder at the glowing porthole of light behind me. The force of it blew my braids out in every direction. I pulled them over my shoulder to hold them there. If it wasn’t for Cash…“W-what it this?”

Balthazar slid the stack of golden papers across the desk to me with a silver-tipped pen. Light swirled and glowed around their edges.

“You have a choice.”

“What choice?” It was never a choice with Balthazar. It was always an exchange. An order. Free will didn’t exist here, and I made sure that I never forgot that.

“Heaven awaits you, Anaya.” He nodded to the swirling light behind me. “I am a man of my word.

You brought me the boy. Ensured that he was cooperative. All it will take is a few steps into that light to collect your reward. Your redemption.”

I looked down at the hemp bracelet still around my wrist and swallowed. I’d only wanted Heaven when I knew Tarik would be there. Did I still want it? Did I want to put a world of impossible between us again for everlasting peace? My mother and father were there. After so many years, did they assume I was in Hell? Were they in pain over me? This could be a chance to give them that peace.

My finger grazed over the bracelet and I closed my eyes, letting my mind fill to the point of bursting with everything Cash. Sleepy and paint-spattered in the mornings. Warm and trembling, with his mouth touching mine, his kiss promising to make me feel alive and free. He’d sacrificed his eternity for me. No questions asked. He just had that much faith in me. Not Tarik. Cash. I owed it to him to have that much faith in him.

“What are you waiting for?” Balthazar’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “This is what you’ve been working a thousand years to achieve.”

I opened my eyes, aching with memories and want, then sank down into the chair across from

Balthazar. I stared at the gold papers and pen. “What is the other option?”

Balthazar smiled, no doubt counting on this. “It’s a contract. Another thousand years of servitude.

After those thousand years, if you can find me another shadow walker, I’ll grant you and your mate the freedom you desire.”

I almost groaned. Another thousand years of collecting the dead. But Cash would be there. I couldn’t lose sight of that. And this wasn’t just about me. It was about him. A thousand years and we could both be free. We could be together. I touched the contract hesitantly.

“Another thousand years of collecting the dead,” I said. “That’s it. No tricks this time. No hidden truths?”

Balthazar leaned forward, folded his arms across the desktop, and smiled. A sunrise of color ignited under the places where his skin touched the glass. “Collecting the dead? Oh, no, Anaya. You’ll be doing something much more important than that.”