The Reaper Saga [Book 1-3]

CHAPTER 34 [EDITED]

5132

I didn't know how long I was staring at nothing.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I thought I saw the hazy outline of Zach. Sighing, I slowly rolled onto my side. I was back in my cage and next to mine was Zach where Keisha was thrown into before.

Keisha...I killed her.

I closed my eyes, trying to clear my thoughts but every time I did, I saw the image of Keisha's lifeless body. No tears streamed down my face. I felt nothing but a dark, deep void of pain. It was strange really. I hated her at the same time, I wished I had enough time to know the mystery that was Keisha Deshayes.

My heart ached as I finally got a good look at Zach's face. His whole body sagged with exhaustion and he had dark circles under his eyes. His hands were painted red, the skin underneath rubbed raw from the ropes. He looked unconscious when I was looking at him but as if knowing someone was staring, his eyes opened.

"How are you feeling?" He whispered.

"Just breathing," I whispered back, ignoring his knowing gaze. We were here but Mikhail was nowhere to be found. I didn't know what happened to him. When Sage knew that I didn't have any strength left, he snatched Keisha's body only to hand it to one of his people. I tried to stop him but whatever he chanted, it knocked me out in a second. The next I opened my eyes, I was already here beside Zach.

"Where's Mikhail?"

"They took him. I don't know where but I tried to fight. I swear! I wanted a way to end all of this but that bastard..." He trailed off rubbing the pale line in his wrist. "Sage saw the trinket on my wrist and put two and two together. So he gathered that taking my lost souls would be the best way to punish me. Now, my bindings, all I ever had is gone. Just like that."

Mikhail was gone and Zach didn't have any soul in him...

"Does that hurt? Without them binding to you?"

"Hurts?" He laughed, clutching his stomach. "What hurts more is that if I ever get out of this alive then I'll be put in a trial. You know, by the King of Hell? And trust me, that guy is way worse than a thousand Sages combined."

So without the trinket, he was practically fired from his job.

"Where are they?" The numbness was creeping into my bones.

"The moment he took the trinket, it became his. I can't believe my own bindings are his now. He had no right to do that. I would be happily dead if he rather killed me."

When I didn't answer, he grabbed my hand through the bars and I let him. He looked at me like the night of Samara's death. "When everything ends, I want you to know something. I never meant to hurt you the way I did in that sanatorium. I was so confused, hurt and betrayed. Everyone I knew had moved on with their life. Our friends were finishing college where I was just a guy that was killed by his crazy girlfriend."

I didn't know what to say.

I thought back to all the things we did together and the years in that sanatorium. I couldn't blame him for the voices and I also couldn't support his actions.

"I never knew who killed you really. Was it Emie or Keisha?" No matter how many times I said it wasn't me, he was hell-bent on telling me that it was me that killed him. But he had to have known the truth now.

"I...I was killed by your sister but it was Keisha's fault. Your mother told me in the middle of an argument. I didn't know you had a twin sister so I assumed it was you. And I knew of Roth before. That's why I started to avoid you, I needed solid proof that she was not the mother you knew her as."