“I know. I didn’t mean—”
“You’re not listening to me.” He squeezed her hand tight, and Signa’s fear surged. It couldn’t have been true.
It couldn’t have. She’d killed Percy. She’d killed Magda. Her hands were lethal. Poisonous and deadly, because she was a reaper.
She was a reaper.
But one look into Death’s gray eyes, and her entire world shifted.
“You grew something.” There was a perilous calm to Death’s words as he bent to capture her stare. “You didn’t claim a life. You didn’t take anyone or anything away. You created something. There is only one person in this world with the powers to do such a thing.”
Signa would have given up her entire fortune to stop him from speaking. To hit the clock and still time forever, because although she understood the words that were to come and that some deep, secret part of her wanted to hear them, there was nothing to prepare her for the weight of what they meant as Death said, “Signa. You used Life’s powers.”
This time there was no denying it. She had seen the thorns and the vines sprout from beneath her own feet. Had watched as they’d climbed up the shadows and crept along her skin. Still, it seemed impossible. Because if she had Life’s powers… If she could give life…
All her life those around Signa had treated her like she was evil incarnate. Over the years she had grown to lean in to the oddities of who she was and what she could do—and she finally felt comfortable in her own skin.
And yet… For years Signa had internalized this hatred for herself. Though she thought she’d managed to put it behind her, it seemed that change did not come so easily. There was no switch she could simply press that would allow her to forget how much she had hated herself. The memories were as lashing as the sea, threatening to drown her in the self-loathing that consumed her.
All this time, her life never had to be this way.
“Did you know?” Death’s voice was a scythe that cleaved through her chest. “Did you know that this was why my brother came here?”
She held firmly to his hand, for in the back of her mind a voice warned her not to let go. That if she did, everything would be different. “I was afraid to believe it could be true.”
Death’s grip tensed. “But it is true, Signa. All this time I have been nothing but a fool to believe that you and I were made for each other. That if Fate had his counterpart, then surely I might have one as well. I thought it was a sign that I could touch you without killing you, but now I know why—”
“This is precisely why I was afraid!” Signa’s mind was a flurry of thoughts that had turned her words sharp. “Don’t you dare get philosophical on me. Don’t you dare think for even a moment that this changes anything between us. You told me before that you were the one to reap Life’s soul. How did you do it?”
Death stilled. “The same way I always do.”
“Through touching her, right?” Signa was so relieved when Death nodded, she had to choke back a laugh. “Then don’t you see? I don’t know what I am, but I cannot be her. I don’t die when you touch me, Death. I am not her.”
“But you have her powers,” he said. “Which means that your options are limitless, Little Bird. You no longer need to be consumed so thoroughly by all that’s dead or dying.”
“You don’t get to make that decision for me.” She would wage war on this hill if doing so would make him come to his senses. “You don’t get to tell me what I should do, and you don’t get to pull away from me. Not now.”
He seemed to recognize the intensity of the emotion pouring through her before she did, for his lips brushed the back of her hand as he drew her close. “I would never dream of it. You mean more to me than you will ever understand, and I will not willingly leave. But if we’re going to be together, then I want it to be by choice. Don’t shut out this other side of you simply because you’re afraid of how I might feel. If you’re who I think you are… you deserve to explore that. You deserve to know what it means.”
Perhaps, though there were no words for how deeply the idea unsettled her. These powers were no soft thing. They were wildfire upon her skin and felt as if they would burn her whole if she allowed them to.
“Whatever you decide, I will be here,” Death promised. “Until the moment you tell me to leave, I will be by your side.”
Signa leaned her head against his chest, trying to fill the ache in her heart. “What of Fate? If it’s true that I may be who he’s looking for, then where does he fit into our picture?”