Unchosen

by Vail, Michele

  Unfortunately, Rath hadn’t made any more gestures of affection, and honestly, I could’ve used a hug or three. Maybe even a shoulder rub.

  Study. Train. Eat. Study. Train. Repeat twice a day. Sleep. Do it all again.

  Exciting life, right? Being a reaper is so super awesome. (Hah!)

  Sigh.

  AFTR MY LAST afternoon class, I went to my dorm room, intent on a having a nap before meeting Rath for an evening session of “kick-Molly’s-butt.” I tossed my bag onto the nearest chair and then fell face-first onto my bed.

  I rolled over and stared at the ceiling, giving my worried thoughts full reign. It was frustrating to have all these problems and no solutions. FYI, it hadn’t escaped my attention that Anubis had been quiet for a while now.

  I really needed a convo with god-dad.

  “Are you there, Anubis?” I whispered. “It’s me, Molly.”

  Silence was my answer. Well, he was a god after all. Maybe he was just busy with Underworld stuff. I let a few more moments pass, and then I tried again.

  “Hey … uh, Dad?” Wow. I felt kinda weird calling Anubis “Dad.” That privilege had been Al Bartolucci’s for my last sixteen years. Suddenly, I missed my father, my sister, and my grandmother. There were times I felt really alone. Back before this whole Kebechet thing, I wanted to be alone because my family was chaotic and always around. Now, I felt homesick.

  Surprise! Anubis didn’t answer. I wasn’t going to bother with Anput, either, because she’d been ignoring me, too.

  The one thing I could say about my bio-dad is that he’d never let me down. If I needed him, he was always there. And even though I wasn’t his “real” daughter, it hadn’t mattered. In fact, I could call him right now and tell him I wanted to go home, and he would come get me. I thought about that for a while, but I knew it was the wrong thing to do. Maybe I couldn’t choose my fate, but I could choose how I acted about my fate.

  I wasn’t giving up.

  I crawled to my pillow, lay down, and closed my eyes. After a while, I started to drift into sleep.

  My cell phone rang.

  My eyes popped open. I grabbed the phone and looked at the display.

  Ally was calling me?

  I punched the ANSWER button. “What’s up, sis?”

  “Molly,” whispered Ally. “You need to come home.”

  For a moment, I thought I was dreaming. After all, I had just had thoughts about bailing from Nekyia.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “It’s about Mom. Just … please, Molly. Meet me at the Zomporium. Like, right before closing, okay?”

  I don’t know how my little sister expected me to get to Las Vegas in three hours. It wasn’t like I had a driver’s license, much less a car. Or a way to make an eight-hour drive fit into ninety minutes. Of course, I did have a friend with a private airplane, but given my current distance from my Nekyia friends, I didn’t feel right asking for any favors. Since Henry could get into trouble for helping me break the rules (like leaving campus without authorization), I didn’t want to ask him for help, either. He’d already put himself on the line for me too many times. I felt protective of him.

  Ally seemed really freaked out, and that freaked me out. Ally was rarely shook up by anything. In fact, she was the most emotionally steady person I’d ever met. (Except, of course, when it came to zombies. She was rabid about saving zombies.)

  “Molly?”

  “Yeah. I’m here. Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?”

  “I need to show you.”

  “How am I supposed to get to Vegas?”

  “You’re half god. Zap yourself here, or something.”

  I heard the dial tone. Well, that was typical Ally. Did she really expect me to drop everything, skip out of school, and pop down there?

  Of course she did.

  There was only one person I could think of who might help me, and actually have a way to get me to Vegas ASAP.

  Rath.

  He didn’t exactly carry around a cell phone, but I had Henry. Being a ghoul gave him a line into the other side. And he’d been able to get hold of Rath before, too.

  “Henry!”

  My friend appeared next to the bed. “Yes, miss?”

  “Could you please find Rath for me? I really need to talk to him.”

  “Of course, Miss.” He disappeared.

  I barely had time to blink before Henry returned holding Rath by the shoulders. He let go of the reaper, and Rath stumbled forward. “Will there be anything else?”

  I choked back laughter. Rath’s expression was both incredulous and pissed-off. A giggle escaped, and he glared at me.

  “You’re awesome, Henry. Thanks.”

  Henry acknowledged my praise with a slight nod, and then popped out of my room.

  “Why the hell did you send your ghoul after me?”

  “How else am I supposed to get hold of you?”

  “Most people call.”

  “You have a cell phone?”

  “Reapers don’t need phones, Molly. You have a scythe and a familiar.”

  Oh, remembered now that he’d said my raven had gotten him for the ol’ zombie battle.

  “If you’re trying to reach another reaper,” continued Rath, “your scythe is like a cell tower. It’ll reach me.”

  I’d never seen Rath’s token, or knew where he kept his scythe. Tokens were supposed to be kept secret, and a reaper never revealed the hiding place of his scythe. I’m not sure why, but it probably had to with accumulation of power, Anubis, reaper wars, or some archaic rule I didn’t know about.

  “Sorry. I’ll call you by scythe next time. I didn’t know that was an option.”

  Rath’s expression softened. “I keep forgetting that you’re still learning everything. Plus, you’re alive, so you’re not used to the stuff we dead people can do.”

  “Well, I forget that you’re dead.”

  “To you, Molly, I’m not.” He crossed his arms, and lifted an eyebrow. “What was so urgent?”

  I slid my legs off the bed and sat up. “I need to get to Vegas. Ally called. She’s really upset, and said she had to show me something.” I heaved out a nervous breath. “Something to do with my mom.”

  “Conventional travel is out, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  Rath held out his hand. “It just so happens we can take a shortcut. C’mon, brown eyes. I’ll show you have to travel reaper-style.”

  I took his hand, and immediately the color of the earthly plane bled away until only gray remained. My entire body felt chilled to the core. Eventually my room faded altogether and I found myself in a gray landscape known as the Shallows. This was the in-between of existence, the place reapers used to as a doorway to the hereafter.

  The soil beneath my feet was like ash, soft and powdery. Around us were craggy rocks, and above us there was no sky, just an endless black. Fog drifted like ghosts throughout the place. The silence was as thick and soft as cotton.

  I shivered. “I don’t remember it being so cold.”

  “I don’t feel anything.” He put his arm around me and brought me in close. “When you’re dead, you don’t worry about the temperature.”

  “Reapers get all the perks.”

  He chuckled. “That’s one way to look at it.”

  “How do we get to Vegas?” I asked.

  “We think our way there.” He let go of me, and gestured at the Shallows. “Reapers don’t have bodies, Molly. I can take human form, but I’m still dead. Usually, only souls and reapers can enter the Shallows. You’re the exception.”

  “What about gods?”

  “I guess so, but they don’t need to use the Shallows like we do. The gods are made of different … um, stuff. It’s one of the reasons why they protect human souls. You think the heavens are just a reward for good acts on Earth? Or the bowels of the Underworld are meant only for punishing the wicked?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t thought about it much.
”

  “Where do you think gods get the power they need to exist?”

  I frowned. “Wait a minute. You mean, human souls are like batteries?”

  “That’s a simplified explanation,” offered Rath. “Everything is connected. The gods need souls, and souls need the gods.”

  “I get the connected part,” I said. “But I’m not sure how the soul thing actually works. Especially since it has five parts.”

  Rath reached out and tapped my nose. “That’s a lesson for another time, brown eyes.”

  “Good,” I said. “Because my brain was starting to cramp.”

  “You’re smarter than you think.” Rath held out his hand, and I took it once again.

  “Now what?”

  “Now we go to Las Vegas. Where to? Your house or the Zomporium?”

  “Ally said to meet her at the Zomporium.”

  “You got it.” Rath pulled me closer. “Oh, and one more thing.”

  He brought me fully into his embrace, dipped his head down, and kissed me. At first, it was a gentle exploration of lips. That was enough to get my heart thumping. Then he split the seam of my mouth with his tongue.

  My stomach squeezed, and I latched onto his shoulders, and followed his lead. I wasn’t an experienced kisser, but Rath didn’t seem to mind.

  After a long moment of our mouths meeting and parting and going back for more, Rath finally pulled back—just a little.

  I blinked up at him, feeling dazed. Actually, I was felt as though I were floating, just like the fog drifting around us. “Wow.”

  One corner of his mouth curled upward. “I want you to know how I feel about you, Molly.”

  “I like you, too.” It seemed like such an inadequate thing to say, but Rath broke into a full smile.

  “I’m glad we got that cleared up.”

  “Ditto.”

  Rath kept a tight grip on my hand. “We need to think about the Zomporium. As we think about it, it will appear. Then we step into the space, and leave the Shallows.”

  It sounded fairly easy. But I got the feeling that only an experienced reaper traveled this quickly through the Shallows. I wondered how much more knowledge waited for me after I was dead. Okay, that was a creepy thought. But I knew for a fact death is not the end. Souls lived on, and according to Rath, they were energy. And I think that if human souls fueled the gods, then they also fueled everything else. In a way, the soul is like a star. Death was not really death. It was just a transformation.

  “Are you ready, Molly?”

  I nodded. I closed my eyes and thought about Big Al’s Zomporium. I wasn’t exactly sure where Ally wanted to meet me. But I assumed she didn’t expect me to walk through the front door. So, I envisioned Dem’s space—where he made the zombies. As I did so, I explained the details to Rath so his thoughts would give power to mine.

  “Molly, you don’t have to close your eyes.”

  I opened my eyes, and looked at him. “Huh?”

  He laughed. “You need to be able to see your destination. See?” He pointed in front of us, and there was the sahnetjar. “Let’s go.”

  Rath stepped forward, into the image, and pulled me with him. As we stepped into the zombie-making room, the gray dissipated the color brightened. The familiar smells of the sahnetjar reminded me of how homesick I really felt. Then another scent caught my attention.”

  “Is that smoke?” I asked. I ran toward the door that led to the little waiting room. From there, we could go down the hallway to my dad’s office. Then go to the reception area to nab Ally and Nona. Worry sickened me. Were they okay?

  Rath grabbed my arm and yanked me back. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to run away from fire!”

  Smoke billowed from underneath the door I had just been about to touch. All the same, I wouldn’t let Rath drag me away.

  “My family’s in there,” I cried. “We have to help them!”

  “We have to go. Now. You can still be killed, Molly. You’re not invincible.” He grabbed me in a bear hug, and then flipped me over his shoulder, holding me tight as he headed in the opposite direction.

  “No!” I screamed. “No!”

  “It’s easy to forget that reapers were once human and had families, connections to those who still lived on the Earthly plane. In time, all whom reapers knew and loved pass on to the other side, and so, too, did the sorrows and joys. Reapers are compassionate by nature, but they soon forget what it means to be human.”

  ~Secret History of Reapers, Author Unknown

  “Zombies deserve kindness. Dead humans deserve has much respect as alive humans.”

  ~Citizens for Zombie Rights

  Chapter 8

  RATH BARRELED OUT of the building. I clung to his waist, bouncing up and down, and I couldn’t stop screaming.

  My family was in the fire.

  We couldn’t just leave them in the smoke and flames to die!

  “We have to go back!” I shouted.

  “You stay here.” Rath put me down and held me by the arm. “I will go back and check to see who’s there. I’m already dead.”

  His calm tone dampened my panic. I nodded slowly. Tears dripped from my eyes as I thought about the fate of my family. What had happened? How had the Zomporium caught on fire? Were they in there?

  Rath touch the side of my face. “Stay here. Please. I’ll look for your family.”

  “Then go already!” He turned, but I grabbed his hand and then I kissed the top of his knuckles. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll do anything for you, brown eyes.” Rath disappeared instantly.

  A flicker of movement at the top of the building caught my eye. Flames licked the rooftop. I was absolutely sick about our family business being destroyed. I backed up because I could feel the heat of the fire, and I knew it was beyond awful. As I dazedly watched the flames erupt from the top of the building, I frowned. I swear the fire was outlined in black. Glittery black … like reaper magic.

  Impossible.

  “Molly, girl. Whatcha you doin’ here?”

  Demitrius’s voice startled me. I turned, and found him standing behind me. He looked just as surprised as I felt. Dem was as black as coffee grounds and still had a faint Jamaican accent. He’d been our ka heka since Mom left more than six years before. He had trained Ally and I to make zombies, and we considered him part of our family.

  He held out his arms, and I collapsed into them, sobbing. Finally, I got a grip, and pulled away.

  “Ally called me. I … what happened, Dem?” Then I realized that Dem standing outside of the Zomporium probably meant my family was out, too. Relief warred with fear. “Is everyone else safe, too?”

  His gaze flickered from me to the fire, and then back to me again. “Everyone,” he confirmed. “’Cept your father. We can’t find ’im.”

  “Daddy?” I turned toward the building, and gazed in horror at the carnage the fire now wrought.

  “Last anyone saw, him was in de office.”

  My father was in the building. If Rath didn’t find him, Daddy would die. I couldn’t bear the thought. Even now, a reaper could be in the office with my father, waiting for him to take his last breath so his soul could be escorted into the afterlife.

  Tears poured from my eyes, then a new, more insidious thought wormed inside my brain. What if Rath was there to reap him?

  The breath left me in a rush, but I couldn’t—wouldn’t—believe that of Rath. He hadn’t known there was a fire, or he wouldn’t have suggested we step right into it. I had to believe, too, that he would never reap one of my family members without telling me.

  I trusted Rath. If he could save my father, he would. I believed that whole-heartedly.

  The moments passed excruciatingly slow. Had it been a minute? Five minutes? I glanced at Dem, but his gaze was on the fire, no doubt noticing how odd it looked. If anyone would know necromancy at work, he would.

  “Someone did this,” I said.

  He nodded. “Yes, chil’. Someone did.”
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  I couldn’t stand to wait another second. I did the only thing I could think of to do: I walked away from Dem, closed my eyes, and prayed to Anubis.

  If you’re there, Anubis, please, please, please help my dad. He doesn’t deserve to die. And you owe him BIG for taking care of me. I need you, Anubis. Hear me! Please!

  My throat knotted as more tears poured from my eyes. My heart turned over in my chest. Betrayal pierced me like a knife plunged into my gut. Why had Anubis abandoned me? Why wasn’t he listening?

  “Molly!”

  The urgency in Dem’s voice dried up my tears. I whirled around and watched as Rath burst through the back door, carrying my father in his arms.

  “Daddy!” I ran to them, and saw that while my father had soot on his face and blackened clothes, he was breathing.

  “Thank you, Rath. Thank you so much.”

  “He’s alive,” he said. “But he needs help.”

  “I’ll take ’im.” Dem, showing way more strength than his thin body should have, unburdened Rath of my father. “Ambulances are in the front, tendin’ to everyone sufferin’ from smoke inhalation. You go back to school. They be callin’ you soon enough. Then you come home, Molly.”

  “All right, Dem.” I agreed, even though I didn’t want to go. I leaned down and kissed my father’s brow. “I love you, Daddy,” I whispered.

  Dem turned and strode away.

  Rath enclosed me in his arms. I barely noticed the trip into the Shallows, letting Rath hold me tight while he took us back to my dorm room. Terror pulsed through me. I wanted nothing more than to return to Las Vegas and be with my family.

  “Try to rest,” said Rath. He kissed me softly. “I’ll watch over your dad until you get there.”

  “Thanks,” I said. My eyes felt puffy and I knew I probably resembled a raccoon. “How long do you think it’ll be before someone notifies my grandparents?”

  “Soon,” he said. He grasped my chin, and I looked in his sympathetic gaze. “You’re not alone, brown eyes. I’ve got your back.”

  “And I’ve got yours.” I kissed him again. “See you.”

  “Stay strong.” He disappeared, and I found some comfort in the idea he would watch over my bio-dad. Fear and anger and worry crashed through me—a riot of emotions I couldn’t contain. Where the hell was Anubis?