Free The Rift by Katharine Sadler Page B

looked at the man on the
couch. “Hey, Wraith, can you run the counter for a bit?”
    Wraith nodded and stepped up to the counter,
his body almost brushing against mine as he walked past me.
    “I’ve got a couple of things in the oven,”
Bruce, or whoever he was, said. “Just pull them out and put them on
cooling racks when the timer goes off.” Then he stepped out and
joined us. He led us to a table as far from the elderly couple as
he could possibly get and sat down. We followed suit, and I got a
good look at Angelica’s face for the first time. She was smiling so
wide I was sure her cheeks must ache and her eyes were lit by more
than the reflection of the bright sun outside. If that guy wasn’t
legit, she was going to be crushed.
    “Bruce,” Angelica started, but he laid his
big hand over hers.
    “Please, my name is Jeremiah now,” he said.
“I don’t want to risk anyone overhearing.”
    She nodded. “I like it. It suits you.”
    I was pretty sure she’d have said the same
thing if he’d said his name was Mud. Jeremiah looked at me. “Do you
think Angelica and I could have a few moments alone?”
    “Nope,” I said, not feeling the least bit
bad. “Not until you convince me you are who you say you are.”
    He leaned back in his seat, and looked me
over, a small smile drifting lazily up into being. A reaper with
curly hair and a wicked sneer drifted into focus behind him.
Abigail, the reaper who’d cursed his family and claimed to be in
love with Bruce, was still with him. She smiled, winked, and
vanished. “You and I went to dinner together because I wanted you
to know that Landon had been a good guy once,” Bruce said, unaware
of his ghost. “We kissed afterward, and it was one of the worst
kisses I ever had. We tried to be friends, but we never really
connected and, in the end, the only reason I tolerated you was
because I loved Angelica, and she loved you. In my opinion, you
placed Angelica in danger and it’s your fault I’m dead. I don’t
think you truly care about anybody but yourself.” His words hit me
like a punch to the gut, knocking the air from me in a whoosh. I
tried to keep my face and body from showing any signs of the hurt
he’d caused me, but I’m not sure I succeeded. He and I had never
been friends, but hearing him repeat the accusations I’d slung at
myself felt a bit like pulling a scab from a wound that hadn’t
quite healed.
    “Bruce!” Angelica said.
    Jeremiah turned and looked at Angelica and
his expression softened just a bit, the smile looking less like a
threat and more like happiness. “I’m sorry, sweet girl, but one
thing I learned from dying is that life’s too short to waste time
being nice to people who screw you over and fuck everything
up.”
    “But it’s not—”
    “It’s fine.” I pushed my chair back and
stood. “The man has a right to his opinion and he’s convinced me he
really is Bruce.” I walked away and took a seat at a table where I
could keep an eye on them without overhearing their conversation.
They held hands and leaned in close to one another, each of them
intent on the other. I let familiar guilt wash over me. I’d known
the reapers needed Bruce for their ceremony in Briarton, but I
hadn’t known they were going to kill him. The ceremony was supposed
to have ended the generations-long curse against Bruce’s family and
create a power well the reapers could have used to gain more
energy. I’d been in the room when he’d been killed, but I’d saved
Angelica instead of him. The what-ifs ate at me like a disease,
despite what Angelica had said in the car on the way over. If I had
acted more quickly. If I had gotten a promise from Varius not to
let Bruce get hurt. If I had kept my distance from Angelica in the
first place. If I’d known how it was all going to go down. I’d have
moved out of our place as soon as Landon’s ghost started harassing
me. I never would have introduced her to Bruce. I’d have stayed
far, far away