Once Dead, Twice Shy (Madison Avery Trilogy #1)(9)
Author: Kim Harrison

Silent, Barnabas shifted to the edge of the sun and sent his gaze upward. A chill went through me. Everything had changed in an instant – because of Kairos.

"Who’s Kairos?" I asked, turning my attention back to Ron.

"My counterpart." Ron had his hands on his hips as he looked uneasily out from the shelter of the tree and into the hot parking lot. "Light reapers, dark reapers. Light timekeeper, dark timekeeper. You didn’t think I was the only one, did you? Everything has a balance, and Kairos is mine. Kairos watches the threads of time weave into possible futures and sends dark reapers to scythe people early. I spend more time trying to second-guess him than anything else."

He said the last word like it was a curse. My heart was pounding again, and I crossed my arms over my chest as if I could make it stop. Okay. I had swiped a timekeeper’s amulet. Crap, I had to get rid of this thing, but it wasn’t like I could borrow a reaper’s amulet and return this one to Kairos. Keeping it was my only option. I’d never sleep again. Good thing I didn’t need to.

"No wonder Seth hasn’t come back," I said, trying to work this through to a conclusion. "I bet he’s hiding from Kairos."

Frowning, Ron shifted deeper into the shadow to lean against the wall beside me. "A reaper wouldn’t be able to use Kairos’s amulet, just as a timekeeper can’t use a reaper’s," he said. "Nakita must be mistaken. Unless"  –  Ron’s eyebrows rose in a private thought as he turned sideways to look at me – "it wasn’t a reaper who killed you. Perhaps Kairos was doing a little extracurricular scything on his own."

Barnabas looked over his shoulder at that, and Ron waved him to be quiet. Again.

"What did Seth look like?" Ron asked, his voice deceptively mild.

Nervous, I levered myself up to sit on the wall, glancing at Barnabas, but he had returned his gaze to the sky. I drew my knees to my chin, not wanting to remember that night, but the memory came back with crystal clarity. "Dark complexion," I said. "Dark wavy hair. Nice accent." Good kisser, I added in my thoughts, cringing. Oh, God. I’ve kissed the guy who killed me.

Sexy stranger at the prom had turned into psychopath Seth, a dark reaper bent on killing me. Which he did, using a reaper blade after rolling his convertible down an embankment hadn’t done it. I’d woken up in the morgue that night to hear Barnabas arguing with another light reaper as to whose fault it was I was dead. They’d been there to apologize and keep the black wings off my soul until I got to my "reward." But everything changed when Seth showed up at the morgue as well. Seems he wanted to throw my soul in front of someone to "buy his way to a higher court," whatever that meant. But only Barnabas and I knew that last part. For some reason Barnabas had thought we shouldn’t say anything about it to Ron. And then I’d stolen Seth’s amulet, and the fact that I’d been able to do that at all and remain here was a mystery to everyone involved.

Ron rubbed his ear like he had a nervous tic. "Taller than you by about a hand?"

My stomach clenched. "Yeah," I mumbled, "that’s him."

Barnabas’s feet shifted in the grit as a long exhale escaped Ron. "I should be blessed by baboons!" Ron muttered, then started pacing within the confines of the shade. "That was Kairos," he said tightly. "He didn’t give you his true name. God, if you ever loved me, open my eyes for me when I’m being this stupid!"

"But he looked my age," I protested. Great, not only had I kissed the man who killed me, but he was older than the pyramids, too. Yuck! Now that I thought about it, he had been too good at both dancing and kissing to be seventeen.

"Kairos gained his position unusually early, long before his predecessor intended." Halting, Ron stared into the parking lot. "Hasn’t aged a day since acquiring the amulet now around your neck. Pretty prima donna. I bet he’s not happy about growing older again. I’d wager a timekeeper’s amulet is the only divine stone you could have claimed that wouldn’t blow your soul to dust."

"Because I’m dead?" I guessed, and Ron shook his head.

"Because you’re human. Just as timekeepers are."

"So it really isn’t my fault then that I couldn’t keep her alive," Barnabas interrupted. "I can’t best a timekeeper."

"No, you can’t," Ron said, giving him a look that said to shut up. "And if Madison has bonded with Kairos’s stone, the only way he can reclaim it is if she’s dead."

"But I am dead," I protested, hands clasped about my drawn-up knees.

Ron smiled faintly. "I mean, your soul destroyed. He’s got your body, I presume. Someone has it. And as long as you exist in some fashion, the amulet is tied to you. That you were able to claim it at all from him is a miracle." He glared at Barnabas when the reaper tried to interrupt. "You need to stay away from him," he said, turning back to me.

"Not a problem," I said, scanning the sky I could see. "Just tell me what cloud he lives on, and I’ll make a note of it."

Ron resumed pacing, his robes moving elegantly and his slight form staying in the tree’s shade. "He lives on earth, same as me," he said distantly, clearly too preoccupied with his thoughts to get the joke.

"Sir," Barnabas said, making me nervous when he turned his back on the sky. Shouldn’t someone be watching? "If Kairos hasn’t come after her by now, maybe he won’t."

"Kairos give up on his quest for immortality? No. I doubt that," he said. "I’m guessing he hasn’t come after Madison yet because until today, no one knew he’d lost his amulet. He was undoubtedly taking the time to make another one. The longer he spends on it, the better it will be – though he’ll never create one that matches the power of the one he lost. No, Nakita has probably told him Madison has it. He’ll be looking for her now. We will have to hope I changed your resonance fast enough."

"Timekeepers make the amulets?" I asked, surprised, and my attention fell on Ron’s own black amulet, almost lost in the folds of his robe. "Can’t you make me a new one and I can give Kairos his amulet back?"

Ron blinked at me as if startled by the thought. "I make them, yes, and give them to angels who are stirred to take action and choose to become something they’ve never been before. Not everyone is happy with the way things are, and this is one way of many to make a difference. But you’re dead, Madison. I can’t create a stone to keep the dead alive. Trying to use one I’ve given to a reaper will burn through your human mind. I say since Kairos killed you, you have the right to keep his. Of course, the seraphs may think differently."