Kelly Gay - The Better Part of Darkness

“Soul bartering is illegal. Restore him to his body now.” I stood. Tremors weakened my limbs. I never thought I’d find the sight of Will Garrity eerie and repugnant. I never thought he’d go this far. The reality of what he’d done began to sink in and made my eyes sting.

Will pushed to his feet, unfolding himself slowly, testing out his new body, stretching his legs and arms, and wiggling his fingers. He tipped his neck both ways until it cracked and then rolled his shoulders. “Soul bartering is not illegal in Canada,” he said with a vacant look as he accessed Will’s recent memories; the only ones available to him.

“You’re not in Canada anymore. Will is a United States citizen. Give him back.”

“No.”

My fingers gripped the gun harder. Goddammit, Will! He’d sold his body and soul to a Revenant—a spirit entity that granted one’s greatest desire in exchange for a body to inhabit when it was that body’s time to die. Revenants were good at making deals with those whose lives would be cut short. Some said they could see a person’s death and, therefore, only made contracts with those who’d die at a young age.

I wanted to hurt this thing inside of my husband’s body, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Still in disbelief and my head spinning, I whispered, “Why?” How could he do this?

“Because he loved you,” Will’s voice echoed in the quiet. “I was going to give him the means to win your heart back, but … timing is everything, I guess. The guy sold his afterlife to live out his life with you. Too bad he kicked the bucket before that could happen.” He shrugged. “Not my problem, though.”

“And you knew,” I muttered, my legs giving out. I sank into the chair behind me, the gun hanging limp in my hand. “You knew he was going to die.” My stomach clenched hard against the queasiness burgeoning in my gut.

“Not like this. When I met him, the guy had a good ten years at least. He thought it was worth it. But then love makes people do desperate, stupid things. I’ve seen far worse, believe me.” Will lifted his arm and delicately sniffed the skin and then brushed his lips against the hairs on his arms. “I didn’t swindle him if that’s what you’re thinking. Look, your ex wasn’t an idiot. He knew when I agreed to contract with him that he’d die in the prime of his life. Living out whatever time he had left with you, with all the things he’d ever wanted, was worth it to him. If you’re going to go anyway, why not, right?”

I tried not to shout, but it didn’t work. “Why not?!” I should just shoot him now. “Why not is because you’re giving up any chance of an afterlife, that’s why not. His soul is stuck inside a body he no longer controls!” I wanted to kill Will for this! Anger was much easier than guilt. Realizing Will had given up his afterlife just to be with me and Em again was too much to swallow.

He ignored my outburst. “Took quite a beating from the jinn who were here earlier,” the Revenant said, delicately straightening Will’s bloodied shirt with his fingertips.

I went completely still. “The jinn.”

“Yeah. They gave me a message for you: ‘The boss says to tell you the second debt is paid.’”

Oh God. Tennin. He had taken payment for the debt. He had taken Will. I doubled over and grabbed my stomach, rage blinding my vision.

“Have to give him props,” the Revenant went on. “Your guy took a hell of a lot more than I expected. His heart was on its last few beats by the time I got here. Good thing, too, or he would’ve gone straight into the afterlife.”

Something I didn’t know. I raised my head. “If you’re not here to collect at their last breath then they go to the afterlife?”

“Soul and all. Contract null and void. We can’t inhabit a dead body without its soul. Just the way it is.” He sniffed. “If you wanna reanimate a corpse, go talk to a necromancer.”

I forced down the desperation rising in my throat. “Does that mean he’s still aware, alive?”

“Eh, sort of like in limbo.”

It was a tiny bit of hope, but I grabbed on to it for dear life. If there was a way to save Will and eject this creature, I’d find it. But right now, Emma was out there somewhere. And there were sirens in the distance. We needed to go before getting held up by the police and medics.

I stood, spurred into action, already halfway to the foyer. “C’mon. We need to find my daughter.”

“Not my problem.”

Oh, no he didn’t.

Fuck it. I swung around and shot him with my Nitro-gun.

The Revenant flew back against the wall, denting the drywall and sliding down in a heap. He was a supernatural; he’d heal himself just like he’d healed Will’s body from the fight. I walked over, knelt down, and tapped his cheek with the barrel of the gun. His eyes popped open. “I need to find my daughter, and you’re going to help me, got it?”

He rubbed the back of his head as he straightened. “You didn’t have to shoot me. Look, I’m a decent spirit. Did everything legal-like. No need to go all ballistic on me.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet. Get up. You take Will’s body, then you take his responsibilities.”

“Says who?”

“Says this.” I waved the gun. “And the little part of the soul-bartering contract where it says you must complete any unfinished business of the mortal’s life before going about your own.”

“You read that part?”

I walked to the front door. “Standard operating procedure. Let’s go.”

I slid into the driver’s seat of the Mustang as the Revenant fumbled with the passenger door handle. Grief swelled my chest. I slid the gear into reverse as Will got in, just catching the flash of blue and white as a patrol car turned down the street.

“What’s your name?” I asked, glancing in the rearview mirror as I drove off in the opposite direction. Better to separate this being as far from the real Will as I could. As it was, it was near impossible to look at him without wanting to weep.

“Rex.”

“Rex?”

He straightened Will’s shirt. “It’s short for something you could never pronounce.”

“Right. Did you or Will hear where they were taking Emma?” I knew he still held enough of Will’s last memories to answer for both of them.

“No, they didn’t say. Pretty much just beat the piss out of him while a female came in and took out your daughter.”

Swift rage flared up again, but this time I absorbed it, biting my cheek hard, and forced it into something I could handle: cold, calculating vengeance. This bitch, whoever she was, would pay for touching my kid. “Did you know her?”

“No. She was Abaddon, though.” He snorted. “No mistaking their cold, bitchy demeanor.”

The rhythmic sound of the engine became loud in the ensuing silence. I operated the Mustang on autopilot, not really seeing the cars passing by or the traffic lights, just driving with my fingers in a death grip on the steering wheel, and my heart shriveling beneath my ribs.

Rex chuckled softly, the sound so much like Will that I could almost pretend it was him sitting beside me and not this parasitic spirit.

“What?”

“That kid of yours is as tough as nails,” he said, staring out the window. “She bit the bitch and drew blood, said her mom was going to kick her ass.”

The thought of Emma having to fight made me sick inside and more fearful than I’d ever been in my life, but that she’d stood up for herself—I was proud of her. Cursing, not so much. Tears sprung to the surface. I didn’t know whether to be proud or horrified.

“They weren’t going to hurt her, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He lifted the shirt and smelled a spot that was free of blood. “I like this cologne.”