Dead Girl Walking Read Online Free PDF

Violetta climbed off the horse. “Can you swim?”
    “No.”
    “One more thing to teach you. Stay here and watch the horse. She's our ride home.” Violetta left Leila and the horse on the beach while she swam out into the sea. Against the horizon, Leila could see a small fishing boat. Violetta climbed aboard and animatedly talked with the sailor.
    If only he knew it was his last few minutes. Would he have done anything different? Leila's skin tingled, and she lifted the hem of her dress. She reached up for the scroll at the top of her stockings. As she unraveled it, the scroll revealed her first reap. “Absolutely not.” She was not ready for this; she would never feel ready. She rolled the scroll up and shoved it back into her stocking. “It's your lucky day, Asher Smoot. I'm not taking your soul.”
    Violetta swam back to shore, gasping for air as she finally reached land. “That was quite a work out!” she panted, trying to catch her breath. Violetta turned around, watching the boat sink out on the sea. “Just in time.”
    “That was a brand new boat.” Adam stood beside Violetta, completely dry. “What happens now?”
    “You move on,” Violetta said.
    Lights dazzled and danced along the sand. Adam walked toward the vision.
    “Where did he go?” Leila asked.
    “Wherever souls that are done here go. It's time to go home.”
    “You don't know.” Leila realized she wouldn't get an answer and sighed. “And the body?” Leila glanced out at the ship that had sunk into the sea. There was no sign of it.
    “That's not for us to deal with. Whether someone finds Mr. Losenko today, tomorrow, or a hundred years from now, we did our part.”
    Leila scrunched her nose, disgusted. “Well, that certainly sucks. His family may never know what happened to him.”
    “If we got involved in every death, we'd never be able to live.”
    “Isn't that kind of what we're doing?” Leila asked. Violetta didn't answer her. Leila understood the message. They weren't the cleanup crew. They were only there to help the souls move on.
    “Have you been given an assignment yet?” Violetta asked.
    “No.” Leila wasn't taking anyone's soul. If she could let them live, why shouldn't they? Just because she'd been cheated out of her life didn't mean she had to do the same to others. What was the worst that could happen?
     
    After dinner and a bath, Leila kicked her feet up on the sofa. She needed a vacation from this new life. Even though she'd ignored her assignment, it was exhausting to watch Violetta reap a soul. She didn't like what she’d signed up for.
    “Cheer up.” Emblyn sat on the floor with a deck of cards. “Who wants to play?”
    Violetta sat in the chair across from the sofa. “Only if the stakes are high.”
    “Mara and I used to play cards all the time.” Leila missed her sister, a lot.
    “Tell us about Princess Mara.” Emblyn pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
    Leila's eyes lit up. “She's fourteen and still hates boys. She's never snuck out a day in her life, but I suspect one day she will. She loves fantasy stories with happy endings. I used to tell her bedtime stories on the nights I didn't sneak out. I miss her.”
    “It gets easier over time,” Violetta said. “I had a sister I was close to, Rebekah. I remember what it was like braiding each other's hair and borrowing one another's clothes.”
    “Do you ever see your sister?”
    Violetta laughed. “Of course not, she's been dead for decades. Poor thing stepped in front of a carriage without looking both ways. Tragic really.”
    Leila’s eyes widened. “I'm sorry. That's terrible.” She hoped nothing like that ever happened to her sister Mara.
    “It is,” Violetta said, “but I envy her some days.”
    Emblyn listened from the floor. “Why's that?”
    “She's dead. She doesn't have to deal with this.” Violetta gestured. “I know I should be appreciative and the first forty or fifty years I was, but now I'm