Imperial ((Imperial) Web of Hearts and Souls) Read Online Free PDF Page A

another chance. Souls strive to become more within their next dance with life. They’d inspired me. They’d forced me into daydreaming about what I could have done differently with my past reign. How I could have had my line lead by example. That I should have done that the moment my Creator was challenged. I should have done that before he vanished, never to be seen again.
    “Is this my punishment?” I asked the Reaper. “I asked for no stay, yet I am here. And now I shall fall further into the vacuum of death. Has my Creator charged you with my watch?”
    His gaze moved to The Fall. “You, of all souls, by now should know the procession of death.”
    “Are you telling me that I am not forgotten?”
    He only offered a subtle smile.
    If I had asked for a stay and someone remembered me in my past life, that would explain why I was still here, in this form. I could only assume that it was Vade—that his energy was powerful enough that it would override any stay I could have asked for. Vade had imprisoned me in his memories.
    “Fantastic. So, since my ex is an immortal, I’m confined. I swear that boy should have come with a warning label.”
    That internal argument began again, part of me cheering that I was still in Vade’s memories, the other furious that he’d shelved me. I wondered if in his all-knowing mind Vade realized it would come to this; a quarrel between two adoreds that would kill millions, maybe billions, if his line had grown.
    “The only prison a soul can reside in is the one it creates itself,” the Reaper eloquently responded.
    “I did not create this Veil. And you know I have tried more than once to leave here. We cannot move past the forest. A wall of energy barricades us within your immediate reign, yet any other soul that you grant a stay is free to move through all of the Veil, to watch over their adored.”
    He let silence take over the night, as he often did. You would never find a subtle argument with the Reaper. I never even heard him break the level tone he always uses.
    “Pray tell. What adored would you seek out?” he finally said.
    Well, if that wasn’t a stake through the soul, I didn’t know what one was. My line forgot me—that was my last act as a living sovereign. My mother—never. I still had rage for that woman. Vade—not. He did nothing to appease after our last fight. My Creator had vanished long ago. The Reaper was right. Everything I had was right here. Mazing and the Reaper himself.
    “I seek change, Reaper. Each of our kingdoms should be free to pass through The Fall without question. The greed of my fellow sovereigns has not only stolen that right from my kind, but from all of humanity. There are lessons that are not only escaping us, but breeding ignorance.”
    Mazing manifested at my side as the aroma of mint wafted through the air. Before I could turn or call forth a battle plan, the Reaper reached for my arm, keeping me from vanishing from his sight.
    “Do you seek a momentary reprieve from my watch?” The Reaper stated, as if he had not sensed Vade’s line approaching once again.
    I glanced to Mazing’s wide, waiting gaze, then to him.
    “Is that offer on the table?”
    He smiled humbly. “You are granted the first and only reprieve that I have ever given to your kind.”
    I swallowed nervously, knowing there was a lesson or test here, one of the two. The time that I needed to guard this Fall in earnest was now. In the past, the Escorts I stopped would have ultimately failed. The Fall itself would have disbursed them, simply because their energy was not as powerful as Vade’s line.
    The Reaper was giving me a chance to run like a coward or stay and meet my ultimate demise. Either way, I was doomed. If I ran, I would still find an end, but it would have been like my first death, the result of others’ actions—an effect of their ignorance. If I stayed, I would have a front row seat to the end of time and die fighting. I would be the cause that