From his superhero pose, Ever drew his legs upright, three feet off the ground. He changed back into human form, letting gravity pull him down as he literally hit the ground running. It was a particularly busy night at St Vincent’s Hospital, with three ambulances idling just outside the Emergency Department. Was Zoe in one of these? Hovering in the entrance, the automatic doors nearly closed on him before he stepped inside.

  “Excuse me,” Ever said to a nurse staring at a monitor behind a thick, plastic screen, “I’m looking for–”

  “You’ve cut in line.”

  “Sorry?”

  “There’s a queue,” he replied, without even looking at him.

  Ever turned around. Indeed, there were a number of people sitting in chairs against a partition, expressions ranging from stony-faced to tired to scared. The one commonality was that all of them didn’t want to be there.

  He started involuntarily opening and closing his hands into fists, pacing the cramped space in the waiting room like a caged animal.

  Ever.

  He stopped pacing. *Mentor.*

  If it’s any consolation, Zoe hasn’t appeared on my list of dead people.

  Ever’s stomach did a somersault and he clutched it. *Thanks.*

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Honestly, you should just go back into reaper mode and explore every single room yourself. That will be a lot quicker.

  *You’re right.*

  Ever turned on his heel and strode back outside. Night settled quickly, dark and heavy. The perfect cover for him to revert back into reaper form. He swept back into the waiting room, floating through the triage wards first. Plenty of grim-faced nurses, too few doctors looking after patients young and old. No Zoe.

  He floated up through the floor. This level looked to be for patients staying overnight. There were individual rooms, most of them taken. He moved through them one by one, spending just enough time to ascertain that they weren’t his girlfriend before moving on. There actually were a couple of ghosts here, wandering the halls. While they didn’t see Ever, he did make a mental note to come back and see if they were ready to move on. Still no Zoe.

  Ever floated up to the next floor and found himself in a room straight away. The lights were dimmed, probably to let the patient–

  It was Zoe.

  Ever switched into human mode. In a flash, he was by her side, clasping her hand in both of his. So cold.

  “Zoe.” His voice trembled, like raindrops on a leaf. He gently swept her hair out from her closed eyes, up and to the left.

  *Zoe.* He probed her mind. It was useless of course. Even if she could telepathically communicate with him, she was deeply asleep.

  No matter. He had found her. That’s all that mattered for now. He rested his cheek on her hand, facing the foot of the bed – and started.

  ^About time you came.^ The words came through as a low growl.

  “Nika,” Ever said. “What happened to Zoe?”

  ^All I know is that all the commotion woke me up from my cat nap.^ Nika stood up and stretched. He glanced in irritation at the door as the lights flickered on. ^And it looks like there’s about to be even more.^