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Chapters (86)
  1. Title Page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. Love
  4. Before
  5. One
  6. ONE
  7. Two
  8. TWO
  9. Three
  10. THREE
  11. Four
  12. FOUR
  13. Five
  14. FIVE
  15. Six
  16. SIX
  17. Seven
  18. SEVEN
  19. Eight
  20. EIGHT
  21. Nine
  22. NINE
  23. Ten
  24. TEN
  25. Eleven
  26. ELEVEN
  27. After
  28. One
  29. ONE
  30. Two
  31. TWO
  32. Three
  33. THREE
  34. Four
  35. FOUR
  36. Five
  37. FIVE
  38. Six
  39. SIX
  40. Seven
  41. SEVEN
  42. Eight
  43. EIGHT
  44. Nine
  45. NINE
  46. Ten
  47. TEN
  48. Eleven
  49. ELEVEN
  50. Twelve
  51. TWELVE
  52. Thirteen
  53. THIRTEEN
  54. Fourteen
  55. FOURTEEN
  56. Fifteen
  57. FIFTEEN
  58. Sixteen
  59. SIXTEEN
  60. Seventeen
  61. SEVENTEEN
  62. Eighteen
  63. EIGHTEEN
  64. Nineteen
  65. NINETEEN
  66. Twenty
  67. TWENTY
  68. Twenty-One
  69. TWENTY-ONE
  70. Twenty-Two
  71. TWENTY-TWO
  72. Twenty-Three
  73. TWENTY-THREE
  74. Twenty-Four
  75. TWENTY-FOUR
  76. Twenty-Five
  77. TWENTY-FIVE
  78. Twenty-Six
  79. TWENTY-SIX
  80. Twenty-Seven
  81. TWENTY-SEVEN
  82. Twenty-Eight
  83. TWENTY-EIGHT
  84. Eleven Months Later
  85. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  86. Copyright

‘Yes.’ She makes no effort to soften the blow. The word drops, hard as a stone, to the floor at my feet. So hard I’m sure I see dust puff up from between the floorboards. ‘How else are they able to see you if they’re not going to die, Miss Persaud?’

I knew that, so I don’t know why I let myself hope that Poppy and I were special.

That we’d discovered some secret door between her world and mine.

I finally let myself say it then, if only to myself: Poppy’s going to die.

The shock of it is enough to send me flying out of the bookshop and it’s all I can do not to give in to it, not to run out and take Poppy’s hand, tell her to come with me and run, as fast and as far away as possible.

‘Anything else, Miss Persaud?’ Deborah asks, and when I look at her again, her eyebrows are raised.

‘Do you only see grim reapers right before you die?’

‘No.’ She puts her glasses back on, clearly hoping that’s the end of the conversation, but when she raises her chin to find me looking at her hopefully, she shakes her head.

If it was anyone other than Deborah, I’d think that I’d worn her down.

‘When someone is going to die, Ash, there is a window of time between when the decision is made and when we’re told to reap them.’ She raises her finger, no doubt anticipating that I’m about to ask her who makes that decision and obviously has no intention of telling me. ‘We only know when that window is closing.’

‘How long is it open for?’

I think of Esen’s cousin’s friend then, how he saw her on the Pier.

She said that he died a couple of days later.

Is that all Poppy has?

A couple of days?

The walls inch closer as I wait for Deborah to respond, the books so close that I’m scared to move in case I elbow them off the shelves, and the ceiling so low I’m sure it’s touching the top of my head.

Deborah just shrugs, though. ‘We don’t know. It could be days. It could be a few hours.’

Hours?

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. I don’t scream or cry or tell her that it isn’t fair.

I just stare at her as somewhere a clock starts ticking.

Tick-tock.

Tick-tock.

I need to get back to Poppy.

‘As I said,’ Deborah goes on, blissfully unaware. ‘We only know when that window is closing. Anything that happens before that is not our concern. That’s why it’s vital that you don’t see anyone you used to know, Ash, because if they were to see you while that window is open.’ She holds out her palms and shrugs. ‘Well.’

‘Well what?’