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CHAPTER ONE

Ronin

The voice

A light

I waited for the end

Hinder not the soul’s intended path unto the light, lest shards of darkness shed upon thee

When their heart stopped, I was supposed to let the DNR, except EMTs saved lives We rarely pronounced someone dead in the field We didn’t deal with souls; we dealt with human bodies

I compressed chests, shocked hearts, and breathed air into lifeless lungs I did this knowing that less than half of CPR recipients regained a heartbeat, and only ten to twenty percent of those patients lived to be discharged from the hospital I did it because I made the choice to be a superhero in spite of the risk of suffering eternal death

The end ca lives An end to perpetual suffering

Only, no light greeted me

No voice

The fay—I shared with the soul I hindered The life I saved The ringing stopped when that person died But Lila didn’t die That ringing should have stopped when I died

The feathery pine tree branches fraray clouds I blinked as those clouds spit droplets of rain onto my face I wasn’t dead

“Lila …” I whispered, runningroaned while cli like a ten-pound bowling ball between my shoulders I took a few labored breaths of the damp air, thick with musk and pine And life

Yes I was alive

Glancing up, I scanned the narrow trail for roan, I stretched rab it and lumbered to my feet

“Lila …” I wiped my dirty hand on my shirt and tapped her name in my contacts

After several rings, it jumped to voicemail Then I tried Graham

On the second ring, he answered “Hey, buddy What’s up?”

“Graham, where’s Lila?”