Reaper Girl Chronicles

Leliel is a grim reaper who made a mistake. She tried to reap the soul of a man who wasn't dead, and now she has to fight the Underworld to get it back...and somehow resist falling in love with him at the same time. Originally appeared in Under Her Protection: Stories of Women to the Rescue.

Former Grim Reaper Leliel and her new husband Rick have settled into a routine of normalcy after their life-changing trip to the Underworld. They can finally relax and be married and deal with mundane problems, like money and learning to use all the modern-day technologies that are new to Leliel. But they're up for the challenge.Until Leliel starts having frightening visions of people on fire. The fires appear to be suicides-young adults-but something isn't right. She senses that they were forced to act against their will. This isn't their time to die. Even though she's no longer a Reaper, she needs to fix it. Somehow.When she and Rick investigate, they encounter resistance from not only the police but also the families and friends of the dead. Complicating factors are the Tarot cards left at the scenes, the mysterious happenings at the college that all of the dead turn out to have attended, and the disturbing new abilities that Rick is developing.And then Leliel's own Tarot deck turns up the Death card--twice--and she realizes that she's gotten the attention of something evil...something she must face without Rick by her side.Meanwhile, the deaths are mounting...