8. Raven
The wind circled and slammed to the ground, racing along the bridge, and rushing past me and my team like a wild carnival ride.
Chace slipped and stumbled backward. Hitting the ground on his backside, he cursed under his breath.
His attention remained glued to the creature flapping its wings in the sky, his mouth tight and eyebrows slammed down. A muscle along his jaw pulsed, and something unreadable flashed behind his eyes. There and gone in the blink of an eye.
The scene screamed extraordinary, but something about Chace’s reaction seemed…more.
My hand shot forward in offering, and before I could rethink to whom I’d extended my help, Chace accepted.
One slight tug…and despite the thrashing of the wind around us…
he stood back on his feet, yet he didn’t release his grip.
His callused skin warmed my palm, the sensation awakening nerve endings I’d never paid much attention to before.
“You okay?” My voice sounded meek, as if I’d been afraid to speak the words.
But I wasn’t afraid…was I? More like surprised. By the citizen-turned-flying-monster and Chace’s reaction.
His gaze snapped to me, and our eyes locked. “Yes. Thank you. It’s just…”
His attention swung back to the creature flying up and away.
He shook his head, leaving his sentence unfinished.
For reasons I couldn’t pinpoint, I sensed his reaction came from something other than the transformation we’d witnessed. Only…what else could there be?
My heart hammered with the power of a banshee’s wail. My concerns and fears no doubt leaked through every pore of my body. We’d yet to find a way into the citadel, and Chace, he already…
I’d never seen that side of him before. What wasn’t he sharing?
The question hung on the tip of my tongue, but the Gunn-Badden family feud held my voice.
He likely wouldn’t divulge the truth anyway.
Which, in my opinion, signaled a not-so-great start to our partnership/reaper task team.
Once again, my father’s voice telling me not to trust Chace sounded in my head.
As if I ever would.
I yanked my hand from his hold.
Chace didn’t acknowledge my extraction―his eyes darted back and forth between the sky and the slight shimmer of the magical barrier―but when I backstepped toward the outer path, he did the same.
Together, we withdrew from both the stench and the magic, our retreat aided by the force of the wind.
As if it too worked to keep visitors from the cursed place.
If the wall of energy was responsible for creating the flying monsters outside of the citadel, then no way in reaping hell would I cross the bridge and take a chance at becoming such a thing.
I didn’t need to ask Chace to know he felt the same way.
His gaze hardly unstuck from the creature for more than a flash of a second since it had mutated into existence.
This metamorphosis curtain—or whatever it was called—was probably why so few, if any, reapers assigned to collect from this place had returned. We stood before a reaper’s hell, and the Killian, the reaper for reapers, likely waited nearby, ready to collect the unsuspecting.
I had assumed issues and obstacles were a given, but nothing on this level of insanity.
A collection of flapping creatures circled high in the sky above the citadel, having somehow found their way through the magical barrier. Were there holes high above? Had any of the creatures once been a reaper?
The newly formed monster flew away into the night, on the outside of the barrier, and the wind ceased. The air once more settled, but the situation felt no less treacherous.
I called to Mr. Aldine, “You can’t possibly expect us to somehow walk through that.”
With his mouth covered against the stench of rotten eggs, an apparent byproduct of the transformative magic, he studied the solid wall of creature-making energy. “We’re not making any rash decisions. We need time to evaluate our options—find a plausible passage.”
I choked back a laugh, one born more out of madness than humor.
Chace grabbed my shoulder, yanked me close, and dipped his mouth to my ear. “I know we haven’t had the most trustworthy relationship, but trust me now when I say that Mr. Aldine isn’t known for making the wisest of choices on the job.”
I stared into Chace’s eyes, fully aware I must have had a crazed expression plastered on my face. “Why? What do you know?”
He shook his head. “Just that he’s lucky not to be working the plant life division or the equivalent of a desk job at this point in his career.”
Chace took a few more steps back the way we’d come, toward the bridge entrance, and I followed.
The plant life division wasn’t even a real reaper position. Those types of jobs were generally handled by low-level guides…if any guide at all.
Or, in some cases―rare ones―reapers stepped down into such positions if their minds became too addled with age. The “job” merely gave them something to do, allowed them to feel necessary, rather than call it what it truly was…a reaper being put to pasture. Was Mr. Aldine’s mind on the decline?
I hadn’t noticed any such signs.
Still, if Chace spoke true, then the assignment of Mr. Aldine to this task waved a larger red flag than I’d originally thought. A task with Mr. Aldine and two rookie reapers was designed to fail.
“We’ll figure something out,” Mr. Aldine called over his shoulder, as if he sensed our thoughts and meant to quiet any concerns.
He returned his hyper-focused attention to the impassable wall.
I folded my arms across my chest and stared at the back of Mr. Aldine’s head. I required far more than words from an old reaper to quell the anxiety churning in my gut.
The bridge, standing on the bridge, everything about our current situation, left an unwelcome weight upon my shoulders. And thanks to the heavily charged air, my arm hair stood on end. So…yeah…I didn’t want any part of whatever this was.
My feet moved as if on autopilot, taking me farther away from the dangerous energy barrier. I walked backward, holding my attention on Mr. Aldine, the creature trap, and the guard positioned against the citadel’s outer wall.
Could I trust anyone at this point?
Probably not.
Reaping gods. That thought alone left me feeling unbearably isolated.
But with nothing to contribute, waiting and watching the elder reaper contemplate our situation stood as my only option.
Mr. Aldine had gone quiet, and his body hardly moved, as Chace also made his way to the path’s edge and came to stand several feet to my right.
I shifted my weight, uncrossing and crossing my arms, then shifted my weight again. My teeth clenched, and I struggled to avoid scratching every itch fizzing to life across my body. Chace stood deathly still, and I…I couldn’t stop fidgeting.
“I think I’ll take a seat,” I said more to myself than anyone else.
He didn’t react, leaving me unsure if he’d heard me or not. His stare looked lost, as if his thoughts took him worlds away. And the muscle along the side of his jaw… It continued to twitch.
I shuffled over to the retaining wall separating the walking path from the landscape and perched on the edge. Waiting until Mr. Aldine found a way through the barrier could easily leave us twiddling your thumbs for a while. A very long while. Longer than my packed supplies would sustain me.
To my surprise, Chace took a seat beside me, allowing roughly a foot of distance between us.
Weaving his hands together, he leaned forward, rested his forearms against his thighs, and lowered his voice. “What do you think of this situation?”
As always, my instinct to search for the trap in his question ruled, but his genuine tone cut down my innate skepticism.
“I’m not crazy about any of this.” I folded my hands together and mirrored his stance. “Maybe we should take a different approach and investigate the other path from the train station. The one that led in the opposite direction. Maybe we can find some kind of back door.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea. There are two other known entrances into the citadel, but passage through that magic morphing wall…?” Chace straightened and leaped to his feet. “I think I’ll make that suggestion to Mr. Aldine. I wouldn’t mind flipping this place into our rearview.”
“I hear that,” I mumbled.
Chace walked back across the bridge toward Mr. Aldine.
At any other time, him stealing my idea and taking credit would have upset me, but right now…I couldn’t care less. I already hated this task more than I thought I would. I knew the assignment wouldn’t be fun rides and giggles, but this… This was just—
“Pssst.”
I jerked and spun around.
A guy with warm skin, reddish-brown hair, and dressed in tired threads peeked out from between the trees lining the path.
What in the―
He waved me closer.
I spared Mr. Aldine and Chace a quick glance. They paid me no mind. The call of my next action rested solely on me and…well… curiosity decided my actions.
I slipped from the retaining wall and approached the guy with caution, my gaze snagging on his softly pointed ears. The thought instantly inked in my brain—more than humans dwelled within the citadel.
“Who are you? And what are you doing here?” I asked.
He pressed against the tree trunk, hiding his presence in the shadows. “I could ask you the same.” A knowing smirk lifted his lips. “You guys looking for safe passage into the citadel?”
Who is he hiding from? I glanced around our surroundings, searching for cameras like the ones I’d spotted surveying the bridge and citadel wall. I didn’t identify any, but camouflaged versions could easily cover the treeline.
I crossed my arms and shrugged. “What if we are?”
His face broke into a wide grin. “I can get you safely inside. For a price.”
And there it is, the incentive for so many.
“I don’t have much in the way of money,” I deadpanned, then I glanced over at Mr. Aldine. Having spotted me talking to someone, my fellow reapers headed in my direction. “Maybe our elder has some cash.”