Chapter 7
Reeve’s smooth voice repeated in Viri’s mind for her entire journey home, his offer like a chant—my freedom for your answers; my freedom for your answers—until she finally managed to banish the words upon reaching her apartment.
He was a reaper, and reapers lied. Even if his offer was genuine, he might not know anything about the missing children.
He might not even know where the Reaper Priest was, regardless of whether the Priest had anything to do with the kids.
Reeve might know nothing at all, and just wanted an easy escape.
Viri couldn’t risk that. Wouldn’t risk that.
But despite her resolve, her thoughts remained turbulent as she entered her apartment and found it empty, with Sarielle likely on her way to the emergency council meeting and Wynter no doubt off creating something illegal.
Viri would have given anything for a distraction, even if it meant being her friend’s test subject, but she’d told Meera she would stay home, so she made herself keep her promise.
Rest didn’t come easily, though, and after eating a late dinner—grilled cheese that she barely tasted—she paced up and down the living room, the normally tranquil view of the moonlit lake doing nothing to ease her tension as she waited for her guardian to return.
It took longer than expected, but Viri finally heard the front door open, followed by Sarielle’s familiar heels clacking through the entryway.
But the Magistratus didn’t appear; instead, her footsteps faded down the hallway, until the next sound Viri heard was Sarielle’s bedroom door quietly clicking shut.
Viri winced, realizing her guardian must be more upset by the news than she’d anticipated.
She considered bringing her a cup of Wynter’s relaxation tea, but decided against it.
Sarielle would leave her room when she was ready, and Viri would respect that, even if it meant she now had no option left but to try to sleep.
Predictably, that task was impossible. After hours of tossing and turning, Viri gave up, leaving her bed for some warm milk, which had always comforted her as a child.
Wynter’s bedroom door was open—not unusual, as she often spent late nights in her lab—but Viri was surprised to find Sarielle’s open, too, and even more surprised to find her guardian standing in their dark living room, staring out the window.
Clouds had formed since Viri’s earlier pacing, a storm now brewing on the horizon, as if the weather were perfectly in tune with her mood.
“I guess you couldn’t sleep, either,” Viri said quietly as she approached.
Sarielle didn’t jolt, indicating she’d been aware of Viri’s arrival. “I doubt I will as long as those children are missing.”
Viri moved closer until they were standing side by side before the stormy view. “Every available hunter will be working this case. We’ll find them. It’s what we do.”
Whether the children would still be alive was the question, but neither of them gave voice to their fears.
“Have you considered how you’ll keep your emotions under control, especially with the Reaper Priest’s involvement?
” Sarielle asked. At Viri’s startled inhalation, she continued, “I know you want him to pay for what he did to your parents, but you already take so many risks while searching for him.” She rubbed her chest, right over her heart.
“I’ve already lost one child. I wouldn’t be able to bear it if something happened to you, too. ”
Viri sighed inwardly at her guardian’s overprotective nature.
She understood where it stemmed from, aware that Sarielle had lost her first child, a son, years ago, and had never fully recovered from her grief.
The boy would have been Wynter’s half brother, both he and his father having died tragically from magefever—a rare illness with no known cure—before Wynter was born.
But…while Viri felt deeply for Sarielle, her job as a hunter was dangerous, regardless of who she was hunting.
Sarielle knew that better than most—she’d been a hunter herself before turning to politics.
All Viri could do was offer reassurance, so she adopted a soothing tone and said, “We don’t know for sure that the Priest has anything to do with this. Let’s not worry about that until we—”
She stopped when an unreadable look rippled across her guardian’s face, visible even in the darkness.
“What?” Viri asked, turning more fully toward her. “Do you know something?”
Sarielle didn’t answer for a long moment, then slowly said, “If it came down to a choice between saving the children or getting your revenge, can I trust you to make the right decision?”
Viri’s stomach roiled at the thought of having to make such a choice. “I told you, we don’t know that the Priest is—”
“He is.”
Two words, and Viri felt the room tilt around her. Hoarsely, she said, “Meera and Darik said it’s just a guess.”
“Neither Commander Roth nor Captain Farrow are the Magistratus,” Sarielle returned. “They deal in facts, not rumors. It’s my job to listen, even to the most outlandish of speculation. But I never thought—” Her voice cracked, keeping her from finishing.
Viri’s pulse began to quicken. “What rumors?”
Sarielle closed her eyes, her features pale in the dim light. “About six months ago, I started hearing whispers about the Reaper Priest planning something.” She ran a shaky hand through her dark hair. “Something big.”
Viri’s insides clenched.
“I thought it was fearmongering—it’s not the first time that kind of gossip has spread.
” Sarielle reopened her eyes, staring somberly at the view once more.
“But the nature of these whispers was different. Before, there were always specifics involved—the Priest had targeted someone, or made an enemy of so-and-so, or was tempting certain people into becoming reapers—all information that was passed on to the Nox and hunters for investigation. But this rumor was vague, only a warning.”
The hairs on the back of Viri’s neck prickled. “What warning?”
“That it would involve children—lots and lots of them.” Sarielle’s voice was barely audible, but it rose again as she continued, “I brushed it aside, since it was hardly news that reapers target the youth. It was only tonight, when I learned of the mass abductions, that I realized the warning hadn’t been about individual children, but a group of them, together.
” Her troubled eyes caught Viri’s. “The Reaper Priest has been collecting children. Exactly as the rumor warned.”
“But…why?” Viri asked, failing to see any motive. “It’s not like he’s keeping them close just to have a ready stockpile to siphon from, otherwise we’d still find their corpses afterward. There has to be a reason he’d go to this trouble—and hide it for so long.”
Sarielle wrapped her arms around herself. “There was another rumor, something I heard only once. It haunted my nightmares for so long that I convinced myself I’d imagined it. But now…I’m not so sure.”
“Tell me,” Viri said.
“Have you heard of the Aurora Comet?”
Viri frowned at the unexpected question. “No. Should I have?”
“It’s a comet that appears above Elverdine Isle once every two hundred years,” Sarielle said.
“The ancient mages called it a ‘celestial event,’ something that could increase the strength of their ellixen to untold levels, making them nearly invincible. But in order to channel from Aurora as it passed by, they needed three things: enough magic of their own to draw down the comet’s power, a pure heart, and—”
Viri interrupted by snorting incredulously.
“If you’re worried about the Reaper Priest trying something like that, you can rest easy. He has the opposite of a pure heart, and any ellixen within him was stolen from others. There’s no way he meets the requirements.”
Sarielle didn’t look reassured. If anything, her features turned even more strained.
“You don’t understand, Viri. That rumor I heard wasn’t that the Priest would use his own heart and his own magic.
It was about him using someone else.” Her throat bobbed.
“Or in this case, multiple someones. Because the third thing that’s needed for the ceremony… is blood.”
Ice flooded Viri as she realized what her guardian was saying. “You think the Priest is going to—to sacrifice the children? That he’ll use them to—” She thought back to what Sarielle had said, horror washing over her as she stuttered, “—to make himself invincible? Is that even possible?”
“Anything is possible when it comes to magic as ancient as this. Even the mages of old forbade the use of sacrificial rituals, and for good reason,” Sarielle said.
“Think about it. If all the Aurora Comet needs is a pure heart and strong, untainted ellixen, can you imagine how much power the Priest might obtain if he were to sacrifice fifty innocent children? All at once?”
“Fifty?”
Sarielle nodded solemnly. “Captain Farrow sent word an hour ago after receiving final numbers. It makes sense,” she added, sounding hollow, “since fifty is considered a number of power in ancient numerology. The Priest is covering all his bases to ensure the sacrifice works.”
Viri knew nothing about numerology, but fifty children were missing—fifty!—and if Sarielle’s rumors proved true, then the Reaper Priest was planning to slaughter them all.
“When’s the comet due?” she asked, her voice ragged.
Sarielle shook her head. “The Scholars’ Guild is looking into it, but the mages left us with so few ancient texts, and even fewer that speak of magical events such as this. We might not get an answer, let alone in the time we need it.”
“So we have to assume it could be any day,” Viri said, her dismay growing.
“And if we don’t find the children in time,” Sarielle said, “not only will they be killed, but the Priest will have access to magic unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”
A weighty feeling hit Viri, as if there were rocks in her stomach. But her mind kept spinning ahead. “For what purpose?” she wondered aloud. “What does the Priest actually want?”
“What does anyone with ill intent want?” Sarielle asked wearily. “Power.”
“There has to be more to it than that,” Viri argued. “Let’s say he succeeds in drawing magic from the comet—what then? What does he plan to use all that power for?”
“If only there was someone who could give us those answers.” Sarielle sighed. “All we know for sure is that we need to find him before the comet arrives. Because if we don’t…Elders help us all.”
Viri barely heard the second part of what her guardian said, having stilled after the first sentence. A now-familiar voice whispered in her mind, more insistent than ever:
“My freedom for your answers.”
Slowly, ever so slowly, Viri asked, “If there was a way to get the answers we need, maybe even learn where the Priest is hiding, but the cost was…steep…” She swallowed, and made herself finish, “Would it be worth it?”
A flash of lightning in the distance revealed the dark circles beneath Sarielle’s eyes. “Honestly, darling,” she said, sounding as exhausted as she looked, “there’s no cost too steep if it means finding the Priest in time to stop him.”
A lump lodged in Viri’s windpipe as her thoughts began to scream at her.
She barely noticed when she remained quiet for too long, barely heard Sarielle say something about sleep, barely felt it when her guardian kissed her cheek and left her alone before the coming storm.
All she could hear was Reeve’s voice replaying in her mind—but this time, it wasn’t just his offer.
It was also the final words he’d taunted her with:
“We both know I’m your only hope of finding him. When you change your mind, I’ll be waiting.”
“Elders, don’t let me regret this,” Viri breathed into the darkness, before spinning on her heel and hurrying to her bedroom, unable to believe what she was about to do, but knowing it was her only option.
She had to at least try.
Even if it cost her everything.