Chapter 11 #2
Brushing invisible dirt from his shoulder, Reeve said, “I look best in black. Some people say it matches my soul.”
“You’re a reaper,” Viri said without thinking. “You don’t have a soul.”
All eyes turned to her, and she suddenly remembered she was the only person in the room who wasn’t a reaper. Her grip on her fillium tightened even more, but none of the killers seemed the least bit bothered by the sight of a scarlet-cloaked hunter standing in their midst.
“I suppose introductions are in order,” Reeve said, waving a lazy hand between them. “Sage D’alia, Jonas Flynn, this is Viridia Solace. Careful, she bites. And not in a good way.”
The girl—Sage—snorted, but the boy—Jonas—sent Viri a cheerful smile, adding a goofy wave for good measure.
“I’ve heard so much about you, Viri,” Jonas said, straightening his glasses. His gaze homed in on the weapon she held and lit with pleasure. “Ahh! The legendary fillium! Can I touch it? Please?”
Viri blinked. “What?”
Before she could stop him, Jonas moved close enough to press a finger to the golden cord, his face instantly paling as a shudder rippled through him.
He quickly jumped backward, shaking his hand.
“Oh, yes, that’s awful. Zero out of ten, would not recommend.
” He shuddered again, but if anything, his smile only widened. “How amazing is magic?”
Viri stared at him, lost for words.
“You’ll have to forgive Jonas,” Reeve said, amusement clear in his voice—along with affection. “He has a scholar’s heart, particularly when it comes to anything to do with the ancient mages and their use of ellixen.”
“If not for, you know, this”—Jonas indicated his blackened veins—“I’d spend every waking hour studying at the university. But with hunters popping in and out on a whim, it’d be too hard to avoid their notice. That, and the Scholars’ Guild has pretty firm rules about who they let enroll.”
Viri continued to stare at him. “You don’t say.”
“No, really, I’ve tried,” Jonas said, missing her sarcasm. “I even wrote a strongly worded letter to Chancellor Reginald, bringing to light the rampant discrimination and emphasizing the need for diversity among students and peers. I never heard back.” He sighed wistfully. “Bigots.”
“It’s their loss,” Sage said, nudging Jonas. “And our gain. What would we do without you and your books and your cleverness helping us to—”
Reeve cleared his throat, and Sage immediately stopped speaking.
“Helping you what?” Viri probed.
Sage ignored her, turning instead to look at Reeve with accusation in her eyes. “What’s she doing here, anyway? I assume there’s a good reason you brought a hunter to Jonas’s apartment?”
“Viri’s not a hunter right now,” Reeve said.
“Um, yes, I am,” Viri corrected, frowning. “I’m always a hunter.”
Jonas was unperturbed, but Sage tensed and shifted her weight, prompting Viri to do the same, her heartbeat quickening as she prepared for an imminent attack.
Reeve stepped smoothly between them. “Easy, we’re all friends here.” He placed a calming hand on Sage’s shoulder. “Let me rephrase: Viri’s a hunter, but she’s not hunting right now.”
“I should be.” Viri’s frown deepened. “And we’re absolutely not friends. If I wasn’t at risk of being thrown in a cell beside you, I’d drag you all straight to the Underlock.”
“Congratulations, Reeve,” Sage deadpanned. “She’s a real catch.”
Eyes narrowing, Viri said, “He didn’t catch me. He was the fool who got himself caught.”
A snort left Sage. “Funny. I could have sworn—”
“Sage,” Reeve said in a low tone, but before he could continue, three loud knocks sounded on the front door, and it swung open just far enough for an attractive young man to poke his head through.
His physique was similar to Reeve’s—broad and tall and radiating confidence—but his skin and eyes were both brown, his hair dark, shoulder-length, and unbound with a wave to it, and there was a wicked scar slashing through one eyebrow that somehow only added to his overall appeal.
Or it would have, if he weren’t another Elders-damned reaper, his blackened veins crawling up his arms and disappearing beneath his cloak.
“Hey, Ardin,” Jonas greeted him with a friendly smile. “We weren’t expecting—”
“We’ve got a transfer,” Ardin interrupted, not moving from his position at the door.
“When?” Reeve asked, transforming before Viri’s eyes. Gone was the smirking amusement and nonchalance he’d maintained for most of the night, replaced by squared shoulders and a serious expression that made him seem much older than his eighteen years.
“Any minute,” Ardin answered. “The news reached me late—we need to move.”
Sage leapt into action, sprinting down the hall at reaper speed, with Jonas at her heels.
“What’s going on?” Viri demanded, moving closer to Reeve. “What’s a transfer?”
He cursed and ran a hand through his midnight hair, a flash of lightning outside highlighting the frustration on his face. “Of all the rotten timing.”
The words had barely left him before Sage returned, her arms full of weapons.
Viri tensed, about to cast her fillium, but the purple-haired girl strode straight past her, directly to Reeve.
“Here,” she said, shoving half of her collection into his arms, then securing the rest to her body.
Reeve did the same, sheathing numerous daggers in his belt and finishing by strapping a gleaming black sword to his back.
Seeing so many blades in the hands of reapers, it took everything in Viri to resist lunging forward to disarm them.
“The storm is getting close out there,” Jonas said as he reappeared, carrying two hooded black cloaks, which he handed to Reeve and Sage. “Be careful. It looks like a nasty one.”
“A storm is the least of our worries,” Reeve said, throwing the cloak on over his clothes.
“Reeve.” Viri grabbed his shoulder. “Talk to me. What’s happening?”
“Deal with your hunter pet, Reeve,” Sage said, her hazel eyes hard as she looked at Viri. “We don’t have time to waste.”
Patience gone, Viri took a menacing step toward the purple-haired girl, ready to bring her down, but Reeve’s arm circled her waist like a steel band and he dragged her backward toward the dark leather couch.
“Let me go!” Viri ordered, and he instantly did so. She spun around, intending to lay into him for manhandling her, but he spoke first.
“I’m sorry about this,” Reeve said. “Jonas will watch over you while we’re gone, and I’ll explain everything once we’re back, but for now, just know this is for the best.”
Viri was about to spit fire, but her rage turned to incredulity when Reeve reached for his nullicuff, and with a tap of his finger, the magic-nullifying bracelet dissolved.
A stunned inhalation was all Viri managed before Reeve shot forward like lightning, his hand coming to the side of her neck, just beneath her ear.
There was no force behind his attack, his fingers gentle against her skin, but despite that, a wave of ellixen slammed into her, a thousand times more potent than anything she’d ever experienced.
“What—” Viri gasped, but she couldn’t utter more than that, her world suddenly spinning, her knees buckling, her vision darkening at the edges.
“Shh,” Reeve said, catching her as she fell and carefully lowering her onto the couch. “You’re safe. Don’t fight it.”
Viri wanted to scream at him, to claw at him, to know what the hell he’d done to her—and how—but her surroundings were quickly fading, Reeve’s apologetic face blurring above her as she lost her battle to unconsciousness.
Just before her eyelids fluttered shut, she saw something else—something impossible.
She saw Jonas hold his hand out to Sage and offer, “Take as much as you need.”
And then she saw Sage siphoning from her reaper friend, the transfer of power making Viri’s hunter’s mark sear.
That pain was the last thing she felt before everything went black.