Chapter 12
A sharp crack of thunder startled Viri awake, and she sat up with a jolt, feeling foggy and disoriented until the events of the night came crashing back to her.
Leaping to her feet, she spun once, twice, searching Jonas’s living room for any sign of a threat, but it seemed she was alone.
A glance out the window showed the storm now raging outside, with rain lashing the glass and lightning streaking every other second—good news, she told herself, since it meant she hadn’t been unconscious long.
Unwilling to wait around and hope Reeve would return and explain all the things he owed her answers to—including how he’d used actual magic—Viri sprinted toward the door.
She had no clue where he might be, but he couldn’t have had much of a head start, and her hunter skills would have to be enough to find him.
Or maybe not just her skills, because the warmth in Viri’s hand told her she wasn’t as alone as she’d thought.
Instead of running straight out the front door, she forced her steps to slow and turned to walk softly down the hall, deeper into the apartment.
Her ever-warming mark led her to an open door, which she carefully, quietly, peeked around.
Inside was an office, or perhaps a small library, judging by the number of books lining the walls and cascading to the floor in haphazard piles.
There was no desk, just a coffee table and a set of plush green armchairs facing the window, one of which showed the back of Jonas’s curly head as he sat there, hunched over a book.
Cautious of his heightened reaper senses, Viri inched forward on silent feet, barely breathing, the only sounds being his page turns and the rumbling thunder outside. He was oblivious to her presence, something that changed only when she slipped her fillium around his neck from behind.
“Don’t move,” she ordered, though it was unnecessary, given that her weapon would keep him from retaliating—or even standing.
“Yep, definitely unpleasant,” he said, grunting at the feeling of his magic being drained. “But still fascinating.”
Viri shifted around the armchair to face him, making sure her golden cord remained touching him—not just to keep him incapacitated, but to ensure he told the truth.
She didn’t expect to find Walnut dozing on his lap, but she also didn’t let the fluffy bunny distract her as she demanded, “Where’s Reeve? ”
Jonas closed his book, his blue eyes wide with curiosity behind his glasses. “How did you wake up so fast? He hit you with enough ellixen to keep you down for hours.”
As determined as she was to find Reeve, Viri couldn’t resist asking, “What was that?”
Jonas shook his head, his shifty look making it clear it wasn’t because he didn’t know, but because he didn’t want to answer. “It’s best if you ask him.”
“Then where is he?” Viri asked again, impatience threading her tone.
“He’s—” Jonas groaned in response to whatever he’d been about to say, the fillium preventing him from lying.
Despite his discomfort, his eyes lit with glee at the new experience, and he touched a finger to the golden cord.
“So it does make you tell the truth. I’d heard rumors, but still…
remarkable. I’d give anything to study how it works. Would you mind if I—”
“Jonas,” Viri barked. “Answer the question.”
“I can’t tell you.” He made a helpless gesture with his hands, careful not to disturb Walnut. “If I do, you’ll go after him. And that’s a very bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Because then you’ll see—” Jonas clamped his mouth shut.
Viri leaned in. “See what? What’s Reeve doing? What’s this ‘transfer’ thing your friend Ardin mentioned?”
Jonas looked alarmed. “It’s noth—” He broke off with a pained gasp as the fillium stopped another lie, then repeated, through panting breaths, “I can’t tell you.” Quickly, he added, “I promise it’s for the best.”
“Those were Reeve’s exact words before he attacked me,” Viri said bitterly. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
“He didn’t attack you.” Jonas’s eyes rounded with disbelief. “What he did was to protect you.”
Viri scoffed. “I don’t need protection, but if I did, it would be from him.”
A startled but genuine laugh left Jonas. “Reeve’s the last person who would ever—”
“I’m not arguing about this,” Viri cut him off, unwilling to hear a reaper defend another reaper. “Tell me where he is, or I’ll find him on my own.”
“I’m sorry,” Jonas said, his face—and the fillium—revealing he meant it. “I can’t help you. But you can sit with me and watch the storm while we wait for him to come back. You can even hold Walnut if you want.” He lifted the dozing bunny toward her. “He’s soft and very cuddly.”
Viri made a frustrated sound and began to back away, intending to follow through on her threat to hunt Reeve down herself.
But just before she released Jonas from her fillium, she caught sight of the veins along his forearms, the darkness more faded than earlier, almost unnoticeable.
Out of nowhere, she recalled the hazy image she’d seen before passing out, something that must have been a hallucination, because it shouldn’t have been possible.
And yet, even knowing that, she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Did Sage siphon from you?”
Jonas stilled. “What would you say if I told you yes?”
Viri answered instantly, “I’d tell you reapers can’t siphon from each other. If you could, then you wouldn’t murder innocent children to get your ellixen fix.”
He flinched—actually flinched—at the mention of children, causing Viri’s brows to shoot upward. A reaper with a conscience? Unlikely.
“There’s lots you don’t know about us,” he said.
“But the short answer is yes, Sage did siphon from me. It’s not a common practice; there’s a cost involved for the giver”—he gestured to his faded veins, proof that his magic had weakened—“and the ellixen transferred through to the receiver isn’t as strong as what would come from—from—”
“From a child,” Viri said flatly.
Jonas flinched again, but also nodded. “Because of that, most reapers won’t even consider it unless they have no other choice. They’d rather steal straight from the source.”
Viri could hardly believe what she was hearing: that reapers were able to choose how they stole ellixen and yet they still preyed on children.
She hadn’t thought it was possible to feel more disgust toward them, but apparently she’d been wrong.
“So tonight, Sage needed a magic boost for whatever she and Reeve are off doing, and since there were no kids here for her to murder, she stole your ellixen instead?”
For the first time since she’d met him, Jonas looked almost angry. “It’s not like that. We’re not like that.”
“No?” Viri challenged. “You’ve never killed someone?”
He dropped his gaze to stare at Walnut, his silence telling.
“Did Reeve siphon from you, too?” Viri asked, needing to know what she’d be facing when she found him, how strong he might be if he had a fresh dose of ellixen in his veins.
“Of course not,” Jonas said, as if her question were ridiculous.
Another thought hit her, and she gasped, “Did he siphon from me?”
She realized the moment the words left her lips that he couldn’t have. She didn’t have enough ellixen to tempt a reaper, and if any of them were ever desperate enough to try, the limited amount she had would be sucked dry in seconds, her life along with it. She’d seen it happen before.
To her parents.
“You have an incredibly poor opinion of the person who once saved your life,” Jonas muttered, yanking Viri from her memories and prompting a disbelieving laugh from her.
“Reeve never saved my life. If he said otherwise, he lied. That’s what he does.”
Jonas just shrugged, but Viri had wasted enough time with this conversation, and she wasn’t going to sit around and listen to one of Reeve’s reaper buddies singing his praises.
She could admit that Jonas was the most amiable monster she’d ever encountered—almost unnaturally so, given what he was—but that wasn’t saying much considering all the others had tried to kill her.
The verdict was still out on whether Reeve and Sage planned to do the same.
“Last chance to tell me where he is,” Viri said.
“You’re making a mistake by going after him,” Jonas returned, looking at her pleadingly. “Trust me.”
Viri released him from her fillium and strode for the door, confident he was too drained to get up and follow. “I don’t trust reapers,” she said without looking back. “And if I did, I wouldn’t start with a friend of Reeve’s.”
With that, she took off down the hallway and out the front door.
She didn’t feel the ellixen ward this time—it must only affect people entering the apartment, not leaving it—but even if she had, she wouldn’t have stopped, her focus single-minded on finding Reeve.
He could be anywhere, but as she sprinted along the inner-mountain tunnel, she was counting on the late hour to mean the other inhabitants of this level would be sleeping—and therefore Sage, Reeve, and Ardin would have been the last people to use the wayportal.
Viri would be delivered straight to wherever they had traveled, and from there, her hunter’s mark should be able to guide the way. If not…
She didn’t let herself finish the thought as she reached the wayportal and leapt through, praying to the Elders that it would take her exactly where she needed to go.
She should have prayed harder—or at least added some specifics, like not arriving outside in the middle of the raging thunderstorm.
Rain and wind instantly pummeled Viri, causing her to gasp as cold water soaked through her scarlet cloak and into her leathers.
That was the least of her concerns, though, given where she’d landed.
A quick scan showed the wayportal had delivered her close to the Northern Obelisk, right by the bank of River Mort, the winding tributary that flowed from Lake Mirtis to Mount Mort before disappearing into the blackmist-covered mountain.