13. Raven
With the three guys in tow, the return walk to the pub stretched on for an eternity. The tension between Chace and Winter radiated at the back of my skull with an army of razors and swords.
I understood the not trusting, but the hostility… When had that ever served a greater good?
Lure more souls with the sweet than the sour, my mother always said.
The energy from the citadel’s barrier magic buzzed all around me and pressed against my skin.
Not as strong as it had when we’d stood on the bridge, but I still felt it.
Some places more so than others. Under a tear in the upper cover, the sensation weakened, just as the power assault decreased indoors.
Like when we’d spent time inside the pub.
Where we now headed.
Upon arrival, I shoved the heavy tavern door out of my path and shifted to the side, holding the entrance open for Chace and Winter to carry Mr. Aldine inside. They dropped him into one of the many available chairs.
Winter stepped away, allowing Chace and Mr. Aldine a comfortable cushion of space.
“Win…” Earl shuffled around the side of the bar and pulled a chair away from one of the tables, offering it to Winter.
He then wiped the table clean.
Winter thanked him and took a seat.
Winter was clearly the Winter that Earl had mentioned earlier. With hair and skin as white as untainted snow and eyes as blue as the crisp sky, the name fit him.
Earl tottered behind the bar and started pouring a pitcher of ale.
“Where’s Aoes?” I flicked my gaze to the closed door of the room where we’d locked up our stuff. Shifting in at Chace’s side, I examined our elder more closely. “Mr. Aldine is in need of a healer.”
“Aoes. Heal.” Earl tugged on a hanging rope behind the bar, and a soft bell chimed somewhere within the building. “Aoes come.”
Mr. Aldine rubbed his forehead, his face scrunched like a withered apple.
He wetted his dry lips, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed. “It was a momentary lapse. I’ll be fine.”
I winced. He appeared far from fine.
Mr. Aldine raised his glazed, milky-white eyes and met my steady stare. He tried to stand but quickly dropped back into the seat.
Reaper’s hell.
Why had this happened? Why had I run in the opposite direction?
I was smarter, stronger, and more courageous than what I’d displayed in the presence of the specters. I knew I was. I had to be. So what if the nearby souls had told me to run? I didn’t need to listen. And I definitely didn’t need to concede. My lapse in judgment had cost us all too much.
I wanted to kick myself.
Instead, I’d settle for not making the same mistake again.
Chace leaned forward and whispered for only me to hear. “I don’t agree with his personal assessment. When he tried to reap the woman affected by the specter, something happened to him, but I don’t know what exactly. I’m not sure a local healer will know how to help him.”
He pressed two fingers to Mr. Aldine’s wrist and took his pulse, glancing briefly to Earl.
Following Chace’s gaze, I understood his concern. If Mr. Aldine became afflicted as Earl had and the local healers could do nothing for the condition…
Not wanting anyone to overhear my response, I shifted even closer. The side of my body brushed against Chace’s, our warmth mingling. “What if he doesn’t get better? What if he only gets worse? What do we do then?”
I didn’t care to expose my doubts, but we had to consider the possible impact.
Always plan for all potential variants.
“What choice do we have?” Pinching the bridge of his nose, Chace shifted an inch to the side. “We finish the job, Aldine or no Aldine.”
Right. As cruel as his words sounded, he spoke a proper reaper’s course.
I needed to hear the words spoken by someone other than myself.
Needed to verify I wasn’t the only one focused on the mission completion.
After all, the state of the citadel had gone unchecked for far too long.
Only…what chance did three reapers have when presented with the countless souls trapped in some hellish limbo state?
Chace’s words settled like an anchor in my chest, setting me solid and steady in the required and awaiting task.
But…
I rubbed Mr. Aldine’s upper arm. “Should we try to get him out of the citadel and find him help beyond this cursed place? Surely we can get Mr. Aldine out the same way we got in.”
“Surely,” Chace mimicked. “But what good will it do to get Aldine outside of the citadel if there isn’t a train waiting to whisk him off to a safer location?”
I nodded, more to myself than to Chace. We needed someone on the outside to make arrangements for the train, given the citadel sat outside any routine stop. We needed to make a call…to my father, his father, or Superior Grim. Somebody up the chain of command.
I pulled my electronic communicator from my side pocket. As my father had suspected, the device had zero reception. The communicator now served as nothing more than a paperweight I could toss at the next attacking shadow monster.
“Dead.” I slipped the useless piece of tech back into my pocket as Chace checked his electronic wristband.
“Mine, too,” he said to the sound of heavy footfalls descending the stairs.
“Could it be we have company?” Aoes’s words reached us before he walked into the room. “Winter. You have returned.” At the sight of Mr. Aldine, Aoes’s smile slipped from his lips, and he dashed forward. “What happened? Is he all right?”
“He needs a healer,” Chace snapped.
Since I knew he worried about Mr. Aldine—as I—I chose to ignore his rudeness.
Aoes turned to rush away, but I grabbed his arm. “It’s work related.”
I had no clue what work meant to him with regard to me and my team, but I prayed the message translated properly to keep the situation quiet. Out of the eyes and ears of higher authorities…at least until Chace and I could assess what those higher authorities knew and how they felt about reapers.
Aoes nodded and then darted behind the bar. He grabbed a small piece of parchment and started scribbling. After folding the quick note he’d written, he sealed it in a glass jar.
He jogged to the back of the room where he shoved the receptacle into a long tube that dropped from the ceiling. The message shot away with a swoosh.
“Winter.” Aoes swiveled toward the male seated a few tables away. “Could you not have already sent for the healer?”
Winter leaned back in his chair and took a sip of ale, his attention steady on my group…or maybe he watched only me.
My skin prickled and my stomach flipped under his heated gaze.
He tilted his head toward Aoes. “I’ve had no need for your local healer. Therefore, I know not who or where he is. And the boy there”—he tossed a flippant arm in Chace’s direction—“clearly didn’t want my help with the old codger.”
“Boy. Not even close,” Chace muttered under his breath, then clenched his teeth and, with a heavy crease pressed between his eyebrows, continued attending to Mr. Aldine., wiping the perspiration from his brow, his face, his throat.
I flicked my gaze over the man with blue eyes and snowy complexion. My perception could be distorted, but I found him heavily arrogant. Still, curiosity ruled me, never having met one of his kind before. Whatever his kind was…elven or fae. Both species well known for their distinguishing ears.
But his complexion… Rather rare in my journeys to date.
Aoes returned to our table, a deep frown marring his features.
He glanced back at Winter. “Of course you haven’t had need for my healer. But for your information, the healer is a she.”
“Noted.” Winter took another sip of his ale and watched us in uncomfortable silence.
A dark curiosity colored his expression.
Every moment that we waited for the healer, Winter measured and judged us. I welcomed the escape when Earl escorted me, Chace, and Mr. Aldine to a room upstairs.
Not much of a space, it fit our needs, nonetheless, offering the basic necessities―a place to sleep and a place to wash up. Even if the floorboards occasionally creaked underfoot.
By the time the healer finally arrived, Chace and I had Mr. Aldine propped comfortably on a bed in his own room. And we had done so without a single word or action of discord.
Chace hovered around the healer while the woman examined Mr. Aldine, and I pushed myself into the corner of the room, trying to keep out of the way and become one with the wall.
With every passing moment, our elder slipped deeper into an unreachable state.
His words had stilled, his gaze glossed, and his breathing labored.
So many regrets attacked my thoughts in a constant rotation of remembered mistakes. I shouldn’t have run. I should have stopped Mr. Aldine before he attempted something so foolish.
I just… I should have been there.
Next time…if there was a next time…I wouldn’t run.
When I glanced at Chace, a flaming cobra coiled in my belly. Why hadn’t he stopped Mr. Aldine before he did what he did? I wanted to shake Chace—make him explain how this had happened.
I dug my nails into my palms, slicing divots into my skin.
As much as I might have liked to, I couldn’t put all the blame on Chace. I hadn’t been present, and therefore wasn’t privy to what had transpired, when, and in what order.
“You look horrible,” Chace said, his voice low.
He stood directly in front of me, his jaw tight and his silver-gray gaze intense.
I jerked straight. When had he stepped so close? I hadn’t even noticed him approaching.
“Thanks.” My response sounded more like a question than anything else.
“You’re no good to our team in this condition.
Why don’t you get some rest, maybe wash your face or something.
Whatever helps.” He grabbed my shoulder, a little rougher than necessary, and directed me toward the door.
“We both need to be in full form. Especially if we end up being down a team member.”
Not just any team member, but our mentor. Our elder.
I glanced at his grip upon my shoulder, noting his continued struggle with boundaries, and then pushed back against his hand. “I’m fine. I don’t need to―”