26. Raven
You’ll be walking straight into death.
That’s what Valen had said. I had no intention of doing something like that anytime soon. But the people of the citadel faced worse conditions with the affliction. A limbo state where one was neither alive nor dead.
A day had passed since my conversation with the royal healer, and I had awoken to a sullen Lucas and Neive. They informed me that a large-scale specter attack had taken place the night prior. Many loved ones had fallen victim and were lost in a zombified state.
Little talk of specters had graced the streets and halls since the day Winter had fallen to their touch in the underground tunnels. Now the specters were back in all the whispered conversations, ghosting the expressions of the palace personnel.
The pain of those around me crushed my chest, and I wanted it to stop.
I sat on the bed, my arms wrapped around my folded legs, and rocked back and forth, my head reclined, eyes on the ceiling.
My mission solidified. One: find the reaper Chiara, and through her, find the source or connection to the specters and end that terror. The rest should (hopefully) fall into place. Two: help those already afflicted—Earl and Myla. Somehow I’d figure out how I’d done so the first time.
Even if that first time was little more than a blur in my memory.
Still, I could do all of that and more. I’d told myself as much an endless number of times already. But first, I needed to tell Chace about the banshee in the palace.
And so I did. Simple and short.
Curious Curse Chaser,
I do hope I have found a satisfying treat. Within the gilded cage, a banshee is suspected to stare at a wall of bars. There be monsters here, but no monster that can hurt me. I am flying safely.
Black Bird
P.S. A golden creature should come bearing a gift.
I gnawed on my thumbnail and watched the large bird carry my message away.
Should I have mentioned the specter attack in the note?
No, he would have already heard. Should I have mentioned the tower since he’d asked about it?
Addressed his concerns about Winter, or possibly shared something personal, flirted?
An ugly ball of discomfort dropped into my gut.
Would I worry with every letter I wrote about all the things I did and didn’t say to Chace?
Futile.
Where the in-transit message was concerned, it was too late for all those things. I’d have the opportunity to mention one or more of the neglected items next time.
“Are you finished? May I clear lunch from the table?” Neive asked, tearing my gaze from the terrace view.
“Yes. Thank you.” I rested my cheek on my knee and rocked gently in my place on the bed.
A minor lockdown owned the castle while personnel were assessed. As a result, my morning access to the archives was cancelled, but I didn’t feel the loss. The information that Valen had finally provided was enough for me to act on. I merely needed to figure out where to start.
“My lady.” Lucas stepped into the room and bowed his head, a sure sign I had an official visitor. Lucas ditched all proper decorum in private. “Your midday appointment is here to collect you.”
Because of the specter attack the night before, the royal healer was in high demand.
Doing what, I couldn’t even guess, since he wasn’t able to heal the afflicted.
Nevertheless, he was busy, and I had been asked to work with another.
General of the queen’s special unit. A hush-hush group that usually moved in the shadows unseen, carrying out whatever operation the Crown wanted kept quiet... and likely off the books.
I met the male with a warm smile…or as warm as I could muster. “General Beckett, I presume?”
“Yes. Would you please come with me.” He turned on his heels and marched from the room without awaiting my answer.
I glanced over my shoulder at Neive and Lucas and exchanged an expression of humored shock.
Lucas leaned forward and whispered for only us to hear, “All warm and fuzzy, that one. Don’t let your thick coat of armor slip.”
With a snort, I allowed General Beckett to lead me onto the palace grounds, beyond the gardens, and through one of the warded barriers. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.” He strode straight for the outer gate.
Or rather, a smaller gate set several feet to the side of the main entrance. Two people wide and made of iron bars placed two inches apart, the smaller gate provided a peek into the streets beyond the royal compound.
I glanced over my shoulder to the castle looming at my back and considered Chace’s request that I stay within the palace walls. Not that I was afraid of whatever might wait beyond the royal protections.
“Are we going out into the citadel?”
He strode several feet away, calling the nearby guards to him, then glanced back at me. “Wait here. I’ll only be a moment.”
Thanks for the transparency, reaping jerk.
I observed them for a brief moment, then I repositioned myself beside the smaller gate. The last time I’d stepped beyond the palace grounds, Valen had acted like a royal jerk, the Killian had stolen me away and tried to kill me, and then I’d somehow ended up fighting Chace.
Kissing Chace.
I gnawed on my lower lip.
Yeah, I didn’t expect today to end quite the same.
Leaning against the brick bordering the iron entry, I touched my head to the wall and soaked in the sights. The visible citizens were quiet. Dismal like Lucas and Neive had been. They whispered in small groups. Some cried.
The view of the street vanished behind a wide chest as a male stepped in front of me on the other side of the gate. He stared down at me with wild intensity, his black eyes drinking in my soul, seeing straight to the core of my inner reaper.
The Killian.
My body jolted straight, rigid, and I sucked back a harsh breath.
He curled a finger in a come-hither manner. “Come out and we can continue what we started.”
Gathering my courage, I squared my shoulders. “I thought it was your job to collect, not kill.”
“Correct you are.” A knowing smirk played at his lips. “But sometimes drastic measures are necessary. You, young reaper…” He leaned against the gate’s brick border. “Well, we’ve already gone over this.”
“Have we? Because I feel like I’m missing something major.”
He shrugged. “The reaper needs to die. It’s that simple.”
“Is it?” I grabbed the bars and drew my face close.
Despite the hum of the protective barrier brushing against my knuckles, I wanted to reach through and wrap my hands around his throat. Wring some real, satisfying answers out of him.
Before I could recklessly act on my ill thought, the energy barrier vanished, and the Killian lurched forward, angling to grab my hands.
I jumped back, his fingertips skimming the length of my fingers, as I pulled my limbs to the safety of my chest. His hands slammed to the gate, to the empty air between the bars.
An electrical sizzle sounded, and a vibrational wave emanated from the gate outward. He bared a toothy snarl and drew his face nearer.
Understanding dawned as I stared at him. The queen’s magical boundary wasn’t what really kept him outside. Something other was at play.
“You can’t come on the palace grounds, can you?”
Likely the reason Chace advised me to stay within the castle walls. Who knew, when we first got on that train together to come here, that he would become so concerned with my well-being?
The Killian’s eyes flashed―a misty fog in a sea of dark; there and gone. “Remember the deal you made. You are to come when I summon.”
“Come to you so that you can kill me? I don’t think so,” I retorted. “I’m rather fond of living.”
The Killian choked a laugh. “Have you tried death? I don’t think you have. You may find you were made for that darkness.”
“I was. I’m a reaper.” I crossed my arms.
“A reaper who must die.”
Two guards approached from the street beyond the wall.
“Hey, you,” one called to the Killian. “Move along. No loitering allowed.”
“To be continued,” he said without granting the guards a glance.
With an I’ll-see-you-later grin, he turned and walked away.
General Beckett stepped to my side. “Who was that?”
“No one.” No one he needed to know about, anyway.
“Then shall we?” The general accepted my response without argument and motioned for me to follow him through the gate and into the street beyond.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose to wild attention, and I scrutinized every inch of the surrounding space, not spotting the Killian. Would he disappear so quickly, so easily, now that I’d stepped outside where he could freeze time and grab me? Where was the logic in that?
General Beckett led me across the street to an old warehouse. Several guards dressed in all black lined the front of the building and main entrance. Together, we moved past them and made our way toward the oversized glider doors.
“Hold up!” Winter’s voice broke through the surrounding daily life din. “Where are you taking her?”
Winter jogged up the street, likely from somewhere near the main palace gate. I flashed him a nervous smile. Despite all that had transpired between us, I could count on him to look after me and be concerned enough for the both of us.
“Stop him.”
The guards swiftly moved, creating a flesh-and-blood wall between me and the prince.
My feet stopped moving. “What’s going on?”
The general man-handled my arm by way of silent answer and directed me inside, denying me the chance to witness the conclusion of Winter’s standoff with the guards in black.
My insides tingled, didn’t feel right, as my attention remained glued to Winter, the desire to witness what was about to transpire…possibly help him…weighted.
Under the general’s forced guidance, we moved into the warehouse. My steps were less than graceful, my bodily motion torn between being tugged forward while wanting to turn back and help Winter.
The oversized doors closed behind us, cutting off my view…and escape. Daylight shone from above through a roof of networked windows, all dirty, many cracked, several broken, and very few standing the test of time.