Page 75 of Ravenous

Treasures. Virtue. Souls.

She knew from experience! “You’ll get yours,” she said anyway.

His smile dimmed. “I don’t know what abilities you possess, but you’re going to need them all to get out of the Helter alive. I’ve watched seasoned warriors who could split mountains vanish into it. You’re too new to the Skein to be properly afraid.” His wings rippled with feeling.

“But I’ve lived long enough to have zero fears about anything.” Her tail did itsah-ah-ahdance at the lie she’d told. She had one fear, acquired only the night before: that Thane would get under her skin.

“Fine,” Jastorgh said. “My rules then. First: You vow to the Lore not to summon me if you’ve been bitten or scratched by the undead.”

A vow to the Lore was unbreakable by most, so she rarely gave them.

But his stare said he’d accept nothing less. “One bite, one scratch—you’redone anyway. Accept it and surrender to your new monster family.”

“Fine. I vow to the Lore that I won’t summon you if bitten or scratched.”

“Second: Don’t summon me mid-battle. I’ve traced into too many bloodbaths that way.”

So she couldn’t draw his symbols in the midst of a conflict? “Fair. I’ll clear the room first.”

“Last,” he said, eyes dark with something almost like pity, “payment in advance.”

“Why?” Her skin prickled at his sad smile. The Accession moved in silence, unseen, but Ditch could feel its current curling around her like smoke.

“Ah, beautiful demonkin. Odds are you’re never coming back.”

Chapter 31Meera

“Ditch wants you and the Riders to audit our food stores,” Meera told Rosewyn.

The young witch was still healing from her encounter with two Valkyries. Fresh bandages wrapped the stumps of a regenerating arm and leg, the air thick with the scent of witch salve.

Rose froze mid-sprawl on the velvet sofa in her cottage. “Does she know about the cattle?”

Meera only shrugged.

With a hissed breath, Rose shoved herself upright, wincing as a regenerating bone shifted under growing skin. She brushed a tangle of hair from her face with her remaining hand—no braids, no poise, just a wounded predator too proud to show weakness.

How had Meera ever been intimidated by this young witch? She shook her head. “You’ve been immortal for what, like, four years? You had to know your regeneration would be glacial at your age, but you still picked a fight withValkyries?”

Meera wasn’t much older than Rose’s twenty-nine years, wouldn’t heal much faster. But she also wouldn’t be fighting anyone any time soon.

Won’t I?She felt a spike of nerves. Ditch kept ordering her to train, to channel her temper like venom. Yet each time Meera emerged from those sessions, she hadlesscontrol over her ability.

“Have you found out what Ditch’s powers are?” Rose asked. “Other thandesire reading?”

“No.” The demon-witch must get those readings wrong on occasion, because she said Meera desired to be a badass warrior and heroine of her coven.

At that absurd idea, she gnawed her thumbnail before she caught herself.Stop it.She was here in an official capacity! Ditch might call her an assistant, but in truth, she was second-in-command.

Not Rosewyn the Banehand. Not another Rider.

Me.

The thought made Meera queasy. So she imagined telling Lowell about her day, his grin waiting for her worries, his teasing remarks somehow easing them.

Night after night, he’d disarmed her with wit. By their fourth or fifth time together, he’d seduced her out of her pants for kisses.

Wry observations weren’t the only good to come from that mouth.