Page 12 of Reaper's Quest

Still reeling over the comment regarding Chace, I gulped and stared at my father’s back as he reached into the cabinet and pulled out an unfamiliar item. He spun around and presented an early caller to me in his open palm—the type our kind once used to call upon the crows before we could simply buzz a contact electronically with a direct line.

“What am I supposed to do with that?” I wrinkled my nose and flicked a weak point to the item in his hand. “Call the crows to circle overhead?”

With a shiver, my thoughts fluttered to the feel of the creatures’ inky eyes trained on me while they circled the high ceiling of the Hall of Reaping Requirements and Acquisitions mezzanine.

“I’d like you to have a way to communicate,” he replied. “Just in case?—”

“In case my electronic communicator doesn’t work?” I folded my arms across my chest. “If, for some reason, it runs out of juice, and I’m unable to recharge said juice?”

Father sighed. “I have reason to suspect that once you’re inside the citadel, you may experience issues with electronic communication.”

Great.

The information about this reaping task kept getting better and better with each passing moment.

His timekeeper buzzed. Two seconds later, mine joined in with a loud chime.

He glanced at the screen clamped to his wrist and said, “Your departure time has been moved up, which means we’re already late.”

4

Ubel Badden yanked my arm. “Are you listening to me, boy?”

Not really. I wrenched free of his hold.And I haven’t been a boy in years.

Ubel’s mouth hadn’t stopped moving since he’d set eyes on me,so…I’d done the logical thing and tuned out the patriarchal beatdown immediately upon our arrival at the train station.

I still couldn’t believe I’d found them (my so-called parents) waiting for me…in myprivateflat…when I’d left the lecture hall and gone home to grab my stuff, before heading to the train station. Ubel and Bacia Badden had attached themselves to my side ever since.

“Your mother and I have utter faith in your ability and superiority,”Ubel had said.“And so, we Baddens shall arrive early with our confidencefirmly in place.”

Early, and with confidence.Right.

No sooner had we slipped into the transport for the ride and early arrival at the station than Ubel Badden had continued with the unwanted assessment. “This is highly unorthodox, but we shall turn the situation to our advantage.”

Turn the situation to our advantage?

Once he spoke those words, I’d lost interest in further conversation, as well as respect for my so-called elder. Not that any respect I’d once felt for the male hadn’t already corroded, the eroded remnants weighing in my gut like an oversized, acidic raisin, eating away at my insides.

I had hoped moving out from under their roof would help put some distance between us, butnope. Three years of living on my own, and the Baddens still constantly showed up to check on me.

Turning my back to my DNA contributors, and squinting against the too-bright sun, I surveyed the platform. The cloying scent of exhaust and unnamed chemicals hung heavily in the atmosphere. Two stationary rails occupied the tracks on either side of us. One clearly automated and could run without a conductor, and the other required an operator but appeared currently without.

Twenty to thirty feet away, the conductor?one of the few individuals present at the station?exchanged a heated argument with an official-looking character. Word was, the conductor refused to take my reaper team to our intended destination, the Royal Citadel of Veritas.

I didn’t blame the guy. If everything the sperm donor had said held true, the citadel was as close as one could get to a city of the dead without visiting the underworld. A state that likely made our destination a nightmare to most.

Unlike the conductor, myparentsweren’t merely accepting of my new assignment but appeared, to some degree, intrigued. Eager to somehow flip the situation to their benefit.

“Chace?”

Ignoring the male at my side, I closed my eyes, my mind whirling back to an hour earlier. To when I had stepped intomyflat and found them inside waiting for me. They had my bags already packed, the transport running, and a list ofrecommendationshot on Ubel’s tongue.

Bacia Badden had clapped her hands together. “Finally. His first true test.”

First true test of what?

Neither Badden willingly elaborated.