Page 133 of Reaper's Quest

The Killian had touched me. Pushed me out of the prison cell.

I shivered.

The sound of someone approaching echoed from the tunnel at my back. A couple of someones. Likely the people sent to collect Aldine.

Reluctantly, I backed into the darkest of the surrounding shadows.

As Aldine took his last breath, the haze of green surrounding his body vanished.

A new set of minions arrived. They lifted and dropped the elder’s body into a pushcart then wheeled him away, leaving me in a void of light and sound.

Slowly and painfully—most painfully—I made my way toward freedom. My emotions tugged like a shackle upon my heart. My soul.

Each step of the way through the tunnels to the surface, across the palace grounds, and into the citadel beyond, I planned a revenge worthy of the reaper god, Death.

I would summon Death and bring Hell upon this place for what they had done. What they had allowed to happen. To Aldine.

But first, I’d find a pair of decent-enough-fitting boots.

I’d barely stepped foot beyond the palace gates, my plot for revenge a mere seed in need of watering, when a red-faced officer, beaded with sweat, dashed up the street toward the men standing guard. He approached from the wrong direction to have any news of my escape or Aldine’s demise.

I stepped into the spaces between buildings and bustling, fearful of detection and curious about what currently transpired. I leaned as close as I dared to hear the exchange.

“The prince,” the soldier said between panting breaths. “He’s been spotted. Get help. Get Valen.”

He gestured toward the castle.

Valen. The person Raven’s father suggested they seek. He resided in the palace. A place protected by a queen whowanted me gone…possibly dead or tortured, based on the past few days.

“His Highness has been touched,” the officer added.

Touched?I frowned.

The message drew stares and gasps from the surrounding guardsmen, and they erupted in a flurry of pitched words and flapping arms.

“Say it isn’t so,” a guard asked. “Our prince? The only possible heir? Trapped in the living hell?”

Understanding immediately hit me. The royal prince had become afflicted.

Such a situation would make the queen even less likely to work with me for fear of losing the prince to a permanent death. She’d already made her opinion of my kind deadly clear.

I needed to think. Needed to get to my room and tools.

I needed a solution…toeverything.

33

What did Winter say? I couldn’t concentrate on his words when…when…When my hands had turned blue. Blue!

When had that become a thing?

Granted, I didn’t have much experience with pulling individuals back into life—except for that one time with the woman. That time I had ended up exhausted, and my reaper abilities had turned sluggish. But blue? My skin had shown no signs of blue.

And the questionable device—the glove—had no such effects during or after my previous use.

I sucked in a breath and felt for a new missing sliver of my soul. Instead of missing, a part of me now felt ice cold. A mini glacier had taken up residency insideof me.

I knew going into the potential healing that it could be dangerous. Still…