Page 55 of Reaper's Quest

I dragged a heavy breath through my chest. My body felt like a shell of itself, and I hated admitting a truth I couldn’t allow myself to deny?I had arrived utterly unprepared for the challenges this citadel presented.

Hugging my knees closer to my chest, I tried to clear my mind. When peace didn’t find me, I turned off the bedside lamp and allowed the darkness to swallow me, soothe my thoughts.

My gaze found the night-kissed citadel beyond thewindow. Occasionally, I thought I caught the movement of a specter in the streets, but when I focused, whatever lurked there vanished.

To what extremes would we have to go to succeed in this monumental task of a reap?

Releasing a long, drawn-out breath, and dipping my gaze to my hands, I scrutinized the reaping glove my father had stashed in my bag. The same device I hadborrowedfor my last task. The fact that my father had sent an item that stole pieces of the user in order to free a soul said a lot about the cursed Citadel of Veritas. None of which sat comfortably in my gut.

How does he expect me to use this thing?

I turned the device over in my hand.

Did he send the device simply as a precaution?

If only one of the devices I’d brought could help me figure out how to treat and heal Mr. Aldine. Swallowing a squeeze of apprehension, I lifted the crow caller from my side and pressed the button.

Before I could finish translating my thoughts into a composed message, a flurry of feathers settled upon the window perch.

“That was fast,” I mumbled.

The bird’s speedy response suggested it came from the next roof over, as if it stayed close, waiting for a call to action.

I added a few last words plus a signature to my note, then rolled and tied the paper. The black bird stretched its neck andgonked, as if seeking the paper and my request.

“Thank you for coming, big guy.”

I scrutinized the bird more closely and blinked. Too large for a crow, its tail wedged rather than fanned, and a biggerbill with an extra curve…Curious. A raven awaited my message, not a usual crow.

I extended my arm, Raven to raven, presenting the scroll. “Would you mind delivering this to Reaper Scorpeo Gunn? Time is of the essence.”

The raven gonked-gonked and nodded, then it snatched the communication from my hold. With the flap of his large wings, he took to the sky.

Four days had passedsince I’d sent the raven flying with my message. Four days arguing with Chace about our approach to the reaping task. And four days without a reply or a clue of what to do regarding Aldine’s condition.

And he showed no signs of getting better.

Somewhere along the line, I had started referring to our mentor in the same fashion as Chace, having dropped the elder’s respectful title. Was Chace rubbing off on me?

I tried not to dwell on the thought as I tilted my head to the midnight sky. The twinkle of stars fought for visibility against the iridescent barrier covering the citadel. Although a boundary curse, the manner in which the magical cloak gleamed on clear nights created a gorgeous canvas overhead.

After a too-long day and another failure to guide any souls to the afterlife, Chace and I had returned to the pub?our home base for the time being?and then gone our separate ways. A splash of water on my face to refresh, a quick meal to refuel, and I found my way to the rooftop terrace.

The pub and boarding rooms consisted of two floors. The terrace and another enclosed space (behind a lockeddoor) comprised a third. The terrace consumed over half the available footage and offered a view overlooking the front of the building and the citadel beyond. The locked mystery room ran from one end to the other, across the back of the building, and featured a wicked A-frame roofline.

Placing that at my back, and standing at the terrace’s edge, I studied the streets spanning the distance between the palace and the pub, trying to make sense of the layout and patterns. I suspected the many pathways were designed or enchanted to confuse, for when Chace and I had feet on the ground, navigating our course, we always failed to find our way.

I really needed an aerial view, something not available in the low-to-no-tech citadel. My only option, to make do with the resources available.

Abandoning the unsuccessful attempt from the terrace, I shimmied up the attached, sloped roof, careful to find solid footing and not slide down the steep slant. I perched myself inches below the top ridge and…sighed.

The additional rise in elevation offered no increased visibility.

Trial and error it would continue to be. But locate the palace we would.Iwould.

Lying back against the weathered shingles, I ignored the occasional flying monster darting across the sky and absorbed the shimmer of stars above, the creaks and bangs of activity in the building below. Time swam at a leisurely rate, its passage fluid and untraceable.

“What are you doing up there?”