Page 67 of Reaper's Quest

My heart skipped a beat. Deathly devil, he was…

I breathed a slow, steady breath.

Of course I had suspected, but seeing him like this…

My fingers twitched, the desire to touch him, trace my fingertips along his tattoo, bordered onunbearable.

I swallowed against the dryness building in my throat and blinked my attention back to his face, refusing to allow my gaze to wander again. “Well?”

He was my coreaper and a Badden—two no-nos—yet traitorous thoughts attempted to take form.

Chace jabbed a finger toward the window, sinews tight and straining against the skin of his arm and shoulders. “Heard the tapping against the glass. This message was delivered by a raven rapping on your window.”

My heart somersaulted.Finally, a response.

“So, you just thought you’d come into my room, uninvited, and help yourself to my mail?” I crossed the room and snagged the letter from his grasp.

The seal was broken, the envelope torn.

A volcano of emotion erupted within me, spreading heat across my skin. “You read it?”

“I did. And I’m not sorry.” He leaned back against the wardrobe and folded his arms, his wet hair depositing tiny droplets of water along his shoulders. “I wouldn’t expect you to receive personal letters here. Under the circumstances of this cursed reap, any secret could undermine us. If we’re to work together effectively and toward success, then we must act in accordance. Which means we can’t afford secrets.”

And yet, we had many. Did we not?

I hadn’t told him about the contraband items my father had packed in my bag. But just as I had secrets from him, he likely kept at least one secret from me, if not more.

“Who is Valen?” he asked, his voice low and on the verge of seething.

I jerked slightly taller. “What?”

Chace nodded to the message. “It tells you to seek out someone called Valen.”

I dropped my gaze to the open letter in my hand. The sight of the read mail sent fire thrashing across my ribs. “I have no idea.”

Quickly, eagerly, I pulled the message free, as if the words contained within would fill the black hole expanding in my chest. I dragged my gaze across the words swirled on the page.

Aldine’s condition, as you have described, is concerning. If you choose to abort the task and are able to exit the citadel by way of your entrance, then I may arrange for your immediate extraction.

My father had saidI, notwe. Would he pull Chace and I out of a task without the assistance of the Collections Office? Possibly without their knowledge?

I continued reading.

That having been said, if you wish to continue searching for a way to succeed in your tasked reap, thus remaining within the walls, might I suggest you seek out Valen. If he still dwells within the citadel, he may be one of the few able to help with Aldine’s physical and mental state.

I will await word of your decision. And nomatter your choice, may I beseech you to always, always be vigilant.

Most sincerely,

Your father,

Scorpeo Gunn

I stared at the words for longer than necessary, then I pressed the fold of paper to my chest. The mere words on paper didn’t repair the widening void within me, but the message brought me the closest I’d been to my family in days. Simply knowing this Valen existed and might be somewhere within our reach gave me hope.

“I don’t know who Valen is,” I said. “But we need to find him.”

“Or arrange for Aldine to be sent home alone…for his own sake,” Chace countered.