Page 88 of Reaper's Quest

My hands clenched into white-knuckled fists.

Raven.

What did it mean?

I flicked my gaze to the doorway and the two bodies waiting there.

Winter was gone.

As I trampeddown the stairs from my room and into the pub, I told myself that I had stayed up late into the night solely to further study the family journal—Chiara’s personal and work diary. I needed to read every word because the useful facts I hoped to find could be as simple as a single word or the actual word choice.

My night of little sleep definitely had nothing to do with Raven’s absence or awaiting her return. Whatever I thought I smelled on Winter couldn’t have had anything to do with her. Nope. Not at all.

She was a part of my team, though, and we—I—couldn’t afford to lose her. Even if she was reckless, unprofessional, and clearly hotheaded.

And possibly responsible for Aldine’s improved condition.

After the improvement of the zombified woman and Aldine…yeah…Raven was fine. She was mad, mentally upset, but she was physically okay. No other option existed.

Last night, after Aldine’s apparent turn for the better, the two of us had spent a little over an hour together, talking while I helped him wash and get some sustenance in his belly. I’d heard no sounds of Raven’s return during that time. She must have come in later,muchlater, and done so with expert stealth.

I leaned across the bar and grabbed the chunk of bread and dried meat Aoes offered. Today, I would take my meal on the go. I was getting a slow start, having overslept due to my late night. Yet the hours without sleep had not been spent in vain. I’d learned something that just might come in handy.

“You seen Raven this morning?” I asked.

“Nope.” Aoes filled a large mug with water and slid it toward me.

The guy didn’t even bother asking me for my preference. He’d quickly learned and accepted that at the start of the day, I never partook in any drink that could compromise my reflexes. For me, water, more water, and the occasional coffee remained my drink of choice. Ale only ever became my choice if I returned at the end of the day to find Winter hanging around.

Aoes’s gaze flashed to the stairs and back. “Probably getting a late start like yourself.”

I huffed and stifled a frown. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Aoes becoming so familiar with my schedule. Despite Aoes’s hospitality, I still didn’t trust the guy.

I poured the offered water into the skin I carried at myside. “When you do see her, would you let her know that the two of us need to talk tonight?”

Aoes nodded.

“And as for Aldine?—”

“Don’t worry, Ace,” Aoes fired back. “Now that he’s on the mend, I’ve already made plans to help him get back to his old self. Physical and mental strength and all that good stuff.”

I gritted my teeth. Since our little chat the first night in the citadel, Aoes had refrained from calling me Ace. At least, to my face, anyway. Only Ubel called me Ace on occasion, and I didn’t take kindly to the nickname. Or to the reminder of my sperm donor.

“Right. Thanks. What exactly do you have planned for him?” I, rather than Aoes, should have mapped Aldine’s recovery plan, but dang if I didn’t have pressing things to attend.

“A little light walking and lifting, nothing strenuous to start. Followed by an easy puzzle or two to fire up the old brain cells.”

“Don’t push him too hard,” I ordered.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Aoes replied.

With a nod of thanks and a mild sense of order concerning Aldine, I took to the citadel. Just another day attempting to complete the assigned task. A task that, so far, we’d failed to accomplish.

Last night, when I had read a new passage in Chiara’s journal—one of the final entries, actually—I’d learned that she too had been assigned a reap in the Citadel of Veritas. Her entry read unclear regarding the precise target andwhether she had succeeded or failed, but the person had been someone of stature.

After that passage, her entries had ceased, only to be followed by a small map and a handful of letters tacked at the back. One from her, and two from Valen—likely the same individual Raven’s father suggested we find.

If my suspicions held true, maybe today’s visit would gain us all some headway in this dung of a reaper task.