Page 9 of Reaper's Quest

A foul taste crept over my tongue.

Something was amiss. The assignment couldn’t have been random.

A loud thump at the front podium announced Superior Grim collecting all the sheets of unassigned tasks. He spared us a momentary glance, a minute sense of regret flickering in his gaze.

Of course, the regret could have been my own emotion projected upon him. Regret for having gotten the three of us stuck with the arduous, possibly dangerous, demon of a reap.

I should have ignored Chace and kept quiet.

Superior Grim turned and left the room via the stage door, allowing it to close with a heavy thud.

Chace’s front pocket buzzed. Blowing out a breath, he pulled his electronic communicator free and stared at it. Tilting my head slightly, I caught his father’s name, Ubel Badden, flicker across the screen.

“Isn’t this just great?” Chace sighed and shoved his crow-delivered letter into his back pocket. “No time to waste. Catch you later.”

Without a single glance in my direction, he slipped from the row of seats, accepted the incoming call, and took the conversation as he jogged up the steps to the exit.

I collected my own letter from the ground, tore open the envelope, and pulled the inner card free?a fancy wedding-invite-style train ticket. The train would leave in four hours.Four hours!Destination—the Royal Citadel of Veritas.

“How many souls are we expected to collect?” I asked Mr. Aldine.

Sliding his train ticket back into the envelope, he met my gaze, his emotions successfully hidden behind a mask of indifference. “I’ll secure all the details from the Collections Office, and we can discuss the specifics on the train ride. But from what I understand, the numbers at the citadel are large and climb daily.”

Something inside my chest solidified and dropped. The internal sensation dragged on all my muscles, and a familiar tingle vibrated at the back of my neck. A feeling that accompanied the fear of impending disaster.

Mr. Aldine narrowed his focus on me as he slipped his invitation into his knapsack. “Everything all right, Ms. Gunn?”

I shook off the prickle of ghostly bugs crawling on my skin.

“Yeah, sure.” I shifted my weight and glanced toward the exit. “Chace is right. There’s no time to waste. See you at the train in four.”

With a pivot, I sprinted up the stairs and headed straight home, wanting every moment to pack, plan, and talk to my parents—if they happened to be around.

Once home,I found the family’s high-rise penthouse empty. I grabbed a semi-large shoulder bag and stuffed several changes of clothing and a few personal hygiene items inside.

Almost as an afterthought, I crammed my reaper’s handbook between a couple of outfits. Tiny notes written by my mom crowded the margins of the hand-me-down book.

Her written words, however impersonal, would provide comfort during my time away. Mr. Aldine had made this particular venture sound like an extraordinary case, and the small solace could bring me strength in the face of what awaited me.

Plus, the occasional review might come in handy. Ferrying souls of the non-magical kind?humans and animals and whatnot?was rather simple, but I doubted we would be dealing with anything remotely straightforward.

Deciding to dress for the job, I pulled my hair into a tight ponytail and traded my casual attire for tactical pants, a long-sleeved thermal, a fitted vest, and combat boots, all in ready-to-rumble-and-reap black. I then slid mytravel scythe (which looked more like a baton in its current state) through the straps across the back of my vest, positioning it for quick grabbing and activating.

I glanced in the mirror and gave my badass self a nod of approval. If the unwilling-to-depart souls put up a fight, I’d come both prepared and looking good.

Collecting my reaper’s robe, and swiping a chocolate bar from my nightstand because…well, chocolate and I might crave it later, I bid my room…and comfy bed…farewell and headed into the main living quarters.

The Gunn family owned a substantially large penthouse-style home with an expansive view of the surrounding city. As the only child, I had a private room comparable to a studio apartment. With my parents at work more than not, I usually had the entire place all to myself. One of the reasons I had yet to commit to moving out on my own.

Uncertainty crept through my bones as I stood at the hallway entrance, scanning the empty spaces. The kitchen and dining areas commanded all the spaces on my left, and to the right, the living room with wall-to-wall windows overlooking the city. Mom’s décor and housekeeping, ultra tidy. It didn’t exactly whisper, much less scream, “Chill. Relax.”

My mom had a habit of keeping everything spotless. As if she expected royalty to drop in at any moment.

Now what?

My parents weren’t home. Should I sit around and wait for the off chance that either or both would show up? Idle time would only serve to heighten my anxiety, filling my thoughts with stressors over the possible task expectations and having to work with Chace.

The assignment equaled a gaping cut, and Chace the salt. I wanted to scream but settled for digging my nails into the soft skin of my palms.