Page 95 of Reap & Sow

Don’t come, Eda silently begged. Ignored the ache inside that hoped Kit would. “Mr. Night, I summoned you here because I want to pay off our debt—”

Commotion in the doorway. One of Fane’s men ducked inside. “The Blades are on the move, Father. A contingent entering the gardens.”

“What? How many?”

“At least a dozen.”

The bishop swung his glare upon her, twin splotches of red upon his cheeks. “You little bitch.” He moved toward her, but Mr. Night’s outstretched hand stopped him. “She—she has brought them here! If they find me with the Gateway, I’ll be done for, and you shall never get the years I promised—”

“Troublesome, indeed.” The demon crossed his arms behind his back. “How will you turn this in your favor?”

Fane wavered. “There’s no time to move the Gateway.”

“So it would seem.”

Fane would be caught red-handed. It seemed inevitable. But when his gaze returned to Eda something cunning passed over him, made him vulpine in the darkness. He hesitated before spinning his golden ring about his finger.

The air shuddered. There came a snuffling, scratching nose from within Saint Leoric’s casket. Moments later a clawed, gnarled hand reached over the edge.

Eda’s heart sank as a fiend pulled itself from the sarcophagus, black eyes roving; the effigy lid toppled over. Its vertebrae undulated beneath the skin like some writhing worm as it slunk onto the floor. Another fiend emerged. A third.

Mr. Night merely raised an eyebrow at the monstrous creatures crawling around him. “I see. You mean to frame her, then?”

Eda pressed her back to the wall in terror. “Frame me for what?”

Fane grimaced. “For this.”

With a mere sweep of his hand, the fiends’ hungry gazes turned upon Fane’s men, all of them wisely retreating out the door. Then the monsters charged.

Eda covered her head as they stormed past. She felt the breeze off their passing, the rumble on the stone and the waft of rotten meat. The fiends piled through the door like hounds on a hunt, snarling and slathering in excitement. The men screamed. Eda tried to shut it out—the snick of blades and the wet sounds of torn flesh. The crack of splintered bone. Something cloying and metallic filled the air.

He’s killing his own men.

Mr. Night stood still as marble. The slaughter played out upon his face in a dance of writhing shadow and moonlight as he watched, fascinated.

The screams soon died. Snarls turned to guttural pants and grotesque, wet chewing noises. Through it came sounds of jangling chainmail. Blades.

Mr. Night’s lip curled. “If my mirror is destroyed, Florian Fane, you will find me another. I shall not go without passage from this wretched world.”

Fane glowered at the feasting monsters beyond the doorway. He nodded.

Mr. Night threw a narrow look at Eda. “Do not fear, sweet thing. When autumn harvest comes, we will settle your debt.”

She could only gape at him as he stepped into the shadows at the back of the mausoleum, disappearing within. Gone for now, but where? He’d abandoned the mirror, yet he could not leave this world without it.

Why? Why stay on this side?

Fane was a grim sentinel in the doorway. Beyond, lit torches flickered like approaching fireflies. He drew out a fine dagger—the same ivory hilt she recognized from his ritual in the Great Templehouse. Eda stiffened, but he only drew the blade across his own cheek, hissing. Blood welled.

You mean to frame the girl, Mr. Night said.

“Why are you doing this?” she cried. “You cannot truly believe in the Lordfather and commit such evil!”

“But I do believe. I heard His voice as a boy. Father Sturnmoss used to beat me, tell me it was my own conceit, but I heard Him. He loved me, even when no one else did.” Fane stared at his blood on the blade. He threw it away. “This country overflows with sinners. He chose me to guide them, and so I must. The end will justify the means.”

Eda lunged for the knife. Fane was quicker; he kicked her aside with a snarl and grabbed her hair. Pain lanced through her scalp. Eda hissed like an alley cat and fisted his collar, hauling him toward her until he unbalanced and fell to one knee. In this animal terror, she turned into some wild, unthinking thing—and bit down on his ear.

Fane roared. Blood welled in Eda’s mouth. He threw her away from him. She spat his blood onto the floor as he stumbled upright, gasping.