Page 5 of Reaper's Quest

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Ineither wanted nor needed the entire room focused on me.

Easy didnotdescribe the collection. The method used tore away a piece of me—a part of my soul in exchange for the acquisition. If only I’d known that little consequence before using the tool.

Even now, the loss throbbed like a chunk of missing flesh. A fact I could never mention to anyone because the source of the pain came from an item I most certainly wasn’t meant to use.

So…yeah…Chace’s dad?Ubel?was probably right. My last reaping strategy would likely be considered cheating, but he didn’t need to know that.And besides, I’d completed the task. Nothing else should really matter.

Still, I now understood why my dad kept that artifact locked up.

“Come on,Ruthless Raven.” Chace leaned closer as he jabbed with both his elbow and his words, his tone taunting, irritating, and dripping with traps waiting to be sprung. “Don’t hold out on us. We’re all dying to know.”

I swallowed hard, barely glancing his way. What story could I tell? The target had a change of heart?Nah.Target’s magic was weak or backfired?Nope.Anything I said would fail to satisfy.

“I can’t really say.” I shrugged and shook my head. “I just…did. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

Chace’s nostrils flared as if he smelled my lie, and he pulled back into his seat, removing the press of his arm against my body.

“And there it is.” Superior Grim jabbed a pointed finger into the air. “A reaper’s biggest downfall is his or her mindset. It’s the only thing that can get in the way, for a reaper’s will to reap is infinite and absolute.”

Murmurs of accord swept over the room, but I sat motionless and said nothing. I could not get behind Superior Grim’s statement. Reapers were not gods. And even gods…well, were they infinite and absolute?

Chace’s intense scrutiny flickered to me, his face partially hidden behind a messy curtain of mid-length hair.He, no doubt, judged me. I knew he did. And he made little to no effort to hide that fact. The foreign sensation that, with just one look, he psychologically stripped me bare and exposed all my thoughts and emotions crawled over my skin.

“On the occasion when one of the more powerful beingsputs up a fight,” Superior Grim continued, “increased measures to collect the soul may be required?—”

“Increased measures would suggest our will is not so absolute,” someone from the back of the room called out.

Superior Grim’s face hardened.

“Did you learn your manners from your father? I recall he always questioned the system.” He scrutinized the room, his finger extending in a sharp point. “Your fellow reapers can thankyoufor the extra workload today.”

The room filled with a chorus of hisses and boos, and Superior Grim grabbed a stack of papers from the back table. The stack stood close to twelve inches tall, and each sheet held a soul requiring collection at a designated date and time.

“Everybody gets three basic, non-magical-being collections today.” He raised a handful of assignment sheets in the air and waved them. “And by that, I mean, three separate location collections. If you happen to get a twofer sheet, that counts as one, and you still get two more.”

“Great,” I mumbled.

With my luck, I’d receive three separate assignments, each including two or more souls. Several accidents claiming multiple lives at once.

Superior Grim called the reapers in the first row forward to accept their assignments. The second row would follow, and so on, the procedure a well-worn familiarity amongst the attendees. Given that I sat in the eighth row, I had a few minutes before I needed to get in the pickup line.A long breath exhaled from my lungs as I dropped my head back against the seat.

Chace leaned in at my side,again, dragging my attentionin his direction. The length of his arm pressed against mine, and an unexpected wave of tingles raced across my skin. Was that the sensation of my common sense retreating into the darkest pit of my soul?

I’d swear that, for a moment, he stopped breathing. Had he felt my reaction? Or had he gotten an eyeful? Was I busting out of my top or something?

A quick glance down at my chest answered my apparel question. Everything remained properly covered. But if hewaslooking, or I had been exposed, would his perusal bother me?

Reaping hell. Why was I even entertaining such a thought?

He released a deep breath. “You’re really not going to tell us how you did it? Give us any insight or special tips learned from youraccomplishedparents?”

Intrigue overlayed any hint of frustration or rudeness evident in his tone, but his attempted friendliness would not fool me. Never again would he easily lead me into one of his traps. Nothing I said could help him become a better reaper. I’d keep my secrets to myself.

“Or…” A sliver of a wicked grin curled his lips. “Could it be you had the help of Thanatos himself?”

My brow pressed down, and my jaw tightened. Not only had no one seen Thanatos,theGod of Death, in gods knew how long, but the likelihood he’d lift a finger to help a newbie such as myself fell somewhere between zero and point one percent.