Page 93 of Reaper's Quest

I circled them, taking in their features from every angle.Light from the few torches mounted around the chamber danced off the young girl’s face and sparked a hint of recognition. But from where, I couldn’t recall.

What was a child doing in the catacombs?

And what was wrong with her? Why wasn’t she moving?

She didn’t look afflicted. Not in the usual manner I had become familiar with.

The song ended, and the female kneeling before the child shifted to face me. Her somber attire appeared somewhat tattered and worn, and her hair a mess of long black frizz, but her eyes shone like brilliant emeralds.

“I have been watching you. I see both the afflicted and the guards failed to undo you. You have to know you and yours should not be here.”

Undo me?

What in reaper’s hell did that mean?

I could ask so many things in that moment: Where were we? Who was she? Why was she watching me? What was her interest in me?

But I held my tongue and nodded to the girl in the chair. “What’s wrong with her?”

I wished to summon the child to my side and whisk her far from the darkness of the catacombs. Reflexively, I reached out to the girl, calling her.

The chains wrapped around the chair shifted, but the girl did not move—didn’t even glance my direction.

A half smile lifted the woman’s lips. “She’s currently suspended in the space between life and death. Belonging to both and neither at the same time.”

Like Earl, but not like Earl.

“She gives a fraction of her life energy for another inneed,” the woman continued. “One deeply lacking. I am merely the conduit.”

I grimaced. “That’s unnatural.”

“Is it?” Her teeth shone brightly, a stark contrast against the dull palette consuming our surroundings. She tilted her head. “Maybe so, but all things evolve over time. What was once considered unnatural has become the new norm. The people of Veritas seem to have adjusted relatively well to this new life of theirs.”

“Have they?” I narrowed my gaze. “Because I gotta tell you, I’ve spent a bit of time in your citadel, and if it’s adjustment you see when you look at them, it isn’t a healthy one. The people are scared and miserable. I imagine a hundred years of entrapment will do that to people.”

“We don’t always particularly like the lot fate drops upon us, yet we make do. But you…” The woman sneered, her gaze cold and calculating, her finger circling a point in my direction.

I reached for the scythe I kept clipped at my back, only my hand found nothing but air. I patted down my back, my hips, and discovered no tool. All I had at my disposal were my wits, words, and less than ideal fighting form…and the chains holding the young soul to the chair…if I could somehow manage to get to the chair and free the chains.

She laughed as if she understood what I was thinking—what I was looking for.

Free the chains, free the young soul.

As before, the chains shifted, slithering around the chair like a snake, loosening their hold.

I blinked and narrowed my gaze.

What moved the chains? I thought it but…

Had the child been responsible?

The woman glanced at the chains but ignored the movement. She brushed her fingers through the young girl’s hair, and I sucked back a breath at the sight of tenderness.

“I am not without heart or empathy for the citizens’ plight,” she said. “My feelings have no effect or influence on what must be done.”

For a brief moment, her eyes softened, and her hand lingered along the line of the child’s shoulder. “And unless you want to end up like the people you say are so miserable…or my sweet, little princess here…I suggest you hightail it back home to your momma. That is…”

She lifted her chin toward me, indicating my waist and hip area. “Once you are strong enough to walk your sorry bones free of the citadel walls.”