Page 6 of Reaper’s Curse

With graceful fluidity, Winter casually shifted the weapons from our personal space.

“She will not hurt me,” he said, not shifting his gaze from scrutinizing my every flicker of emotion. “She could have left me to my fate had she wanted me dead.”

He was referring to the protective magical barrier, or coma, he’d found himself in because of my actions. My need to investigate the tunnels that led to his attack by the specters. In the past, they had run from him. I had witnessed that myself.

But something was different in the tunnels. Possibly my closeness to him, my overheated skin, somehow negated his effect. And because of that something different, the specters had attacked. He’d ended up in that magical coma state. Had I not used the soul extractor, he might have still been in that unresponsive condition.

I swept my gaze over the guards then back to Winter as I pulled my chilled hands from his chest and curled them into fists. “I need to be the one to gather my belongings. Only me and no other.”

He grimaced. “It’s too late. The men were dispatched close to an hour ago.”

An hour ago? Was my cover…the one the queen insisted I keep secret…already blown?

3

“Raven is where?” My chest felt tight, my breathing painful.

I feared a rib might crack. Conceivably, one or more were broken during my underground prison-cell visit.

Ignoring the pain, I shoved the last of my personal belongings into my duffel bag. At some point during my capture or imprisonment or torture, I’d lost my room key. A key that would identify where I had been staying, if not where to currently find me.

I was fairly certain I hadn’t outright told my captor where I was lodging, or even why I was in the citadel, but I harbored plenty of fuzzy moments and holes in my memories of the darkened cell that I couldn’t dismiss the possibility.

For all I knew, the parties responsible for my extensive suffering were already on their way here. Whether they came today, or several days from now, I needed to be gone when they showed up.

I rubbed against the blooming colors pressing in on the edges of my vision. Damn, unwanted auras continued to hound me. Too many days had passed without my meds.

I now understood why my supposed mother constantly pushed me to take them regularly.

Aoes stood in the open doorway of my room. He folded the courier note, delivered only moments ago, slid the message into his breast pocket, then shoved his hands deep into his pants pockets.

“She’ll be fine,” he said. “I promise you. She’s no doubt lounging in the kind of luxury you can find nowhere else. And Winter will take good care of her.”

A twinkle in Aoes’s eye led me to believe Winter’s motives might be less than a hundred percent innocent. And that…

I curled my hands into tight fists as I suppressed a growl burning in my chest.

A memory of the male…the crown prince…standing in the hallway, blood soaking his britches, jacket, and shirt cuffs, slipped to the forefront of my mind. I still had no answer as to whose blood Winter wore, or the circumstances behind the state of his apparel.

Royalty were rumored to get away with some unsightly and atrocious acts.

But I couldn’t dismiss the distinctness in the aroma Winter wore that day, be it a uniqueness to the blood or something else. At the time, that smell had piqued my curiosity, and I hadn’t forgotten.

“I don’t particularly share your trust in the male.” I heaved a sigh.

After my recent dealings with the queen…and others…I was far less inclined to trust anyone outside of my team. Including Aoes and Earl, the partially zombified pub owner.

Especially since I suspected Aoes had been involved with whatever shady dealings my sperm donor had been investigating. Smuggling monsters out of the citadel for purposes unknown. I had no proof, of course, but my instincts were usually spot on.

Pressing two fingers to my temple, I turned in a slow circle, scouring the room one last time. Where had my pills disappeared to? I’d been trapped without them for days, and now they were nowhere to be found. The aura-ensuing headaches needed to be quelched.

Aoes sucked his teeth. “Come on, Ace. If what you said is true, then she is likely far more protected in the castle than staying here.”

I grunted with disapproval, at both the nickname and the statement. Based on the way things had gone down, the where and when of my abduction, I wouldn’t so readily agree that Raven was safer within the palace walls. There was a slight chance I was wrong, but I wasn’t willing to gamble her life on that likelihood.

I’d already lost Aldine. I refused to lose her, too.

Giving up on locating my medication, I zipped my bag closed, slung the duffel over my shoulder, and stalked into the hall directly to Aldine’s room.