Page 94 of Reaper’s Curse

That day being the one when Winter had become trapped in a frozen magical coma.

“I did,” I replied with a frown. “And look how that turned out.”

He jerked, confusion settling onto his features. “You saved me.”

“Yes,” I deadpanned. “But that wasn’t all.”

“My magic,” he whispered, understanding dawning across his brow.

“Your magic.” I nodded once.

The theft of magic was all he needed to know regarding the glove. My previous experiences had shown me the item was capable of worse things.

“Then I suppose you want the one I found?” He tilted his head and dropped a scrutinizing gaze over my stance…which I tried to hold in a relaxed pose.

I shook my head slowly and sharply. “Not particularly. Give it to Chace, if you would.”

Winter’s back snapped straight, and he made a face I could only identify as disgust. “If that’s what you so desire.”

“It is.” I crossed my arms, growing bored with our uncomfortable discussion. “But the glove wasn’t the reason you wanted to talk to me, was it?”

“No.”

I regarded him with a healthy dose of caution. “You want to warn me about Valen because why?”

“Because…” He took a step forward, and when I didn’t retreat, he braved another. “He has something caged in a hidden room behind his workshop.”

My breath caught, and Winter nodded at my apparent shock.

“I haven’t been able to get a close look…yet…but whatever it is, it has a powerful screech, so I’m thinking a monster.”

Made or captured, I wanted to ask, since I knew the citadel’s magical barrier created monsters. To some, Chace and I would be considered monsters. But…

I grimaced. “If you didn’t see the source, how can you suspect it’s a monster?”

“I say monster because it had a screech so powerful it knocked me across the room and on my ass…with a closed door between us.”

Holy reaping demons.

With the kind of scream Winter was describing, a banshee was the only thing that made sense.

Leaving Winter to return to his rooms by way of the mirror-hidden secret passage, I stepped into the hall, prepared to ask one of the guards stationed at the door how to find Valen, when the royal healer rose from one of the center seating areas.

“Ms. Gunn,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind me waiting outside your room for you?”

I shook my head, to which he smiled.

“I thought we might take a walk and discuss some of the issues in need of consideration.”

I had detected a change in our rapport yesterday after the incident with Lucas. He’d seemed less overbearing tyrant and more down-to-earth working man. I wasn’t sure what to make of the walk idea, if it was some kind of ploy to get me beyond the palace protections, but I accepted his offer with a gentle smile and a tilted nod.

“Wonderful.” Valen led the way through the palace and into a massive yard sandwiched between the castle and outer wall.

Bushes five to six feet tall enfolded a world filled with every kind of green. Long, thin leaves. Fat and fuzzy. Ground-hugging to towering. So many plants of various shapes and sizes, one could easily lose themselves in the natural escape.

Valen followed the path to a long bench and took a seat. Motioned for me to join him, and staring at the plants before us, began talking.

“My partner and I were sent here so many years ago that it sometimes feels like a different lifetime. The job was to take three or four days, five at the most. A large poisoning from a bad batch of grain. It wasn’t pretty. Had it been a one-day job, everything would have probably gone smoothly. In and out, reap and go. But as it were, during our extra time here, my partner lost her way.”